Wanna See Nicholas Hoult as J.R.R. Tolkien in Biopic ‘Tolkien’?

We’re pretty excited to get a glimpse of Nicholas Hoult as The Hobbit, Lord of The Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien in the upcoming Fox Searchlight biopic, Tolkien.

After being announced some time ago, updates were few and far between for the project. Earlier this month, Fox Searchlight finally shared a release date for the film, and today we’ve got some first-look images of Hoult as Tolkien, and Lilly Collins as Tolkien’s wife, Edith Bratt:

Hopefully this means a trailer isn’t too far away.

Dome Karukosk is directing the film, which will reportedly follow J. R. R.’s time as a student obsessive about language and an outsider who searched for belonging. He found it with school chums Christopher Wiseman (Tom Glynn-Carney), Geoffrey Bache Smith (Anthony Boyle) and Robert Quilter Gilson (Patrick Gibson) who are all finding their way in the world, according to Hoult. Their close-knit group, calling themselves the Tea Club and Barrovian Society, “gave the confidence to chase his dreams”, and followed him into World War I.

We’ll see the Battle of Somme, according to USA Today, including Tolkien’s contracting trench fever. Hoult teases “mythical elements” during this fever dream, “There’s this darker imagination that he hasn’t quite managed to get a grasp on.”

Tolkien will hit the UK and Ireland on May 3rd, and US theaters on May 10th, 2019.