Go behind the scenes of Amazon Prime Videos ambitious fantasy epic, which hopes to introduce J.R.R.
Tolkien to a new generation.
Even the cast was kept in the dark: Many had no idea what they were even auditioning for.
Benjamin Walker as High King Gil-galad on ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’.Ben Rothstein/Prime Video
That secrecy extended to set, where actors were often forbidden from visiting other filming locations.
Similarly, the doors to the grand caverns of Khazad-dum were closed to everyone except dwarves.
“I would just put my hat down, wear a mask, and turn my ID.”
Benjamin Walker as High King Gil-galad on ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’.Ben Rothstein/Prime Video
“You just can’t help but touch and look at everything.
But you want to touch it!”
Instead, it’sset during the Second Age, a period of Middle-earth history chronicled inThe Lord of the Ringsappendices.
Princess Disa (center), played by Sophia Nomvete, leads the dwarves of Khazad-dûm in song on ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’.Ben Rothstein/Prime Video
And what a scale it is.
(When EWspoke to the two showrunners in June, they were already scouting locations for season 2.)
Still, with prestige comes pressure something the showrunners and cast say they were keenly aware of.
Poppy (Megan Richards) and Nori (Markella Kavenagh) are two curious harfoots on ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’.Ben Rothstein/Prime Video
“There’s nothing casual about the king of the elves.
I love that the fans love it.
(One idea was a reported prequel series focusing on a young Aragorn.)
Robert Aramayo as Elrond on ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’.Ben Rothstein/Prime Video
Still, they’re aware that some longtime Tolkien readers might be skeptical.
As fans themselves, they understand the weight and responsibility of their task.
“This has been one of the biggest emotional rollercoasters of both of our lives,” Payne says.
Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor on ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’.Prime Video
“It’s right up there with some of the big personal moments of our lives.”
Sometimes, those personal and professional moments overlapped.
“In the background, I could hear some kind of loudspeaker noise,” Walker recalls.
“I asked him, ‘JD, where are you, man?
What’s going on?’
He said, ‘Oh, I’m in the hospital.
We just had a baby.’
And he’s pitching this job to me!”
“This isn’t a job you do just to take another job.
This is a job that you know is going to be part of your legacy forever.”
The Rings of Powerboasts 22 regular cast members, including elves, dwarves, humans, and harfoots.
(The latter are early, nomadic predecessors to hobbits.
They’re still pint-sized, hairy-toed halflings, but they haven’t yet settled in the Shire.)
Still, others are entirely new creations, crafted to help flesh out every corner of Middle-earth.
“That was part of the joy of coming up with this show.
When the series begins, Middle-earth is in a time of relative peace.
But some, like Galadriel, fear that a shadow might be creeping back into Middle-earth.
Fortunately for theRings of Powercast, they found immediate companions in one another.
“We were forced to lean on each other.
We didn’t have anybody else.
We were on an island, away from our support systems, mid-pandemic.
And if you’re going to be stuck anywhere, let it be New Zealand.
“It really was about that protective bubble, and trying to focus on the task at hand.
You only get that first season once, where no one knows who you are and what it is.
It’s going to be different moving forward, and it won’t have that same feel to it.
It was a really special time, and a really special place.”
“People were learning how to change nappies.
It was amazing.”
(The onscreen rivalry between elves and dwarves apparently doesn’t extend to childcare.)
On set, the actors threw themselves into research and preparation.
“He becomes a loremaster.
So, I committed myself as much as I could to learning about those stories.
I have a mad passion for it now, for all the small details.
It feels very different to me every time I read it.”
Others picked up new skills.
Nomvete, her onscreen husband Owain Arthur, and other dwarven actors learned how to smith and forge weapons.
“It’s almost like guerilla filmmaking,” explains Vickers.
“So we didn’t really have anything to compare it to.”
For actors like Cordova, starring inThe Rings of Powerfulfills a longtime dream.
“It became a personal but distant dream, up until the moment where this opportunity opened up.
So I ferociously went for it.”
“This was not stunt casting,” adds British actress Boniadi, who was born in Iran.
And I find that super empowering.”
“We’re trying to set up and introduce [this era],” Addai-Robinson says.
That’s a huge task to satisfy both of those audiences.”
“It was a life-changing experience.
Or elves, harfoots, and dwarves.
