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Where do you go after visiting Hawkins, Indiana? If you’re Jamie Campbell Bower, you head to Middle-earth. The actor, who recently played the villainous Vecna on Stranger Things, is joining the cast of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for its third season. Bower will be playing a knight with the code name Arlen, but not much else is known about the character.

“I can tell you nothing about who I am [laughs],” Jamie Campbell Bower says during a spotlight panel at Emerald City Comic Con 2026. “What I can say and what I’ve been saying when I’ve been asked that question is I came to this project by internally asking for a space of love. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time on Stranger Things, and it’s been fucking awesome, and it has categorically changed my life, but it was a lot to carry. And so, I was finishing that, and I was just doing whatever it is that I do and asking for love.”

“When I joined this show – again, I don’t know why I take these videos of myself – my brother helped me with the audition for it. I have a video of me in the car, having just found out that I got the role in complete tears. Because he didn’t pick up the phone, I left him a video, and I was like, ‘Sam, we did it. It’s amazing.’ That feeling was with me throughout the process of making it. I would drive to Shepperton and just kind of be like shaking my leg, talking to my younger self, being like, ‘Can you fucking believe this. We’re here. We did this.’ I had the best time.”

“Crew are amazing. Cast are amazing. The world as we know it is beautiful, and I just feel very grateful and very lucky again to be a part of that. It’s a story that so many people know, but it’s also a story that so many people hold dear to their hearts, and I do not profess to be an expert. But I can tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed my time on it, and I’m so very grateful to have been the guy that did it.”

Watch the full Jamie Campbell Bower spotlight panel froM Seattle's Emerald City Comic Con 2026:

Whether you're Shirefolk, Elven, Dwarven, or something else, there's a good reason to love Lord of the Rings. We do! With that in mind, we have a dragon's horde of goodies for you:

• Lord of the Rings reading guide 
• Lord of the Rings watch guide
• The Lord of the Rings reunion panel you can watch 
• The OG Hobbit actors stay in touch every day on a groupchat 
• The true message of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, according to Gimli himself - John Rhys-Davies.