Season One was about Heroes, Season Two is about Villains. Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, the Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and forge the legendary Rings of Power, threatening to bind all peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will.
Season 2 plunges its most beloved characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find his or her place in a world on the brink of calamity, and as Showrunner Patrick McKay shares, “how is every one of our characters going to face that temptation and what are they going to do is kind of the heart of the season.”
The first season of The Rings of Power was an unprecedented success, viewed by more than 100 million people worldwide, with more than 32 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.
Ahead of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 streaming August 29 on Prime Video we sat down with McKay and Producer/Writer Lindsey Weber.
Interviewed for Family Entourage
Family Entourage: Congratulations on launching Season Two! So the first season was so epic in scope, and this season is set up to be the same with Sauron returning and Galadriel vowing to hunt him down. So talk to me a little bit about what we can expect, and what you’re excited about.
Patrick McKay: Lots. Season One is all about the heroes. Season One was consciously designed from the beginning to welcome audiences back to Middle Earth, a different era of Middle Earth, and establish all of these characters and all of their worlds and all of their peoples. And then ends with spoiler, a bit of a twist. The Dark Lord is back, but now the benefit of that discipline is Season Two. We can now just play.
Season One was about the heroes. Season Two is about the villains. Season Two is about Sauron. Season Two is about the psychological thriller because his plan to conquer the world is to use rings of power, but he can’t make them without Celebrimbor, the Elven DaVinci. And that story is sort of the core of the season. That and this battle between two villains, Sauron and Adar, the head of the Orcs, and it sends things off with a bang, and there’s a lot of twists and turns around along the way, and it’s a great time for audiences to jump in.
FE: I think that psychological material is so rich and it’s one of those things that kind of plays either way. Lindsey, talk to me about the idea of darkness versus light and good versus evil, and can we choose to be good? Does that choice have to be every day? Maybe delve a little bit into some of those things that are going to sit with us this whole season.
Lindsey Weber: I think that’s part of the delight of seeing a story about the making of the rings. You get to, if you’ve ever wondered where they came from or why they were made, you get to find out this season. But I think more importantly, you get to find out how and why some people who are good, who we would think of as our heroes make choices that push them over the line or towards the line, or that they know when their hearts aren’t right. And these are the things we all have to sort of grapple with every day in our real life. Temptation. Temptation and how far will you go to get the thing that you want or that you want to protect or that you love. And that I think is the relatable part of the season, even while it’s wrapped up in orcs and balrogs and all kinds of adventure…
PM: …action and creatures, and it’s about power and the rings in some ways, the metaphor we keep using is it’s almost like Oppenheimer. It’s like splitting the atom and now nuclear energy and power has been unleashed, and it can be used for good in terms of power. It can be used for evil in terms of a weapon. And where is each people of Middle Earth going to fall on that line? And how is every one of our characters going to face that temptation and what are they going to do is kind of the heart of the season.
FE: I know so much of the sets and costumes and creatures was practical moving forward into this season. Kind of set us up for what you’ve built and what will be seen…
PM: Well, it’s interesting. You were saying earlier, you were saying very nice things about Season One, feeling like a big epic. I think now that we’re sort of at the end of the four year journey since we started making Season Two, I think Season Two is bigger and maybe a lot bigger actually. Certainly there’s things we’ve never attempted before.
Season One, we had a very small skirmish that was designed to be sort of suspense in nature and very intimate and very gritty. Season Two, we’re doing a full scale battle that takes place over several episodes. Season Two, I think we built more this time. Celebrimbor’s workshop is like the inside of Notre Dame. It fills an entire stage. We always want to do something practical when we can. We want the world to feel tactile and lived in and real. That was what Tolkien wrote about, and we want to capture that on screen. Would you add anything to that?
LW: Oh, I can go on. We definitely, I think we shot for 33 weeks. I was recently looking at some numbers. I think we had multiple units, meaning two or three directors or sometimes four directors working 75% of those weeks. Day one we shot with 60 Orcs in prosthetics… it’s a real undertaking for a large group of people.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 starts streaming August 29 on Prime Video
If you can’t wait until then, or want to immerse yourself in Middle-Earth… bring home J. R. R. Tolkien’s classic masterpieces behind the films, and inspiration for The Power of the Rings series with a The Lord of the Rings Box Set (Paperback) or check out this gorgeous pocket-sized, leatherette-bound The Lord of the Rings Box Set — the perfect gift for Lord of the Rings devotees.
Our favorite is The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings Illustrated Editions where these gift sets are fully illustrated throughout in watercolour by the acclaimed and award-winning artist, Alan Lee, Conceptual Designer on Peter Jackson’s THE HOBBIT films. And, of course you could always revisit the theatrical versions of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings with 3 Film Collection.
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