Summary
WithThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerseason 2 ready to return to Prime Video, co-showrunner Patrick McKay has revealed the new Middle-earth locations that will be featured in the show’s return. During season 1, McKay and his fellow showrunner, J. D. Payne, introduced several key locations from J.R.R. Tolkien’s original lore, including the island kingdom of Númenor and the Elven city of Lindon. Moreover,The Rings of Powerseason 1 finalealso showed Daniel Weyman’s Stranger heading into the uncharted, Eastern lands of Rhûn.
Speaking withScreen Rantahead ofThe Rings of Power’sseason 2 debut, McKay and executive producer Lindsey Weber, revealed where in Middle-earth the show will journey to. Admitting that due to the season’s extensive 33-week shoot, he can not remember all the original filming locations, McKay teasedthe Dark Forest in which the giant spider Shelob dwells, and the increasing evil beginning to take up residence in the lands of Mordor. He also revealed thatthe Barrow-downs and Rhûn would also feature in the new season. Check out their comments below:
Patrick McKay: Where Shelob lives, the Black Forest? [Laughs] Well, Mordor has many scary places, and especially now that the sun is gone, evil is going to just creep in. Gosh, where did we even shoot that? I can’t remember, we’ve been shooting in forests all over the UK for we shot for eight months, nine months.
Lindsey Weber: 33 weeks.
Patrick McKay: So I can’t even remember exactly where our horse rides through. [Laughs]
Lindsey Weber: But to be here with the amazing, old, ancient forests has been very inspiring. Our characters do a lot of walking around in the woods this season, at night, just as they do in the books, encountering some very scary creatures. So, we got to experience them in the woods at night with them, which was a thrill, and our actors were real troopers about it.
Patrick McKay: There’s more spots we’re going to. We go to the Barrow-downs a little later in the season. Obviously, they’re journeying in Rhûn. God, where else do we go? We find a community of stewards over in the desert that is yet to come. The map of Middle-earth is unending, and hopefully, around every corner there’s a new, strange and wonderful place.
The Rings of Power Season 2 Is Making Up For A Missing Movie Locale
The Peter Jackson Movies Glossed Over The Barrow-Downs.
Long before McKay and Payne brought the Second Age of Middle-earth to people’s screens, audiences were wowed by the expansive and intricately craftedLord of the Ringsmovie trilogy from director Peter Jackson. Succeeding in bringing Tolkien’s sweeping epic to life where many had originally thought such a feat would be impossible, Jackson’s movies would spend a great deal of time introducing audiences to several of Tolkien’s most iconic locations. However, even in the extended runtimes of those movies,it was not possible nor practical to visit every location from the original books.
An important part of the history of the Dúnedain, it was in the Barrow-downs, or Tyrn Gorthad, that the peoples of Númenor first established their colonies in Middle-earth.
One such location is the same Barrow-downs that McKay says will appear later inRings of Powerseason 2. An important part of the history of the Dúnedain, it was in the Barrow-downs, or Tyrn Gorthad, that the peoples of Númenor first established their colonies in Middle-earth. Later, however, they would come to be haunted by the Barrow-wights who had been summoned by Sauron’s loyal servant, the Witch King of Angmar. Most importantly, however, in Tolkien’s books,it was in the Barrow-downs that Frodo and his friends encountered the first real peril of their journey, until they were saved by Tom Bombadil.
WithThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerintroducingtheir own version of Tom Bombadil(played by Rory Kinnear) and the Barrow-downs, it would seem the Prime Video show is intent on making up for what Jackson’sLord of the Ringsmovies were forced to leave out. Moreover, given the vast and richly detailed nature of Tolkien’s Middle-earth, it would also seem that the Barrow-downs will not be the last location that McKay and Payne will get the chance to be the first to bring to life onscreen.
The first three episodes ofThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerseason 2 begin streaming on August 29, followed by new episodes weekly on Thursdays.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Cast
Set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power explores the forging of the iconic rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, and the epic events leading up to the stories in J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novels. The series chronicles the creation of legendary characters and the historic alliances and rivalries that shape the fate of Middle-earth.
