The Lord of the Rings’ Billy Boyd Swaps Playing Hobbits for Elves in The Elder Scrolls Online

The Lord of the Rings star Billy Boyd is swapping one fantasy epic for another as he joins Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO).

Most famous for playing Pippin in Peter Jackson’s Lords of the Rings trilogy, Boyd has more recently featured in the likes of Outlander and is now taking on the role of the elf Brahgas in ESO’s upcoming High Isle expansion.

Brahgas introduces the player to the new Tales of Tribute card game that’s being added to ESO, which lets players take on NPCs and real opponents akin to The Witcher’s Gwent or Final Fantasy’s Triple Triad.

Boyd can be seen recording several voice lines in a new trailer for High Isle (above), with Brahgas introducing himself as “a professional gambler and semi-professional everything else.”

“This character is a gambler, he’s a talker, he likes people,” Boyd said in an interview. “How he attacks this game, this new card game, is how he attacks life: all in. He is just all in on everything.”

He added: “I see life as a team game. I think Brahgas does as well. I think he likes to see other people succeed. He likes to see other people being happy.

“I think a night in the pub with Brahgas, a couple of beers and a little Tales of Tribute would be fantastic. I think we’d have a great time together.”

The ESO High Isle expansion will release on June 6 for PC and June 21 for console, letting players explore a never-before-seen region of Tamriel called the Systres Archipelago.

For more on Boyd, he recently joined the other original hobbits – Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, and Dominic Monaghan – and IGN for their first interview together in ten years.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.