Rings of Power cast & showrunners on Siege of Eregion, Gandalf's appearance, Sauron and more!

Intro the Dark Lord has risen and everything is different now it's great to have some Source material to work for if you're creating a character he's in danger of allowing his pride to topple him learned that he's a wizard but he doesn't really know you how to control his powers yet you sought peace I gave it to you this Rings of Power Season 2 Trailer is hardly a gift what have you done to me what have you done to me I am the one keeping the Storm at Bay was it um excit for the question for Morfydd Clark (Galadriel) & Sam Hazeldine (Adar) the both was it kind of exciting to explore a different genre within the same like series like there's Thriller aspects and very like psychological of this series yeah it was really fun to kind of and it makes a lot of sense you know the Dark Lord has risen and everything is different now everything is more urgent and frightening than it was thrown into chaos and I think you know gadriel has no time to kind of recover from the you know she she probably take a have a little holiday after what she's just been through but there's no time for that because uh of the urgency of sauron's return and we have to yeah get it together as quickly as possible you know Adar adar's work is kind of done at at the end of episode of the end of the first season he's created Mordor and uh has a home for the Orcs and that's kind of it until Saron comes back and then it's you know yeah we got to do something about this existential threat back it again yeah like Galadriel was deceived by saon at the end of series one how is this kind of impacting her going to series two and like what can we expect from her journey um well I think she's pretty broken um she put her trust in someone and she was completely um she was deceived um and she's lost a a sense of self through that um and so she's kind of desperate to make things right but also feeling kind of so fragile and broken and um so it was really fascinating cuz to play her because I think she started her journey in season one as someone full of certainty and full of conviction and he's taken that from her and a a question for both of you both of you characters have the same um enemy like can we expect like an alliance from the both of you um as the series progresses we're looking at the options and seeing what we can do to counteract the the threat of Sauron yeah for sure yeah but we're not we're not the best of friends no so it's a very um sort of it's a careful dance we have to do to work out if we can trust each other or not yeah sauron's identities are revealed how Charlie Vickers (Sauron) & Charles Edwards (Celebrimbor) does it is impact his journey go going forward in series 2 I think he now has to adjust and find a new way of achieving his goal and that is to go to this person he met at the end of the first season Kell bmbo and um try and get him to help him make some rings and the Rings are this manifestation of this idea that he has the P power not of the flesh but over flesh and that is to heal Middle Earth so this his Focus has turned from gadriel to Kell rimbo now yeah is it quite interesting to explore the different sides of the Rings of Po there's almost like a new genre of this movie likey olical FR especially with the scenes we've seen between the both of you yeah well it becomes torturous it becomes very intense um because these two minds that meet to create this apparently common goal one one of apparently a beneficial goal um initially at least um become very um you know they work together very intensely and they become Snappy with each other they argue and that and it gradually gets more and more more intense and um yeah fiery there's a lot of room for the relationship to kind of um breathe as the word I keep using but it has yeah it has there's a lot of ups and downs MH I such an exciting challenge as actors like they're playing the same characters well of like different versions but then just the way it develops throughout the series yeah it's incredibly it's a gift to particularly to be in a show of this scale and yet still have the the room as actors to do something that's like a kitchen sink drama you know what I mean that it's like a uh it's very it's it's a period piece but it did feel quite like naturalistic and and um dramatic in in the in the whatever one sense of the word yeah yeah did very especially for like Daniel for your character what's the future having star for the stranger now he's begun his Daniel Weyman (The Stranger) & Rory Kinnear (Tom Bombadil) journey with Nori yeah so I think um as as you'll have seen the the the season sort of picks up end of season one with quite a positive vibe they're heading off they're hoping that things are going to be plain sailing and they're going to find out the stranger's purpose and maybe Nori will find out something of her her purpose in this wider world but very quickly things start to go wrong uh whether that's the landscape working against them food and water heat or whether it's the impending darkness that is gradually closing around all of Middle Earth suddenly they get to a place where they're forced to make decisions to solve problems that I think are way out outside certainly The Strangers scope uh thankfully a character comes in in this in this in the shape of Tom Bombadil who may well be able to help but unfortunately he also is so complex and uh ahead of the stranger that far from actually making anything clearer it sort of feels like the money the waters get even muddier um so I think the stranger's job is going to be trying to navigate all these different choices that he's got and work out what it is that he inside needs to the path that he needs to follow and for Tom was such a beloved character from The Box he's never been on screen how can you appro how do you appro did you approach something like that uh well obviously it's great to have some Source material to work for with you're creating a character um quite often you're having to use your own imagination right from the from from a blank page so actually for some guidance to be given to you uh and I was tried to put as much to to one side the the idea of how beloved he was and uh how excited people might be for this first representation of him on screen and just think about try to focus on how I connected to him and what he meant to me that from the character that I could see from the books and from what JD and Patrick were were creating as well um and obviously there was a look to try and uh to achieve and people were incredibly uh precise about making sure that uh that was achieved in the in the right way um uh and but then against once you get on set and you see the the house that has been created for him uh and then you were able to start playing like you would on any set in terms of the relationships that you're building with the other actors and also so the ideas that you can have from being being on set and and wanting to bring him to life a bit Yeah you mentioned like what the character meant for you what did you hone in on specifically about Tom uh well I guess he's so I I guess the the enigmatic nature of him and how um uh he seems to be so that sense of having seen everything uh and so whilst being aware of how important this interaction with the stranger has the potential to be he is also aware that should he choose a different path than the one he believes is the right one that we will go back to the beginning and I guess that sense of uh not taking things or not being stressed by too much or not taking things too seriously um and that we all return back back to dust and sorry yeah and and I also think for for me that that it seemed like he didn't he didn't just want to make everything easy like you know the stra you everyone every every character that he comes into cont with has to find it for themselves and they they have to find that seed within them of of of the the truth of what their meaning is yeah what can we expect in terms of like big book moments and how do you decide like when to deviate Showrunners J. D. Payne & Patrick McKay from The Source material sure uh you know so season one was all about U bringing audiences back to Middle Earth in this very different era of its history uh all of these peoples all of these races all of these characters and then getting the story started uh uh um this season we're able to start with a bang um now that we sort of set the table we can play and we're leading right into one of these major uh uh pieces of of literature from the the lore which is the story of the creation of the Rings of power uh uh sauron's rise his deception of the Elven Smiths of Oran led by Kell bmore the Elven Da Vinci um that is kind of the the core of this season it is Middle Earth entering the nuclear age uh and how these new powers are going to affect everyone who carries them every uh uh uh being and uh Nation that's in control of them uh and how that's going to change the World At Large so uh uh this is a time when we're really feasting on talkling I would say and in terms of how to deviate you know it's more that we have these big events that we're we're building to um and uh you know those are sort of the you know um flag poles that are in the ground and then there's times where you say okay what is the most interesting and dramatically satisfying way to get there and sometimes there's something that you know would work in a literary form but you know if you have multiple hundreds of years passing you know it would not really work in a TV form so you say okay let's compress the timeline there and sort of like bring this thing into conversation with this thing which would be really fing in a TV show um you know so you're sort of bending the lore in order to serve uh the story in the format that you're telling in yeah I mean it's one of the big moments that might be like the siege of AR on how do you like approach that like what was your approach as directors if it is in this series of course uh well we're working with our directors which are you know Charlotte Brans from our producing director she did uh sort of a a more intimate battle episode season one episode 6 and episode 7even uh working with her cinematographer Alex dienoff and uh Vic Armstrong who is a legend in the history of British filmm and action film making in particular uh um we spent a year uh uh in pre-production designing that battle um you know there's an enormous amount of Prosthetics work it's an Army Of Orcs And the difference between an Army Of Orcs And an army of men when it comes to production is you know the world uh uh the you know in some ways you're planning a real war the logistics required um you know the the siege of Oran has not just one battle in a way but six or seven battles because it's you know a horse charge then it's hand toand fight in the mud then it's a troll fight um then it's you know hand toand fighting in street fighting almost like Stalingrad um and each of those phases requires an enormous amount of uh preparation and Logistics safety concerns um to get the most thrilling thing you possibly can on screen and it is by far the most ambitious thing we've attempted on this show um which probably puts it high in the running for most ambitious battles in TV period in terms of lore there's obviously some things in again that we have the right to some things that we don't but one of the core things that I think you know is in terms of character is that Eland is going to a battle in which he's outnumbered um and in which uh you know he might not necessarily have the resources that he needs in order to be able to uh to pull it off um so watching this character who you know we've seen be a politician uh earlier in the series and in this season um watching him level up and being Commander uh at a battle in which you know he's got to fight this massive massive force that he might not be able to to to um win against um is dramatically a really interesting place and fun place to put the character series one has s like a jaw Dro in season finale how will series two compare and how like will fans feel to at the end well I think there's a lot of um there are a lot of twists and turns in season 2 um yeah a lot happens I think the World building of season 1 which is fantastic and we have to get to know all of these characters that sort of establish uh you know reestablish the world the world of it um in the second age largely um and uh season two we're like straight into it and uh it's kind of uh like you said the sort of urgency of having to do something about the return of the dark lord just throws everything into chaos and people have to just take a hold of the reins and just go and just move immediately yeah so there's a lot happens very quickly and one thing I really I was quite interested about like as actors how is it to like immerse yourself in like a world with such like Source material and like as world as rich as like the one that can create it must be like such a joy for actors yeah it's wonderful um and just to have so much so much to listen to and read and also so much art that's been created from it as well um so much music you know you can every time you also have a thought about kind of Middle Earth you can Google it and someone will have written something incredible about that thought um so it feels wonderful to be part of something that in creates so much passion and also so much interesting conversation and yeah yeah I don't know if there's any any other fantasy thing that's kind of as rich as as token's world since he was working on it for his right up until he died you know it's incredible yeah like it doesn't really maybe like the Bible like the actual literature probably doesn't even compare apart from yeah apart from that and the language like it's I just still can't believe he created numerous languages it's just incredible and to to be able to get the chance to speak them in uh in the show is really it was one of the my favorite things especially bless you bless you thank you um speak Cinder and quenya especially black speech more difficult for yeah what's that process like to to learn the language well you know you are only learning specific um phrases and uh lines but I still remember some of them now um black speech is more difficult you remember we had that day of uh doing you had to repeat one of my lines in Black spee was quite tricky hard we have an amazing um Voice coach who speaks fluent Elvish leth mcferson um and so we're kind of very guided but it's it's really difficult because also when you speak these these characters have to be so at home in these languages yeah um and I also think you do also get to know your character more by like finding out that they have kind of access to these different ways of expressing themselves through different languages yeah yeah and Le worked on the the films as well I believe she and so she's got a through line of a long time Middle Earth yeah and if D this is probably a question You' been but asked by everyone so far but what can you say about the rumors that your character is um want gal the gray uh well I mean what I've Loved about the way that people who've watched the show and know talking um you know that that they have used things that are very dear to them to to come up with really good explanations about why the stranger might end up being this character or this character and there are quite a few there's still quite a few you out there um and I think it's it's always humbling when you hear people who hold the story that dear and have that knowledge about about it and really I'm just a custodian of a of a you know of a of a storyline through an entire story to an entire massive story um but what JD and Patrick have given me as somebody who was blank slate at the beginning and they've gradually layering up through each scene we're learning he's learning more and we learn more through that so I think the audience actually know him pretty well already um whatever his name ends up being you know I think if they had to describe him to their friends if they were going to bring him to a dinner party you know they'd have a pretty good inkling as to as to how to introduce him um and so that's where I'm sticking really in the present and I'll let let others take care of the future I mean you've mentioned how like you find there fan stories really interesting do you both get like caught up in like Reddit Loop like rabbit holes almost of the a kind of stay away from the fan theories because I'm of a certain age I have sort of missed that I haven't I'm not really massively um uh present on on those sort of forums um so I I haven't it's not it's not a massive Choice it's just that it you know my generation when we came out of University we didn't even have mobile phones it's sort of like you know I'm still sort of catching up onto all these you on Reddit I'm social media less so uh no uh I mean you're you're aware like just reading the book you can understand why he certainly this character has left such a an impression on on generations and generations of readers um so you don't need people necessarily online to tell you that you're aware cool H and you're playing a very different sour now that it's been revealed from Anita um how has this been different from playing hbr very different in the sense that I had to adjust some things I chose to adjust some things uh in terms of that aligned more with what I the vision that I think Tolen had for the anatar character he talked of him being very Regal and uh fair and it's how you interpret those words but I wanted to um portray someone that has a lot of wisdom and Str and he's the greatest of Elvin Smiths you know and someone to that can appear to him and say listen to me it would need to be someone that held a lot of uh gravitas and yeah so that was I changed the way I talked and the way I moved and I also I wanted the character have some differences from hellbrand yeah and yeah it was a very cool process to to go on and Charles like people of the um books fans of the books will know what's in store for your character but what would you say what danger is he in in this series he's in danger of allowing his pride to topple him his ambition and his vision for how he likes to see himself he is a hugely celebrated being um but um he wants more and particularly the the little devil on his shoulder is the is the Spectre of the success of his grandfather and what he achieved and he always wants to just Eclipse that and he's kind of like he's been chasing his tail with with regard to that and and nothing I don't think will ever satisfy him but that that will be that will prove his undoing and again as act as we've kind of mentioned like the rich Tolen world is it kind of what's it like as act to imerse yourself in this there's so much Source materials like how does that help you help you both incredibly helpful it is it's one of the gifts of being an actor on this show because you have such rich source material and that's one of the bits I enjoy most is sitting down and and reading or you know exploring and trying to learn as much about the world as possible um and also to be to be um characters in the cannon it gives you some really specific things to draw on and you can find inspiration constantly just gives you more and more inspiration and and this Source material has inspired so many adaptations and all of those in in um the the respective adaptations influence us whether it's cartoons or video games or movies whatever it might be yeah and the other the other great thing about it is that this is Canon this story for example however tolkin didn't fill in every every bit of the story you know there are there are gaps that he left yeah um for interpretation so um we're being very loyal to it uh but adding a adding certain flourishes here and there and in this season they're they're particularly cool flourishes some great things that go on between the two of us and one question what can you say to the rumors that the stranger is Gandalf I'm going say keep watching and find out um you know really what this season is about for this character is a journey of self-discovery um you know he's learned that he's a wizard but he doesn't really know how to control his powers yet um he doesn't know you know how he's supposed to use them or who he's supposed to fight or why he's here what his Destiny is uh so he's going to hook up with Tom bomal this season um and Tom Bombadil we figured would be an amazing guide for a character like this as he's going on the journey of self-discovery um you know so really that's you're going on the same Journey that he is as an audience member um so the who is part of of it but we that's that's not the entire Sunday that's the cherry on top but it will be entered this season and like to bring Tom bomber into uh like the rings of power what was that like so much fun uh you know Rory kanir is absolutely brilliant um you know this a character that's beloved by fans um and uh you know challenging to to bring into the story because in some ways he's sort of anti-d dramatic and in the the books uh this The Narrative kind of like grinds to a halt when you're hanging you just kind of go there to hang out and listen to him tell stories and and U but when you have a character like the stranger who is on this journey of self-discovery going to someone that is going to help you understand you know the history of of Middle Earth and understand yourself uh and your purpose you you can actually do that so the two kind of came together really nicely