July 23, 2022, 9:28 PM
July 23, 2022, 9:28 PM
“We wanted to find a huge Tolkienian mega-epic!”
This is how one of the main producers, Patrick McKay, referred to “The Rings of Power”the long-awaited spin off from “The Lord of the Rings” while revealing a new trailer and previously unseen footage at Comic-Con in San Diego, California on Thursday.
In her arsenal is a huge cast of cute elves, a rare dwarf, the ancestors of the hobbits, a truly impressive CGI city, a mysterious menace, a ent woman and even balrog surprise.
Amazon Prime’s “Rings of Power” is the most expensive television show in history, with a budget of US$1.000 millions for five seasons. That’s the best clue for fans as to what it will look, sound and feel like.
But what everyone really wants to know is if it can compete with the beloved film trilogy of “The Lord of the rings“ by Peter Jacksonwinner of 17 Oscars, reference point for composers and popularizer of the second breakfast (one of the many meals of the characters in the films).
The action takes place 4,000 years before the Hobbits Frodo and Sam traveled through Middle-earth.
This is the Second Age, where the 20 rings of power are forged and the evil Sauron, Dark Lord of Mordor, rises to storm the hard-won peace of the realms.
The source material is the appendix of Tolkien from the “Lord of the Rings” books. The central question: “How far in the dark would you go to protect the things that matter most to you?” says another of the main producers, JD Payne.
It’s a mix of new characters, some of them original to the show, and old acquaintances in a younger form, like the immortal elves Galadriel and Elrond (Morfydd Clark and Robert Aramayo), who are seen sharing a tender moment in an exclusive clip played at Comic-Con.
Another scene showed Elrond and the dwarf king Durin IV (Owain Arthur) competing to split rocks in a high-stakes test of strength. And the orcs, the ruined race that formed Sauron’s army in Tolkien’s books, appear in combat with the elf Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) as he fights his way out of slavery.
More than 20 cast members rotated onstage to share information about the characters, including Clark, who referenced Cate Blanchett’s calm majestic Galadriel in the Jackson films.
“I wanted to show how Galadriel’s composure in the movies comes from a hard fight,” he said.
Arthur said he felt an affinity with the mine-dwelling dwarves, as his family had worked in a Welsh slate quarry, but the physical transformation into Durin was a challenge: “Three hours every day and 45 minutes to remove it.” all!”.
Tolkien’s lack of dwarfs on screen has also been addressed in a big way to the delight of actress Sophia Nomvete, who plays the dwarf princess Disa of Khazad-dûm.
“I have the joy of hosting that revolutionary moment!” She declared before sharing that she had auditioned for the role “with two days to go before giving birth.” “Then I got the call saying, ‘You’ll be holding the torch for this amazing character,’ when my daughter was five days old.”
Her Princess Disa costume was designed so that she could feed her baby for weeks between feedings.
But if “The Rings of Power” enjoys expanding into new territory, it also respects established Tolkien lore.
Some actors playing elves told the BBC at a media roundtable that they had worked with a specialist to get the correct pronunciation of the elvish languages.
Elrond actor Robert Aramayo said, “When you meet any elf, you understand it in a deeper way, what the professor [Tolkien]… the language was so important to him.”
“The most exciting thing was learning how to write it!” enthuses Charles Edwards, who plays the elf smith Celebrimbor who forges the rings of power.
“I felt like a fish in water, I must say,” says Ismael Cruz Córdova (who is Puerto Rican), laughing. “Shares many vowel sounds with Spanish!”
Cruz Córdoba’s elven character Arondir shares a forbidden love with human healer Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi), who is also the mother of “a somewhat rebellious teenage son,” as she describes him.
However, Bronwyn is a well-rounded person in her own right, something Boniadi praises.
“They’ve given each female character that quality,” she says. “We do not serve men.”
Musically, we can expect more of the booming drums and choral singing that permeated Jackson’s films. Series composer Bear McCreary, who conducted a live orchestra and choir at Thursday’s event, said he wanted to honor the original score and, in fact, his composer Howard Shore created the music for the series.
Comedian and Tolkien superfan Stephen Colbert, who hosted the panel, told the audience that he had read the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy more than 50 times. While many may simply wonder how he found the time, he highlights the intensity of feeling this mythology evokes for fans.
Can “The Rings of Power” please its longtime fans while making sense to viewers coming into the story for the first time?
Judge for yourself when the show premieres in September. For now, the signs look hopeful.
