Tom Bombadil Introduced for Rings of Power Season 2

In an article with Vanity Fair it was revealed that a major character from The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring book will appear in the second season of The Rings of Power. The fans that were upset with Tom Bombadil's failure to appear in the movies will now have their onscreen version as played by Rory Kinnear (Penny Dreadful, Tanner in the Bond films). I am sure they will complain loudly about how he is played and utilized in the story.

Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay spoke about the character essentially providing the most info so far about season 2, which isn't much at all. It sounds like the character is only in a single episode and probably not for that long.

“There’s a reason why he hasn’t been in prior adaptations, because in some ways he’s sort of an anti-dramatic character,” Payne tells Vanity Fair for this exclusive first look. “He’s not a character who has a particularly strong agenda. He observes drama, but largely doesn’t participate in it. In The Fellowship of the Ring, the characters kind of just go there and hang out for a while, and Tom drops some knowledge on them.” Adds McKay: “Knowledge that’s not particularly relevant to anything that they’re doing or about to do.”

“He can be a force for good, but he is challenging to integrate dramatically in that he doesn't have an agenda. He’s not driving forward and pushing people to arrive at any particular end,” Payne says.

“Tom Bombadil is not an important person—to the narrative,” Tolkien wrote in a 1954 letter to his proofreader for The Lord of the Rings. “I suppose he has some importance as a ‘comment.’ I mean, I do not really write like that.… He represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyze the feeling precisely.” On if the character is God, Tolkien wrote "I really do think you are being too serious, besides missing the point.”

“He has no clear dramatic function that would justify his inclusion in a really great movie adaptation. He’s whimsical and magical, and almost verging on silly. But also has the wisdom of the ages and the music of the spheres and deep emotional wells of ancient history and myth, and his conception and function are tied to Norse myths and have deep roots in European fairy tale,” McKay says. “So weirdly, he’s kind of the most Lord of the Rings thing in Lord of the Rings, and also the first thing you would cut if you were adapting it as a film. But we have the advantage of a television show, and hence we are going to find a way to tap into that.”

“We started thinking, What does he care about? And how can that be a doorway to drama?” Payne says. “We know he cares about the natural world. And we know he is a helper. He’s not going to push you, but he will help you. And so, traditionally, he lives in this place called the Withywindle, which is this sort of almost enchanted forest.” (Note: Suspect they mean Old Forest as Withywindle is tributary of the Brandywine River that goes through that forest).

“When he finally crosses paths with the Stranger, you could say he has a desire to try to keep the destruction that has happened there from spreading to his beloved lands in the West. He nudges the Stranger along his journey, which he knows will eventually protect the larger natural world that he cares about. So I’d say our Tom Bombadil is slightly more interventionist than you see in the books, but only by 5% or 10%.”