ARROW's Manu Bennett Joins MTV's Upcoming SHANNARA Series
The beast of a man who's set to return to Arrow as Slade Wilson soon has landed the role of Allanon the druid in MTV's small screen take on the series of beloved fantasy novels by Terry Brooks.
According to THR, Manu Bennett (Arrow, The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies) has booked a series regular role on MTV's Shannara TV series. The 45 year-old Kiwi actor will play a character named Allanon, who will serve as a mentor of sorts to the hero of the tale, Wil Ohmsford (Austin Butler). The site describe Allanon as "a wise, perceptive and serious man, who knows something incredibly important has begun when the wise tree Ellcrys starts to die." Poppy Drayton (Downton Abbey, When Calls The Heart) will play Amberle, an Elf princess.
Jon Favreau and Smallville duo Al Gough and Miles Millar will produce the show, which is based on the 20-strong series of novels (there has been one graphic novel also - The Dark Wraith Of Shannara - published back in 2008) in Terry Brooks' Shannara saga. The story is set after the destruction of our civilization in the "great wars", with the world reverting to a medieval state and magic re-emerging. Many of the protagonists in the story are descended from the Eleven noble family of Shannara. Apparently the TV show will begin by adapting the second novel in the series, The Elfstones Of Shannara. The first two episodes will be directed by TMNT's Jonathan Liebesman.
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