It began with the forging of the title…
Amazon’s Prime Video is gearing up for the much anticipated Lord of the Rings show, coming this September; and today they have revealed the title for the show. It is The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
This, however, is to be no ordinary tv show; the budget and time already invested, and anticipated investment to come, make that clear. So it is only fitting that the title reveal was no ordinary reveal… The title was in fact (as the official press release states) ‘forged from real molten metal running like fiery rivers through hand-carved wooden ravines to craft its silvery letter forms.’ You can watch a dramatic video of this happening, here:
As an indication of the showrunners’ desire to connect with the fanbase, TORn staffers Justin and Quickbeam were fortunate enough to be invited to witness this moment in person; and TORn can now share with you some EXCLUSIVE behind the scenes glimpses of this epic moment, in the images and quotations below.
First, some more from the official press release, which goes with this magical reveal:
Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power officially has a name and it hints at what’s to come.
The television series’ complete title was revealed today, and the significance behind the subtitle will not be lost on J.R.R. Tolkien fans, foreshadowing an epic story that welds the major events of Tolkien’s Second Age together: the forging of the iconic rings.
‘This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien’s other classics. The Rings of Power unites all the major stories of Middle-earth’s Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Numenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men,’ said Showrunners J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay. ‘Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring – but before there was one, there were many … and we’re excited to share the epic story of them all.’
Just as so many elements of the show itself were hand-crafted, Prime Video chose to physically forge the title in a blacksmith foundry, pouring fiery molten metal into hand-carved wooden ravines shaped to the letterforms. … The bespoke title treatment appears crafted in a silvery metal, with lines of Elvish script inscribed along the crest of each letterform.
Of course, this newly revealed title gives fans much to talk about, speculating about both content and tone of the coming series. Let’s just consider here, however, the nature of this reveal. It is extraordinary that the film makers should go to such lengths, pouring (ha, pun intended) their passion for the series into this artisanal moment. A large, highly skilled and experienced team, including director Klaus Obermeyer, special effects adviser Douglas Trumball, and special effects supervisor Lee Nelson, and using advanced 4K camera systems, worked with metal foundryman Landon Ryan, a highly skilled craftsman with 28 years of experience. Ryan says:
“With art, so much of it is about experimentation and materials and using materials in a way that they’re really not designed for and seeing where the limits are. With this [project], it was the freedom to do things that you wouldn’t do in a normal world, because they don’t make sense. But in this sense, it was to achieve a certain look or feeling.”
“It was such a pleasure seeing {Klaus’} vision and then coming up with ways to help him achieve what he was looking for. Experimentation and the willingness to try different things was a lot of fun. I am so thankful that I got to experience metal on that level. Because that’s my world. I pour metal every day and it’s a new understanding.”
Special effects adviser Douglas Trumball is an Academy Award winner, and has worked on classics such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blade Runner, and more. He tells us:
We all had in mind this idea of molten metal brilliantly glowing -so that there’s no question that what you’re looking at is a hot metal. What we settled on was to mix some of these metals to get a certain color and a certain brightness. It was a combination of bronze and aluminum.
Knowing that a legend such as Douglas Trumbull worked on this project, you realise the extent of the care and attention which was given to what is, in the grand scale of the entire project, a relatively small moment. But it’s a crucial one, getting the ball rolling in 2022, the year of the launch of this series. Speaking personally, the level of lavish artistry shown here makes me very optimistic for what lies ahead. The visual and audio tone shown in the title reveal video seem entirely in keeping with what we expect from Middle-earth; and the enduring, metal letters neatly mirror the enduring artistry and legacy of the Professor himself.
With many more exciting reveals coming, we the fans can really allow ourselves to start to get excited. So it begins…
