Floodgates of new information, set visits, character reveals, and new details from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2, while The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim gets official art books.
For easy reading, here are links to all the new set visit articles released this week, and the primary new details each one offers. Check out the first batch of articles from Monday’s posts earlier this week – and if you want to potentially get spoiled, learn about the most recent Spy Report leaks for S2 here and here and here.
Prime Video’s The Rings of Power has finally uncorked its long embargoed set visits, which occurred over a year ago in April 2023, with many articles from various outlets sharing exclusive pics and details for Season 2 of the billion dollar TV show. Here are links to recent posts, plus some of the most interesting reveals that fans are buzzing about.
TV Insider has a well written article in which they have a lot of fun visiting the unnamed secret battle sets for Season 2. “If there’s one word to describe this season, it’s “more.” More evil. More action. More rings (make that a lot more).” Seems that the leaks may be true that all the 17 remaining rings of power will be seen this season. TV Insider focuses on all the new department heads for Season 2, needed because of moving the production away from New Zealand. “We toured the tent and spoke with one Orc actor who has a special arc this season.”
According to this article, “The roots of his current “Halbrand” form are explained in the season’s brutal opening scene, which showrunner J.D. Payne describes as “an Ides of March-esque” sequence that fellow showrunner Patrick McKay says will make you “pity” the dark lord.” The Ides of March is famously the story of the political betrayal and assassination of Julius Caesar. They also confirm the premiere will be 3 full episodes. Read the whole thing – it touches on a lot of the themes going into S2.
IGN also visited the set and opens with a discussion with the showrunners. Explains McKay, “You know, it’s really hip to be cynical and roll your eyes and, you know, be postmodern and winky, winky, winky. And we’re just not gonna play that game.” Season 2’s new stunt co-ordinator Ben Cooke “also mentioned a specific stunt for Aramayo where Elrond is cornered and jumps from a 50 ft. waterfall. What’s he running from?!” Season 2 has a whopping 120 physical sets, and the Khazad-dûm set is bigger in size. Read the written set visit by Amy Ratcliffe, then check out the whole bulleted list of official things.
Den of Geek joined the set visit festivities with a first person write up, putting the reader in the middle of the mud soaked action on set. “But while the weather may have helped pile on the authentic mud, that First World War vibe is very much a deliberate artistic choice as well. Once we’ve got back to the main studio and dried off, we are shown a miniature model used in designing Adar’s orc encampment for season two. This looks even more like the Western Front in World War I, as it’s full of trenches and ladders, and if it weren’t for the Orcs and the lack of tanks, it could almost be a historical set. Just across the table is a piece of armor with snake details., including the ouroboros symbol—a snake eating its own tail, symbolizing immorality and eternity. The Orc armor is an impressive mish-mash of influences, as the idea behind it is that the Orcs have looted it from other cultures and mixed that in with the bones of their enemies.”
Nerdist focuses on the dwarves with their set visit, revealing the first pic of father and son Durin. Production Designer Kristian Milsted says, “We could look at what they did for Khazad-dûm in season one, and we could say, ‘Okay, now we’re going to give it a twist, and we’re going to make it more sinister, make it more dark.’ It’s about greed. It’s something that the dwarves are good at.”
Rings press tour brings culture to events and conventions
Essence Festival 2024 was in New Orleans over July 4 weekend and featured a dedicated panel for Prime Video’s The Rings of Power and The Boys. Black Girl Nerds has the write up, featuring Cynthia Addai-Robinson and Sophia Nomvete.
Arondir and Isildur visited the IGN Fan Fest to debut the new character in their storyline: Estrid. Watch the 13 minute clip here.
SDCC is almost here and Deadline unveils what Prime Video is bringing to the biggest pop culture stage in the world. We will have more details soon!
Light and Dark colliding in Collider
Our pals at Collider.com have a series of articles around Season 2 of The Rings of Power. First, Steve Weintraub got to chat with the showrunners on how fans are shaping future seasons of the 5-season tentpole series. “Season 2 was largely written before Season 1 came out, but Season 2 has been produced after Season 1 came out. Part of the learning process for us on this is really seeing what people seem to respond to in the show. We also take in everything. We read everything. We read the reviews, we read what you all have written, we read what your colleagues have written, and we read what the fans are saying.” Patrick McKay may be seeing all your Discord messages!
Next up was an effort to reveal who the meteor man ‘stranger’ is, but the showrunners are not revealing anything yet. “Despite what some folks might think, we’re really not about a game; we’re really not about a puzzle. But we also don’t wanna take for granted where characters will end up. We want to see them grow and change along the way, and we hope that in the end, you look back and it feels inevitable, but in the moment… I’m trying to say it but not say it. [Laughs]” They do reveal that Season 2 will go to Rhûn, Pelargir, Grey Havens, older parts of Númenor, and deeper into Khazad-dûm.
Celebrimbor and Annatar get new pics revealed in Collider’s third article of the day. J.D. Payne says, “Season 2 is gonna be all about the villains, and specifically all about Sauron. We’re going to watch as he uses deception, manipulation, lies, coercion, cunning to start to set the chess pieces in motion . He’s gonna go to this person over here and sort of set this group against that group over there and start using people’s inherent trusts and mistrusts and fears against them to start to set up the situations that are all beneficial to him.”
The huge EMPIRE magazine exclusive
By far the most talked about piece of news this last week was EMPIRE magazine’s multi-page exclusive for Season 2 of The Rings of Power. The main reveal was a focus on the first screen representation of the Barrow-wights. While exciting to see these skeletal ghosts finally come to life on screen, it’s not without some concern from global fans who fear cultural appropriation and use of stereotypical tropes of “eastern = evil.” But there’s so much ground covered in EMPIRE it’s worth finding an issue with the 3D lenticular cover at a bookstore or read free with an Apple News+ subscription.
EMPIRE also reveals the first named troll on screen since The Hobbit movies turned Tom, Burt and William to stone. The hill troll Damrod serves Adar in the upcoming season.
Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay talk about the critical feedback to mysteries of Season 1 saying, “The clues to the correct answer were there from the start. Literally in the first shot of Charlie [Vickers, as Halbrand] in Season 1, he looks back at the camera with one eye.” Closing out the huge EMPIRE feature they talk about retooling after leaving Season 1 in New Zealand. “The big move from New Zealand to the UK was, McKay says on set, “a bit of a chance to in some ways reboot and rebuild — another opportunity to take another big whack at it” (in terms of the filmmaking process rather than the narrative choices, he later qualifies).”
The fallen elf and leader of Uruks has a new vibe, thanks to a new actor named Sam Hazeldine.
Entertainment Weekly got an exclusive interview with the actor taking over the role of Adar, the main antagonist for the first two seasons of The Rings of Power. Hazeldine comes fresh off the huge success of AppleTV+ show Masters of the Air (he’s in the final three episodes as the leader of the Air Force troupe) and it seems that he’s relished the opportunity to play in the fantasy world of J.R.R Tolkien.
“The hardest thing was I had to go straight into speaking Black Speech on day one,” the actor says. “It is hard on your throat, and it is hard to remember because it doesn’t really follow the elvish languages, which have roots in real languages like Welsh and Finnish.” He even had the show’s Tolkien lore experts rewrite some of his lines from English into Black Speech, in order to give Adar the proper gravitas.
EW, quoting Sam Hazeldine for S2
Staffer Demosthenes here. Just quickly, there’s another quote from Hazledine that is ridiculously thought-provoking.
Viewers will also see how previous confrontations between Adar and Sauron unfolded.
“There was an offer for power and for something else, which you’ll find out later on in the show, and Adar willingly took the deal,” Hazeldine says of Adar’s origin. “It’s kind of like he took a red pill and was duped. He was horrifically tortured and maimed.”
EW, quoting Sam Hazeldine for S2
What is that “something else”? Is it the chance to redeem all orcs? Would that be enough to convince Adar to follow Sauron? Is Adar one of those mentioned in The Rings of Power and the Third Age who believed Sauron had “abjured his evil deeds”? What sort of power would be a lure for Adar anyway?
We’re hoping to explore these questions and provide some grounded speculation over coming weeks. Anyway, back to Justin!
We previously shared a Tolkien scholar’s opinion on the invented character Adar with this post after Season 1. Overwhelmingly, fans embraced the character and this new interview has generated a ton of hype going into Season 2, and even Adar fan cams!
A spy report sent in by a fan confirms, for the first time, that Tolkien’s great antagonist of the Second Age will have the name that fans have been hoping and waiting hear — Annatar.
Annatar arrives for his adaptation debut
The July 2024 issue of EMPIRE Magazine hits newsstands this week featuring an exclusive new interview with Lindsey Weber, Executive Producer of The Rings of Power on Prime Video. Grab a copy (or two!) if you can find one (Ed: you can subscribe online and Mac junkies can also apparently get the article via Apple News.). But let’s not bury the lede: for the first time in official marketing or messaging, Prime Video has let loose the heralded name of Sauron’s alter-ego that has fans on edge of their seats:
Meanwhile, Sauron still has (counts fingers, runs out) 16 more rings to usher into being, not including the One that will in the darkness bind them. It’s taken him eight episodes just to get to three. He needs to get cracking. And that’s certainly what he does in Season 2, adopting a new identity as blond-locked elf Annatar and becoming besties with the worryingly pliant Celebrimbor. (emphasis mine)
Empire Magazine, July 2024
There are a lot of juicy tidbits from Lindsey Weber in this piece so let’s highlight one of the most important storylines for Season 2:
“The relationship between those two characters — and those two actors Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards — is something we’re so proud of. It is a spectacular performance from both of them and a really compelling story that’s very much at the heart of what we’re doing this season. Sauron wants to control all of Middle-earth, and he knows he needs rings to do it. And he needs the greatest of elven smiths to make those rings.”
Lindsey Weber, EP of TROP
Fans immediately took to twitter after seeing the exclusive reveal during TORN Tuesday this week.
— Berek of Numenor, Isildur’s Horse (@BerekTheHorse) June 5, 2024
“The relationship between those two characters – and those two actors, Charlie and Charles, is something we're so proud of," says Weber. "It is a spectacular performance from both of them and a really compelling story that's very much at the heart of what we're doing this season.… pic.twitter.com/2ODLivxnho
— Rings Of Power Era (@RingsOfPowerEra) June 5, 2024
I’m so excited to have it finally publicly confirmed the Rings of Power will indeed be using the name Annatar for Sauron in season two! 🧝🏼♂️ #TROPspoilers
via Empire Magazine’s upcoming issue, shared early by @theoneringnet
— Tea with Rings of Power ☕️ (@teawithtrop) June 5, 2024
— Ivyy✨ is waiting for TROP s2 (@rukiasbankaii) June 5, 2024
and finally…
Watch the reveal happen at 1:38:30 in the middle of the show, or watch the whole episode which has so much MORE news about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and other adaptations.
Recent SPY REPORTS for Season 2 of Prime Video’s The Rings of Power series sourced from anonymous but now-deleted posts on internet messageboard 4Chan are currently prompting a wave of discussion about their veracity and implications across Discord and Reddit .
WARNING: potential SPOILERS for Season 2 abound below.
.
.
.
.
Last chance to not be spoiled by significant story leaks for The Rings of Power.
Without further ado, here’s the potentially explosive leak about the story direction for Season 2 of The Rings of Power. While TheOneRing.net has no way of confirming this, the sources are allegedly people close to the series Producers.
Prime Video have announced the final new cast members who will play recurring roles in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season Two.
The three actors are, as with previously announced new cast, acclaimed stalwarts of British television and theatre, with impressive credentials and long pedigrees of excellent work. It is exciting to see Rings of Power welcoming such talent to the fold, and bodes well for the quality of the show to come. (You can read about the rest of the new cast members announced for Season Two here and here.)
Here’s the official press release:
Ciarán Hinds, Rory Kinnear, and Tanya Moodie Join Cast of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for Season Two
Mar 20, 2023
All three acclaimed actors join the existing cast of the global hit seriesin recurring roles for the forthcoming second season, currently in production in the UK
CULVER CITY, California—March 20, 2023—The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which has been viewed by more than 100 million people worldwide and has been an unprecedented global success as the top Original series for Prime Video in every region in its first season, has announced that acclaimed actors Ciarán Hinds, Rory Kinnear, and Tanya Moodie have joined the series’ cast in recurring roles for the forthcoming second season, currently in production in the UK.
CIARÁN HINDS
CIARÁN HINDS
Nominated for both an Oscar and a BAFTA Award as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as “Pop” in Kenneth Branagh’s film Belfast, acclaimed actor Ciarán Hinds has had an illustrious career on both stage and screen. He has starred in such films as Steven Spielberg’s Munich, Martin Scorsese’s Silence, There Will be Blood, Road to Perdition, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, In Bruges, The Phantom of the Opera, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Persuasion, First Man, Amazing Grace, Zack Snyder’sJustice League, and The Eclipse, a role for which he was awarded Best Actor at the Tribeca Film Festival. He is also known for his voice role as “Grand Pabbie” the Troll King in the animated films Frozen and Frozen II.
Television audiences know Hinds from his roles as “Mance Rayder” in Game of Thrones (HBO) and “Julius Caesar” in Rome (HBO) as well as starring roles in The English (BBC/Prime Video), Ivanhoe (A&E), Above Suspicion (ITV), Political Animals (USA), and Prime Suspect 3 (ITV). He most recently appeared in the comedy-drama series The Dry (BritBox).
Hinds’ wide-ranging theatre credits include Uncle Vanya, Translations, The Girl from the North Country, Hamlet, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Burnt by the Sun, Closer, The Seafarer, and many others. He toured internationally in Peter Brook’s company in The Mahabharata and has played leading roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court, the Donmar Warehouse, and the National Theatre.
RORY KINNEAR
RORY KINNEAR
Rory Kinnear is an award-winning British actor, perhaps best known for his role as “Bill Tanner” in the James Bond films Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre. Kinnear recently starred in Alex Garland’s Men, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and saw him nominated for a BIFA award. Other recent film credits include Bank of Dave, Mike Leigh’s Peterloo, Broken (for which he won Best Supporting Actor at the BIFAs), and the Academy Award- and BAFTA Award-nominated The Imitation Game. Kinnear’s TV credits include Inside No. 9 (BBC), Penny Dreadful (Sky Atlantic), Southcliffe (Channel 4, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor), Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror (Channel 4), and the dramaLucan (ITV) in which he starred in the title role. He can currently be seen in Taika Waititi’s series Our Flag Means Death (HBO Max).
Kinnear is hugely respected for his theatre work, winning Best Actor at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2010 for his performances in Measure for Measure (Almeida Theatre) and Hamlet (National Theatre), and again in 2013 for his performance as “Iago” in Othello (National Theatre), for which he also received an Olivier Award for Best Actor. He previously won an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as “Sir Fopling Flutter” in The Man of Mode in 2008, and was nominated twice before for his performances in Hamlet and Burnt by the Sun. Most recently, Kinnear starred in Force Majeure at the Donmar Warehouse. Kinnear is also an award-winning playwright, penning his debut play The Herd in 2013. He made his directorial debut with the English National Opera’s production of The Winter’s Tale in 2017.
TANYA MOODIE
TANYA MOODIE
Tanya Moodie is an acclaimed British actress who won the Royal Television Society’s Breakthrough Award for the role of “Meg” in the BAFTA Award-winning comedy Motherland (BBC). Her numerous television roles include starring as “Hunter” in the miniseries adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere (BBC), as well as roles in Tin Star (Sky Atlantic), A Discovery of Witches (Sky One), The Man Who Fell to Earth (Showtime), and Sherlock (BBC).
Some of Moodie’s recent film roles include J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker as “General Parnadee” and Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light as “Delia.”
In the theatre, Moodie is a two-time Olivier Award nominee for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for her roles in Intimate Apparel and The House That Will Not Stand. She played “Gertrude” in Simon Godwin’s production of Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her performance as “Rose” opposite Lenny Henry in August Wilson’s Fences in the West End earned her a WhatsOnStage Awards nomination for Best Actress. She was nominated for a UK Theatre Award for Best Performance for her role in Trouble in Mind, and she has received additional Best Actress nominations from the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards and the UK Theatre Awards. Moodie studied at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she was later employed as an associate teacher and council member.
All eight first season episodes are now available to stream exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories in multiple languages.
The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared reemergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the farthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.
The first season of The Rings of Power has been an unprecedented success, viewed by more than 100 million people worldwide, with more than 24 billion minutes streamed. The highly anticipated series attracted more than 25 million global viewers on its first day, marking the biggest premiere in the history of Prime Video, and also debuted as the No. 1 show on Nielsen’s overall streaming chart in its opening weekend. The show has also broken all previous Prime Video records for the most viewers, and has driven more Prime sign-ups worldwide during its launch window than any other previous content. Additionally, The Rings of Power is the top Original series in every region—North America, Europe, APAC, LATAM, and the rest of the world. The season finale also created a global cultural moment, with multiple series-themed hashtags, including #TheRingsofPower and others, trending in 27 countries across Twitter for over 426 cumulative hours throughout the weekend.
Season Two of the series is produced by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay. They are joined by executive producers Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, and Gennifer Hutchison, along with co-executive producer Charlotte Brandstrom, producers Kate Hazell and Helen Shang, and co-producers Andrew Lee, Matthew Penry-Davey, and Clare Buxton.
