Sir Lenny Henry said working on Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power served as "a Tolkien primer" for himself and other members of the cast.
The 64-year-old British comedian plays Sadoc Burrows in the TV show, who is an elder of the Harfoots — the predecessors of Hobbits.
Set thousands of years before the events of the Lord of the Rings novels, the show follows the events of the Second Age, including the rise of Sauron and the forging of the titular rings.
"It was a real grounding in everything to do with Tolkien and his world-building," Henry told Yahoo.