The kid from Mr. Bean’s Holiday is now a ‘pivotal’ character in The Lord of the Rings series

The child actor in Mr. Bean’s Holiday is now playing a pivotal role in the new Lord of the Rings series – and he looks unrecognisable.

Maxim Baldry is playing the part of Isildur in Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which is now being shown on Prime Video.

But he first gained recognition by playing Stepan in the 2007 comedy film alongside Rowan Atkinson, when he was around 10 years old.

In the film, Stepan and Mr Bean end up becoming travel companions after Stepan’s dad gets left behind when boarding a train.

The duo then go on a journey to try and reunite him with his father, and in classic Mr. Bean style, it’s far from easy.

Since appearing in Mr. Bean’s Holiday, Baldry has gone on to play Liam Donovan in Hollyoaks as well as refugee Viktor Goraya in the BBC drama Years and Years.

He’s also been in romantic comedy Last Christmas as well as a 2020 episode of Doctor Who.

But now he’s taken on the legendary character of Isildur in the much-anticipated Lord of the Rings series.

The character has only been mentioned briefly in the film trilogy, but we know that Isildur was a King of Gondor who cut the One Ring from the hand of Sauron and then loses it.

The Rings of Power series, however, is set thousands of years before the original trilogy and introduces Isildur as a Númenórean sailor who rises up through the ranks.

Speaking to Yahoo Entertainment UK, the 26-year-old said: “When I found out I was playing him, I was like ‘oh my God, he was in the movies’ and I rewatched that beat. It is a pivotal moment that connected the Second and Third Age together.”

As we don’t know too much about the character from the previous films, Baldry also had the ‘gift’ of working with the show’s creators to build the character.

My god this is a gorgeous show #RingsOfPower pic.twitter.com/LPNKeJgpia

— ٰ (@thsaddest) September 2, 2022

House of the Dragon proves that characters and story should always take priority over special effects and big budget world building.

Amazon can pump as much money as they want into Rings of Power but it won’t matter if you don’t have interesting characters to root for. pic.twitter.com/rmkncLUS34

— The Moonlight Warrior 🌙 (@BlackMajikMan90) September 2, 2022

“We had the gift of creating this character from the ground up and finding out what he was like as a young sailor on the cusp of adulthood,” he said.

“That has been lovely to do and find out certain things about him that I didn’t really know and didn’t get from the movies.”

The Rings of Power is truly, properly stunning, and incredible in how much it always feels exactly like Lord of the Rings. It’s also probably the biggest marketing embarrassment of the century that the world’s richest company couldn’t produce a single trailer that reflected that.

— Cal (@wyattyhalpert) September 2, 2022

With the first episode now premiering, fans have already shared their views on social media.

“My god this is a gorgeous show,” said one.

But not everyone has been impressed so far, with another saying: “It seems as if they put all the effort into style, similar to hobbit movies. Characters are boring, the scene cutting happens waaay to often. Not a great start for a notoriously expensive show. Pretty much all of the action shown has no consequence, which makes it predictable and dull.”

However, another added: “I love it so far. High fantasy turned up to the max. I think people are complaining because they are comparing this show to films. They have to world build first then things can get juicy. Excellent fresh start for a beloved franchise.”