The Lord of the Rings prequel series has just aired its first season, earning both praise and criticism from J.R.R. Tolkien's staunchest fans.
Created by J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay, The Rings of Power is expected to return for four more installments since Amazon bought the rights for The Lord of the Rings for a five-season production commitment.
Set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and LOTR, the show covers a peaceful period of Middle-earth's Second Age, revealing Galadriel's origin story as well as the rise of Dark Lord Sauron.
The Rings of Power sees Welsh actress Morfydd Clark in the role a younger Galadriel, an unexpected version of the elf played by Cate Blanchett in the movies from director Peter Jackson. She is joined by Game of Thrones' Robert Aramayo, How I Met Your Mother's Nazanin Boniadi, The Mandalorian's Ismael Cruz Córdova, and more. But how much did the show's stars know about Tolkien and his work before filming the series in New Zealand?
6 The Rings Of Power's Morfydd Clark On Researching For Galadriel
Clark, seen in critically acclaimed horror Saint Maude, revealed she grew up surrounded by Tolkien talk as her parents were fan of the saga. Her friends are, too, as she said in an interview with Variety.
"My friends are all massive Lord of the Rings fans, and I have to tell you, they describe her to me a lot. She's a living myth; a living legend."
Like others in the cast, she didn't know which role she was goint to play until she signed up for The Rings of Power. The actress and her sister thought about what character she could be playing, researching Tolkien and finding a different Galadriel than the one we see in the films.
"I knew The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I hadn't delved into The Silmarillion at all, really. I had no idea what she'd done," Clark explained.
"There's a bit where Tolkien describes Galadriel as tying her hair up into a crown with a plait as she goes into battle. I was kind of like, wow this opens up so much, that this happened.
"And also, Tolkien changed his ideas about Galadriel, which makes her more interesting. I became obsessed with like, why did Tolkien need Galadriel to be that at that point? He kind of like fell more in love with her, I think, as he got older, and so there's a fluidity to her character."
5 Robert Aramayo Was A Tolkien Fan Before Getting Cast In The Rings Of Power
Aramayo, known for playing young Ned Stark in Game of Thrones, was a huge Tolkien fan before getting the role of Elrond in the prequel series. The character was played by Hugo Weaving in the films.
"I encountered the books in the way you should encounter them. I started as a child with The Hobbit, and when I got to a certain age, the First Age stuff, covered in The Silmarillion and Tolkien's other writings which is the most dense and complicated. It's also my favorite. I discovered it in this period of my life, and now it is pretty much all I read. I especially love things like The Silmarillion that you can just read and reread," Aramayo told Vulture.
4 The Rings Of Power's Charles Edwards Was "Obsessed" With Tolkien As A Child
The Crown star Charles Edwards plays the Elven smith Celebrimbor, responsible for forging the titular Rings of Power.
"I was obsessed with it all when I was a kid," he told Collider in October.
"Everyone obviously talks about the Peter Jackson movies, but when I was little, I had the animated Ralph Bakshi version from 1978. That was my total obsession, at the time.
"So, to be returning to this world, you walk on set, and of course, the little nine-year-old in you starts jumping up and down and remembering the excitement when you first encountered Tolkien. To be involved in it now is really very special."
3 The Rings Of Power's Ismael Cruz Córdova Said The Lord Of The Rings DVDs Changed His Life
Córdova plays Silvan Elf Arondir, the first Black elf in any adaptation of Tolkien's work. In an interview with Teen Vogue, the Ray Donovan actor said the DVDs of The Lord of the Rings were his first encounter with Tolkien's universe.
"When the movies came about, I was about 13, 14, again coming from poor circumstances, I was washing cars, cleaning lawns, everything I could get my hands on to buy a DVD player and I did, first one in my family to get that and kind of around my little area in my village, and that kinda changed my life," he said in September this year.
"Not only because of what we know the movies to be that were this fantastic world but also the feature acts, it was the first time you could see the behind the scenes and whatnot. That opened my understanding of what the filmmaking business was."
2 Markella Kavenagh Changed Her Harfoot Character In The Rings Of Power
Kavenagh, also seen in the 2018 remake of Picnic at Hanging Rock, plays Elanor 'Nori' Brandyfoot, a Harfoot longing for adventure.
The Harfoot are ancestors to the hobbits we see in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and Kavanagh explained she wanted to subvert the idea of Harfoot being quiet and not really up for a risky journey.
"[Nori]'s had to from a really young age to care for her siblings, and her family, and the community, in a way that she's probably had to grow up a bit too quickly," she told Collider.
"And so I thought that it just made sense to ground that in wanting to subvert Harfoot tradition, to improve the quality of life and that that's where the curiosity into the unknown comes from as well."
In an interview with Yahoo! Movies, Kavenagh revealed the cast had access to Tolkien expert Griff Jones to get all of them up to speed.
"As a cast as well, we would find things out and share information. The showrunners are really knowledgeable too, so it was nice to have that context before," she said.
1 The Rings Of Power's Ben Walker Said The Hobbit Was His First "Big-Boy Book"
Ben Walker plays the High King of the Elves, Gil-galad. Like some of his co-stars, he had read Tolkien before landing the role in The Rings of Power.
"When I was a kid—I have an older brother and he's an avid reader who's infinitely more intelligent than I'll ever be, and the first big-boy book he ever gave me was The Hobbit," the actor told The Daily Beast.
"He introduced me to The Lord of the Rings and that’s what we'd play in the woods. I have that familial connection. So my gateway was the books. Luckily for us, the foundation of what we're doing is based on the source material. I basically get paid to read Tolkien. It's great."
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 is streaming on Prime Video.
