Powerful rings are key to new myth and magic drama series
ISeason 2 is a welcome improvement on the first season, as one has every right to expect.
t’s finally arrived. For those who are keen on more highbrow fantasy stories, The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power season 2 has landed on Amazon Prime.
In Season 1 the American fantasy television series is set thousands of years before the novel in the Second Age of Middle-earth, the season depicts the emergence of the Dark Lord Sauron and the forging of the first Rings of Power.
Amazon Studios intended for the first series to be visually consistent with Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films, despite being separate from them and, in this respect, considering it’s made for the small screen, it almost succeeded, albeit with the limitations small screen productions inherently contain.
Season 2 is again based on JRR Tolkien's history of Middleearth, with material culled primarily from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings.
Amazon announced in August 2021 that filming for the series would move from
New Zealand – where the Peter Jackson movie Lord Of The Rings was made – to the United Kingdom starting with the second season.
The premise of the story is that at the dawn of the Second Age, the Dark Lord Sauron is seemingly killed by an army of Orcs and their leader, Adar, but his spirit endures and forms a new body over thousands of years. Taking the name Halbrand, he helps the Elves forge three Rings of Power before his identity is revealed.
High King Gil-galad believes they have no choice but to use the rings against Sauron while his herald, Elrond, objects. Elrond escapes with the rings and takes them to Círdan, the oldest and wisest Elf in Middleearth, who agrees to help until he sees the rings and believes them to be true perfection.
Círdan, Galadriel, and Gilgalad
put them on and the power of the Elves is restored. The Stranger – a Wizard who is regaining his memories – and the Harfoot Nori Brandyfoot get lost on their way to the land of Rhûn.
They are followed by Nori's friend Poppy Proudfellow, who brings Harfoot maps to help them find their way. In Mordor, Halbrand is brought to Adar and reveals that Sauron has returned.
He offers to go to Eregion— the Elven realm where the rings were forged—while Adar raises his army to attack Sauron.
Notable actors in the cast include Morfydd Clark as Galadriel (Elf ) – she played Mina Harker in TV series Dracula (2020) and Sister Clara in His Dark Materials (2019); Australian Charlie Vickers as Sauron (Dark Lord) in his first major role; Sam Hazeldine as Adar (Elf ) – he has starred in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), Weekender (2010), The Raven (2012), Grimsby (2016), and The Last Duel (2021) with his television roles including Prime Suspect 6 (2003), Persuasion (2007), Peaky Blinders; Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor (Elf ) – most notable for playing Michael Gregson in Downton Abbey (2012–2013), Dr Alexander McDonald in The Terror (2018), Sir Martin Charteris in The Crown (2019–2020); Ben Daniels as Círdan (Elf ) – has appeared on popular television series including Cutting It (2002–04), The Virgin Queen (2005), Law & Order: UK (2009–11), The Paradise (2013), House of Cards (2013–14), and The Exorcist (2016–17); Rory Kinnear as
Tom Bombadil – played Bill Tanner in four James Bond films: Quantum of Solace (2008),
Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021), with other film roles including The Imitation Game (2014), Men (2022) and Bank of Dave (2023); Ciarán Hinds as Dark Wizard – whose previous television roles include Julius Caesar in the series Rome, DCI James Langton in Above Suspicion, Mance Rayder in Game of Thrones and Captain Sir John Franklin in
The Terror; and Lloyd Owen as Elendil (Human) – previous roles include Indiana Jones's father Professor Dr Henry
Jones Sr in George Lucas's The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles between 1992 and 1993 and Paul Bowman-MacDonald in the
BBC Scotland series Monarch of the Glen from 2002 to 2005. He also starred as solicitor William Heelis in the film Miss Potter (2006) and commander Nathan Walker in Apollo 18 (2011).
Season 2 is a welcome improvement on the first season, as one has every right to expect. Many are comparing this season to HBO’s House of the Dragon and the previous Game of Thrones, but to me it is a different beast, contains different beasts and is its own entity, not to be compared with other fantasy stories.