Fan-favorite characters will have their backstories and ancestries explored in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The series is set thousands of years prior to the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings novels, during Middle-earth's Second Age.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will explore a number of major events from the era, including the fall of the island kingdom of Númenor, the last alliance between Elves and Men and the rise of Sauron.
Ahead of the show's premiere, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with stars Maxim Baldry and Lloyd Owen to discuss The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, exploring Aragorn's ancestry, the weight of fan expectations and more.
Screen Rant: I find this show so fascinating in its concept and expansion of the Lord of the Rings lore. What was it like for both of you when you first heard word of it, and then when you started getting interested in the project?
Maxim Baldry: It's an expansive show that is pretty bold and I think the only two people that were destined to to make this happen are JD and Patrick, who have an encyclopedic knowledge of Tolkien and who really wanted to create a whole universe with all different races and worlds coming together. So we're very lucky to show the Númenórean world, which we lived in and created over the course of a year in New Zealand.
Lloyd Owen: Yeah, and having been a fan of the books when I was a kid — my joke is that I'm closer to their actual publication date than quite a few [costars], definitely than him. [Laughs] So there were only the books when I was a kid before the movies, so having fallen [in love with them] and had my imagination sparked by that, to then become part of this new project, I genuinely feel that this is the perfect point in history to make the show. I feel the fact that Amazon has given that much love to a 50-hour adaptation, one is able to tell a novel-length story and give the weight to this that it requires.
Even then, you can't encom Tolkien's imagination in those amount of hours, but within that to try, especially with our two characters, to try these known canon characters, but who we don't actually know. We know something of them, but to open them up is to be in a position of great privilege and excitement as well as responsibility. Fingers crossed I can match some of your imaginations of who Elendil might be to you.
Isildur is someone who, given that he's Aragorn's ancestor, is such a major legacy for longtime fans, be it of the books or of the movies. What was that like for you going in and did you feel any kind of weight of that legacy when you were trying out for this character?
Maxim Baldry: Definitely. I have the weight of expectation of fans, but also a deep privilege to expand this character and explore him in his beginnings. He is a young sailor in Númenor who is trying to find himself, trying to find his voice, he doesn't want to become his father, in a way, but also has a deep love for him and wants to explore the world. In the process, he makes a lot of mistakes, makes a lot of people unhappy and that's where we start with Isildur and where he ends up. But this is all about his beginnings. I just wanted to create a whole cohesive character that had a lot of emotion and not necessarily perfect, like we all are as humans.
Lloyd, can you give me a little bit of info about what we can expect from Elendil in the show?
Lloyd Owen: Yes, I'm playing Elendil, who is the 38th great, great, great grandfather of Aragorn - that will be the 37th there, so the bloodline is strong. Where we find them in the beginning of this season is in Númenor, he's a ship's captain, he's been widowed recently, is trying to bring up some grieving adult children and that loss created a lot of turbulence in the family. So he's trying to find an emotional safe haven by moving away from the west, away from the faithful, back back to the capital city, and he gets slowly drawn into the politics of Númenor. There's a real schism in society between the old elvish ways, which is where Elendil's heart is, and his head is drawn to the new Númenor, the more nationalistic Númenor.
It's a pull between those two things that's also reflected in the family, because the children are taking different positions in that. In classic Tolkien fashion, it's a hero's journey for him in the sense that he slowly senses the danger that he's getting drawn into, but his instinct can't deny it until he understands that that's part of his fate. JD and Patrick have set up that, the new part of that is being a widower, also having a daughter Eärien and in this family, there are some new dynamics there which play really well. Again, super exciting to get hold of such a complex character at this early stage.
Since that family dynamic is so key for your characters, what was it like building the rapport with one another off camera before bringing it into every scene?
Lloyd Owen: It was actually surprisingly easy with this one and with Emma. Perhaps that's the nature of - which has nothing to do with us - the casting business. But somehow JD and Patrick weaved a bit of magic in who they put together.
Maxim Baldry: I just looked at him with such loving eyes. [Laughs]
Lloyd Owen: He did. We did first meet and he said, "I'm playing your son" and I said, "Which one?" Because I wasn't sure whether Eärien was also going to be [a male character].
Maxim Baldry: No love. This is what I'm talking about the whole time in the show, no love. [Chuckles]
Lloyd Owen: And he is a problem child, let me tell you that. [Laughs]
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Synopsis
Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: 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, 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 re-emergence 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 furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on September 2.