“When you walk on that set, all that hits you is the terror that you’ll never be able to justify your presence there,” says Peter Mullan at the world premiere of season two of Prime Video‘s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
The Scottish actor, known for his roles in Trainspotting, Braveheart and Ozark, now playing King Durin III in the fantasy prequel series, aptly summarizes the pressure on this project. With a hefty budget — season one is estimated to have cost around $465 million — expectations are high when it comes to the next installment. Just how high — and how much — are details that showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay are not willing to delve into.
“What we will say is this: Season one was huge and epic. We think we got even more onscreen in season two,” McKay tells The Hollywood Reporter at London’s BFI Southbank. “We wanted to push the show into new territory, and hopefully, the audience will be surprised.” Payne adds: “They can expect it to go broader, deeper and bigger, we’re going into more worlds, more monsters, more battles.”
When asked about any confirmation on a season three, McKay is coy: “All we can say is, we’re working on it. We’re cooking. Let us cook!” The duo are remarkably relaxed about the confirmation of Warner Bros.’ Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum coming in 2026. “Middle-earth is vast, and we feel like there’s room for everyone on the table,” Payne says. “We love the Peter Jackson films, so I think we’ll be excited to see it as fans.”
The cast descended on a gold carpet to lines of fans on Tuesday evening. The brutalist architecture of the Thames-side building was adorned with shrubbery and flora to transport guests to Tolkien‘s worlds. In attendance were Charlie Vickers (playing Sauron), Morfydd Clark (Galadriel), Robert Aramayo (Elrond), Sophia Nomvete (Disa), Ismael Cruz Córdova (Arondir), Charles Edwards (Celebrimbor) and Joseph Mawle (Adar).
Sue Kroll, Charlie Vickers, Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Salke, Ismael Cruz Córdova and Mike Hopkins at the season two world premiere of ‘The Rings of Power.’
Courtesy of Getty Images
Córdova, whose character is described as having Legolas-level fighting abilities in the prequel show, even reveals to THR that bumping into Orlando Bloom at a party ended up being a huge help for his performance. The actor famously depicted the elf in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films. “I think it’s good for us to lean into each other in these massive franchises, which can be daunting,” Córdova says. “We saw each other at this party, and he just shouted my name like, ‘Brother!’ And I’ve never met the guy. It was so beautiful to know that he knew who I was. He was essentially passing the baton and giving me his blessing and being extremely complimentary of it all.”
Elsewhere, the cast and crew promise a “darker, grittier” season two compared to the first. Directed entirely by women, this coming season follows Sauron — spoiler alert! — who was revealed to be underneath Charlie Vickers’ Halbrand, and who is now promising to bring chaos to Middle-earth as the Dark Lord. “It revolves around Sauron,” says director Charlotte Brandstrom. “It’s dangerous. It’s edgy, and I think it’s a very exciting season. You need to be very prepared [working on this show], you can’t change your mind in the morning.”
One addition to this season’s cast is seasoned British actor Rory Kinnear, who steps into the widely beloved role of J.R.R Tolkien’s Tom Bombadil, the oldest creature in Middle-earth. Once he’d caught up to speed on the books, the task became a little daunting. “It’s a figure that has left a lasting impression for generations of readers but has never been put on the screen before,” Kinnear tells THR. “So there was no pressure in terms of creating him for the first time,” he adds, sarcastically.
“My partner has read the books and seen the films, and I said to her, ‘They’ve asked me to play this character called Tom Bombadil.’ And she almost dropped the saucepan and said, ‘That is my favorite character in the whole thing!’ So I thought I’d better read it. I’ve really started from the ground up in terms of my knowledge of fantasy and Tolkien in general,” adds Kinnear, who has starred in four James Bond films as well as The Imitation Game and Black Mirror.
Lloyd Owen, who reprises his role of Captain Elendil in season two, divulged to THR just what fans can expect. “There’s a huge amount of worlds to establish in season one,” Owen starts.
“So now, what happens is there’s something at stake for everyone, in every world and in every scene, because it’s been well set up. When the scripts came in, we were all like, ‘Oh, wow. OK, game on.’ Sauron is this evil influence, but it’s not as simple as, ‘Oh look, there’s a lot of bad people around.’ What he does is he gets into you. If there’s a chink in your moral armor, he will ease his way in.”
Season two of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power arrives on Amazon Prime Video on Aug. 29.