Gimli actor to reprise role for The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
Dwarf fortress.
John Rhys-Davies is set to return to Middle-earth when The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria releases in just one week's time.
Rhys-Davies, who played Lord Gimli Lockbearer in Peter Jackson's film trilogy, will once again voice the dwarven hero, as he is providing his vocal stylings to the upcoming co-op survival crafting title.
"It's always fun to come back and think of the 'what-ifs', and the chance to work on this game is an exploration of one of the what-ifs, isn't it?" Rhys-Davies said of his inclusion in the game.
"Actors often create characters out of love and it's very hard, sometimes, to let them go. Certainly, Gimli is, for me, a character that I really adore, and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to reprise him in a different context."
You can hear how Rhys-Davies' Return to Moria Gimli sounds, complete with lots of suitably well rolled Rs, in the video below (prepare to feel a tad nostalgic and then immediately wish Legolas was there to flex his orc-killing triumphs while standing next to his friend in battle).
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, which was announced last year, promises to take players to the Fourth Age of Middle-earth and beyond the stories told in Tolkien's books.
"Summoned to the Misty Mountains by Lord Gimli Lockbearer, players band together as a company of Dwarves tasked to reclaim the lost spoils from the Dwarven homeland of Moria - known as Khazad-dûm or Dwarrowdelf - in the depths below their very feet," the game's description reads.
"Their quest will require fortitude and teamwork, delving deep into the Mines of Moria to recover its treasures and in the hopes of one day restoring them to their former glory."
Our Tom P had a little play of Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria at Gamescom earlier this year, and said it is "perfectly designed with the films and the TV series in mind".
If you are worried about digging too deep and waking up a rogue balrog, let me appease your fears. The developer said it would love to have done this, but the team is remaining authentic to the canon, and we all know what happened to Durin's Bane (Gandalf got him).
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is set to release on 24th October for PC (via Epic). It will also come to PlayStation on an unspecified date.
For more Lord of the Rings news, a cosy new hobbit-based spinoff game was teased by Wētā Workshop and Private Division earlier this year. To kind of borrow from Peter Jackson's orcs, fellow Lord of the Rings fans, we are eating well and it looks like meat's back on the menu!