- I am privileged to be joined by the amazing -
A portion of the amazing cast, we should say,
it's a cast of thousands, an amazing ensemble,
'Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power.'
Congratulations on an auspicious Comic-Con debut, guys.
How you feeling?
- Can I just say, as well, I'm just on a couch here,
surrounded by flowers and pink and blue balloons,
with you going, "You're in 'Lord Of The Rings,'
"how do you feel about that?"
It's very surreal.
[Laughs]
This is happening, right?
- We put something in your drink, actually.
This is -
- Yeah, clearly.
[Laughs]
- You're in bed at home.
I'm not real.
First, give me the idiots guide.
What do we, what do I need to know?
Because this is, obviously, we're used to
'Lord of the Rings,' the films, we know the books.
This is not that exactly.
It is connected, of course, but when, where
how, how does this connect? Just
give me the idiots guide to 'The Rings of Power.'
- Point 1 is that it is the Second Age,
it has nothing to do with the Third Age.
Obviously, it leads into the Third Age,
but we are thousands of years previous
to any other screen adaptation that we've had.
- There's no Gollum, there's no Frodo,
and there's no rings yet.
So, yeah.
- Yet being the important.
- Yes.
- State of it.
- We've got time for that.
We're gonna get there.
- So that's, that's the point 1.
- OK.
- Point 2.
[Laughs]
There are new characters in the world that we are creating.
So, we've got like a skeletal structure
that Tolkien has, kind of, laid out for us,
but we're allowed to flesh out that world
with new characters, which is so exciting.
- One of the, I think, the beauties right now is I know,
we all know, very little about, like, who you all are playing
and how you relate to each other.
Can you shed a little bit of light?
Like, who here on this couch is trying to kill each other?
Who loves each other?
Who's on the same side?
Who am I gonna recognize?
- Do you mean as characters or as?
[Laughs]
- I mean, the more interesting one is actors.
No, as characters.
- I don't - My character doesn't love anybody here.
[Laughs]
- Not many of us share the same sort of realm, do we? - Storyline.
- No, not in this version.
- It's just you two. - It's just you two.
- But we do joke, we do joke about,
about if we ever were to reunite or to unite,
what that would look like, don't we?
- And I've kind of worked on the premise
that eventually I'm gonna meet Disa.
[Laughs]
- Right there, right there, there's your story.
- That's what I'm working towards,
I don't know about the writers.
- I think this is a real introduction into the world
and seeing how they function, kind of,
within their kingdoms, within their races.
We kind of get to feel each section, each peoples,
creatures, et cetera, within their worlds.
And I think we get to flood of light in great detail
for all of them, which is really, really lovely
because then when, and if, things do kind of collide
and crosspollinate, et cetera,
we'll really get to feel what all of that means.
But this is about setting up, planting seeds,
getting to know, introductions, what the stakes are,
what the potential secrets are,
who is trying to come through to, maybe,
break all of those chains and throw things up in the air.
So, this is the beginning of
'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.'
- This is our hype woman, right here.
- Here we go.
- Mic drop, Sophia.
- The names in this are fantastic.
Who's got the best character name?
- I like saying Galadriel and Celebrimbor.
- High King Gil-galad.
- He wins.
- I like saying Arondir.
- Yeah, I think that's great.
- I do too, that one's really fun.
- I like, you know that kind of Elven word,
the Elven names, you know, Arondir, Galadriel, Elrond,
you know, all of those, just so - They've got that musicality,
that poetic, regal kind of air that's so fun to say.
- I like Bronwyn. - So, they're kind of cool,
and then you've kind of got the strength of,
I don't know, the Dwarven Disa, Durin, that hard weight.
You know, there's gravitas and meaning towards everything.
- I think I have the most beautiful name in the show.
- Oh.
I would agree, actually.
- Yeah.
- What is it? - But you have to say it.
- Earian. - Earian.
- Earian.
- Can you say it?
- Earian.
- Aw, beautiful.
- This is obviously a very ambitious undertaking
and it has to be, you can't justm like, you know,
swing for the fences when you're
doing 'Lord of the Rings,' right?
So, when you're on set in this,
shot in New Zealand, I believe, all on location.
What's the moment you're on set,
you're like, "Oh yeah, I'm in a massive undertaking.
"I'm in 'Lord of the Rings.'"
- For me, it was the Kingdom of Numenor
and we waited about three months for it
to be built on the back lot.
And just walking onto that particular set was
absolutely phenomenal experience in terms of
the size of it, the scale, the roads they built.
They even built canals with
boats going down it, like Venice.
- We got a boat in the set and docked it
in a harbor that they had built for the show,
and then got out of the boat and walked
through a city that they had built for us, all in one take.
- Numenor itself is just this living organism.
- Right.
- You know, of all these people just coming together
and in unison, just giving it it's voice, if you like.
So, that was something special for me.
- I keep hearing about Numenor.
I need to visit sometime, it sounds amazing.
- Go, it's lovely.
- Absolutely, you should.
- I'd love to live there.
- It's expensive.
- Right, OK, I'll save up.
- Compared to our mud and huts and dirt, yeah.
I mean, they rule.
The rest of us got tours.
Like, the producers were like, "Would you like
"a tour of Numenor?"
- Aw. - Look what they get.
- Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, lucky you guys, lucky you.
But, I quite like my little cottage.
- I think for me, seeing all the Orcs, they are crazy.
They look so cool, like, and so scary, as well.
Like, they were in prosthetics for apparently
like, eight hours or something insane.
Like, they were committed and I heard, like,
it's not an easy job being an Orc.
Like, you're stuck in a suit for hours,
but they were always so great
and seeing them, as well, they were scary as hell.
Oh, also, they put contact lenses in
and some of them had, like, white eyes and things like that.
Nope, nope, I'm out, no.
- Haunted forever.
You're scarred for life now.
Do you guys welcome the comparisons?
Like, obviously there are gonna be comparisons to the films.
There's also comparisons to contemporary shows
like 'Game of Thrones,' it just goes with the territory.
Does it feel like that's apt or are you
running away from that kind of stuff?
Like, is that flattering?
Just give me a sense when people bring up other franchises.
- I think it's inevitable to have the comparisons,
just period. You have to welcome them,
you have to celebrate them, I think.
You know, there's nothing new under the sun
in terms of making art in that way.
You can, like, go about that.
But I think, we can very confidently say
that we made something very unique,
if not by virtue of how they made the story
in the production, but also by virtue of the
22 people that are representing these characters.
I think we really brought our soul to that
and that math itself is gonna put forward
something extremely original.
- One other thing I, that I think is really exciting
and refreshing and long overdue, is that this is
a show that seemingly reflects much more
of our world today, right,
and has some modern sensibilities to it.
Talk to me about like, why that's necessary, obviously,
and important, obviously, but like it's not something
that has traditionally been the case in fantasy,
in genre stuff.
Is that something that you think that sets
this show apart, refreshingly so?
- Yeah, I think it is time.
I think with a franchise of this scale,
it is so important that we make it as accessible
as we possibly can for every single generation
and every single voice and child, person around the world.
Suddenly, we get to embrace the fans that we already have,
but we also get to open the door and
flood a new fanbase in.
There are so many diverse people out there
who will have really enjoyed all of the works
that we've seen before, but now they get to
see themselves staring back at them.
Like, that's incredibly important.
- As a big fan of Tolkien's work
from a very, very young age, I just think of my young self.
- Yeah.
- And how she would feel to see me on-screen.
And I have a young daughter
and how she will feel to see me on-screen.
So, I think that that is it's incredibly important
in more ways than one.
- This to me just feels like something that
has just the furthest possible reach
and, you know, we're choosing to tell it in these times,
so we should represent it for these times.
- The generation that comes after us now,
this will be their memory of Tolkien.
This will be their memory of 'The Lord of the Rings:
'Rings of Power.'
And so, we get to move that through and just be the beginning
of this revolutionary moment for television,
of course the Tolkien franchise and works.
- Very well said.
Despite your massive cast, you're still part of
relatively a small group of folks that have
been able to inhabit this universe.
If you had the opportunity, would you want to -
Now having gone through this first season,
which we hope is gonna be potentially five, I believe -
Like, from the original cast of the movies,
would you want to like, compare notes?
Like, what would you want to ask any of those guys
or talk to about, given your own experience?
- I'd love to talk to Viggo Mortensen
'cause he is my 38th great, great, great,
great, great, great grandson.
So, what it might be like to be,
to feel that bit of Elvish connection between him and I.
That would be a joy if I could get to do that.
- I think because I'm playing Harfoot,
I would've loved to have talked to Ian Holm.
- Yeah.
- Just 'cause I think he touched on a heart
of that.
We're working even harder to, kind of, preserve that heart,
but he had, he just had something that
I'd love to know what his musings on that were.
- Amazing, amazing.
- I grew up in Wellington and
I was at drama school when they were
making the second trilogy,
so I've had run-ins with some of the cast members
across the years anyway.
I vividly remember Martin Freeman coming
to a party at my flat and going -
And then he was gone.
- So, you scared him off.
- Perfect experience right there.
That's all you need.
- That was enough for me.
- We all did that when we came to your flat.
- That's true.
- It's funny 'cause I've worked with
Martin Freeman and Billy Boyd,
but I haven't seen them since I've been to New Zealand.
So, I'm looking forward for that conversation.
- Yeah.
The knowing look, like, "Oh yeah, I know."
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I might have a look at their -
They've got tattoos as well, haven't they?
- Right.
I might have a look and just see what they've got.
I'd maybe put two or something.
[Laughs]