Markella Kavenagh in ‘The Cry.’
After starring in The Cry, Romper Stomper, Picnic at Hanging Rock and True History of the Kelly Gang, Markella Kavenagh has landed the biggest role of her short career: a series regular in Amazon Studios’ Lord of the Rings prequel.
The young Aussie will play a character named Tyra in the fantasy series set in Middle Earth before J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, according to Variety.
Juan Antonio Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, A Monster Calls) will direct multiple episodes of the show to be produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which produced the Peter Jackson trilogy.
Its Twitter account released an image of a map with two messages: “One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie,” and “Welcome to the Second Age.”
Amazon paid close to $250 million for the rights in 2017, Deadline reported. The series is being developed by writers JD Payne and Patrick McKay, with Game of Thrones alum Bryan Cogman as a consultant on the project.
Kavenagh, who is repped by Shanahan Management in Australia and Silver Lining Entertainment, made her debut as Myrtle in Fremantle/Foxtel’s Picnic at Hanging Rock.
She played Cindi, stepsister of Toby Wallace’s Kane, in Roadshow Rough Diamond/Stan’s Romper Stomper, and Chloe, who is caught up in a custody battle between her father (Ewen Leslie) and mother (Asher Keddie) in Synchronicity Films/BBC/ABC’s psychological drama The Cry, directed by Glendyn Ivin.
She made her film debut in Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang, scripted by Shaun Grant, as a bride-to-be named Jane Cotter.
Last year she was one of 10 finalists in the Casting Guild of Australia’s Rising Star Award.
She was also nominated for the AACTA Award for best new talent in subscription TV.