Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz star Simon Pegg has joined The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season three. But it’s in just about the last role you’d expect. Yes, it turns out in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Simon Pegg will voice the Balrog, a powerful spirit turned demon that lurks in the bowels of Khazad-dûm. The Balrog famously appeared in the “You shall not pass,” scene where it drags Gandalf (the Grey) to his death. But it has never before SPOKEN! What does a Balrog have to say to us, we don’t know but it will say it in Simon Peggs voice.
Simon Pegg Will Voice the Balrog in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3
A release from Prime Video reveals, “The Balrog Speaks! And it’s Simon Pegg!” In The Rings of Power season three, we will see “the return of the fiery Balrog, who for the first time ever will speak – and that voice is revealed to be none other than acclaimed actor Simon Pegg.) We can’t imagine the Balrog is in a very funny mood… So it will be fascinating to see how Pegg will go about voicing this The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power creature.
What’s the Balrog Up to in The Rings of Power Season 3?
We last saw the Balrog when it faced off against King Durin III in the depths of Khazad-dûm. After receiving a ring from Sauron, under the guise of Annatar, King Durin became bewitched by its evil powers and mad with greed. He dug too deep into the mountain in a hunt for mithril, a rare dwarven metal ore. And when he disturbed the mountain, he awoke a great evil sleeping within it, the Balrog. In The Rings of Power season two, the Balrog did not speak, but it did clash with King Durin III, who eventually came to see the evil of the ring, removed it, and then sacrificed himself to tumble the creature back into the dark and encase it with falling rocks.
But since Simon Pegg will voice the Balrog in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season three, it’s clear the creature survived. And given that Durin IV and the rest of the dwarves are still in posession of Sauron’s rings of power, which we know they will come to where, it’s likely only a matter of time before the evil of the rings, the greed of the dwarves, or both, call the Balrog back to the surface. That’s bad news for Khazad-dûm, which is eventually destroyed by a Balrog called “Durin’s Bane,”… although technically it happens after the scope of The Rings of Power, in the third age of Middle-earth.
What Will Simon Pegg’s Balrog Have to Say?
Honestly, what does an all-powerful demon-creature say to the nuisances disturbing its rest? That sounds like a bad joke, but we’re honestly excited to find out. We can’t help but imagine the Pegg-voiced Balrog lodging several complaints about needing its beauty sleep.
Other Creatures in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Seeing Tolkien’s creatures come to life is one of our favorite parts of The Rings of Power. In addition to Pegg’s Balrog, a San Diego Comic-Con featurette titled “Bringing Season Three’s Creatures to Life” teased other creatures we will see. Coming to us in season three of The Rings of Power are “Fell-beasts, the war elephants known as Mûmakil, Orcs, and more.” Are orcs “creatures”? We’ll debate that later.
For now, we can’t wait for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power to release on November 11.