Benjamin Walker is a self-proclaimed Tolkien nerd. "One of the joys of this job is they pay us to read Tolkien," the actor, who plays Elf king Gil-Galad in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, jokes as he sits down for our round table chat at New York City Comic-Con. His love of the books isn't unique amongst the cast – during our discussions, nearly every one of the actors in attendance admits to a certain level of Tolkien fandom. That love for the source material was something they had to reckon with: do you bring established lore to your characterization of these storied beings, or go in blind in an attempt to imbue a character with more depth?
It's a question that adds even more weight and importance to each of their roles. And though Walker and his co-stars are tight-lipped about the future of the series, chatting with them offers a fantastic peek into how they are handling such a daunting literary legacy.
Tolkien inspiration
The Rings of Power occupies a unique space. It's not a one-to-one adaptation of an existing piece of literature, nor is it entirely going off on its own creative tangents. The series is adapted from the appendices to the Lord of the Rings, rather than a remake of the main trilogy or The Hobbit or The Silmarillion (which Amazon does not own the rights to). As a result, showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay have large amounts of creative freedom, but also have an important legacy (and dedicated fan base) to reckon with.
And with so much of the series shrouded in mystery (no one on the cast knows who the hell Sauron is, either), there's an endless feed of theories and questions after every new episode. "I love how many people have got really firm ideas from Tolkien, they've gone back to Tolkien, they've looked at clues that have been given by the showrunners, or references," Daniel Weyman, who plays the mysterious meteor man known as The Stranger, gushes. "There are great holes in what Tolkien wrote, which our showrunners are rather brilliantly going into and shining spotlights into areas that haven't been looked at before. And so all the theories are really welcome."
You want them to have a discussion about it, you want it to stay with them the way that Tolkien stays with us.
Benjamin Walker, Gil-galad
"I love that people try to tease out things – that's also helpful for us. It's fun watching it going 'Was I right, was I not right?' We've got our own theories," Sara Zwangobani, who portrays Nori’s mother Marigold Brandyfoot, says. The cast, she adds, often receives redacted versions of scripts to avoid spoilers.
When I ask about making a show for such a passionate fanbase – one that’s unafraid to loudly share its opinions – Walker is quick to joke that he "grew up in a loud family" before getting serious for a moment. "Behind the debate is an affection for something that we also love and respect,” he says. “So get out there, fight it out, let's talk about it, let's be part of the conversation. The last thing you want is when someone sees your work they go, 'Alright let's go get a pizza.' You want them to have a discussion about it, you want it to stay with them the way that Tolkien stays with us."
Shades of grey
The Rings of Power cast loves how the series is playing with moral grey areas and refusing to establish one group as pure evil and another as patently good. For them, these grey areas are how the series honors Tolkien's work, and there's no better example of moral ambiguities than the storyline centering on the orcs and Galadriel.
"There's a quote, and I don't want to misquote it, but it's, ‘One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter'," Nazanin Boniadi, who plays Bronwyn, says about Galadriel's intense, hateful monologue to Adar, the so-called “father” of the orcs. "That scene encapsulates that because every character on the show has shades of grey, it's not one-dimensional. Everyone's a little bit good with a bit bad. Well, there's some people that are very evil, but even Adar has his reasons for being the way he is. And then in that scene, you find Galadriel also seeking vengeance you start to empathize with Adar and you start to see her as the villain. And that's where that juxtaposition comes in. Wo's to say what good and bad is?"
Tolkien often paired duos from wildly different backgrounds as a means of exposing either side's ignorance and forging bonds between unlikely characters, and the series does that as well. "That's what I love about it,” Charles Edwards, who plays the Elven smith Celebrimbor, says. “Those scenes where it's perhaps quite a lengthy, of just two people together, it's great." Tolkien wrote his story following his service in World War One, yet the grey areas baked into the author’s work remain poignant in today's modern sociopolitical climate. "The world, sadly, doesn't change," Edwards adds.
Character studies
While some of the actors are playing characters known and even previously seen in the Lord of the Rings universe, many approached their characters with purposeful naivete, something that helped ensure that they could tell their stories without relying on preconceived notions, fan theories, original texts, or the films that came before. Instead, they could focus on their work.
Cynthia Addai-Robison, whose character Miriel is only briefly mentioned in passing through Tolkien’s work, chose not to focus on the legacy until after The Rings of Power started airing. "When I first started this, I was really just thinking about the stories themselves and the characters and preparing for my own character,” she says. “I just wanted to honor the material, and maintain the integrity of my character. And I feel very protective now over this because I see the meaning it holds for a lot of people. And now it holds deep meaning for me, as well. At the beginning, I knew there was a fan base out there, but I didn't want that to be some barrier to delving into this world and material."
For Zwangobani, The Lord of the Rings is the basis for much of her adult life and her career – but not her character. "I've been a massive Lord of the Rings fan since I was a kid. So the book was the basis for everything: my love of fantasy, my love of Shakespeare – that was already living and breathing in me," she says. "And the Lord of the Rings films – I used to have like a lot of binge marathons when I was feeling down, bedroom door closed, bottles of wine, nine hours later. But in terms of this job, I didn't revisit all of that, they live in me so much, they're already there. But it came back to Tolkien, and all the people we worked with who knew so much about the lore."
I knew there was a fan base out there, but I didn't want that to be some barrier to delving into this world and material.
Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Miriel
This desire to bring a fresh approach to such a beloved world extends to the cast's dogged refusal to offer hints of future plotlines or character development ("I cannot tell you a single thing," laughs Zwangobani), even if the fate of their characters is spelled out in established lore. During our chats, Edwards briefly touches on Celebrimbor's future, before pointing out that "there are a lot of people who don't know who Celebrimbor is, so I'm loathe to speak too much on that."
While some of us may know Celebrimbor's fate, none of us are certain what will happen next to the majority of the cast – and neither are the actors themselves. "We're in the dark as much as you are," Leon Wadham (who plays Numenorian Kemen) says. But isn't it fun to navigate that darkness together?
The last episode of The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power airs on October 14 on Amazon Prime. Check out The Rings of Power release schedule for more details.
