Critical popcorn

I enjoyed The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power a lot more than I expected to, not because I don’t love a bit of LOTR but because I entered lightly with fuzzy feet, all cautious and unsure of the ground beneath them but, thankfully, it did produce an interesting and quite vast fresh creation of some of the ever-reaching roots of Tolkien’s immense creation, and it was worth adventuring towards.

Despite a very small pool of lifeless pond-dwelling anti-everything’s, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was actually viewed by more than 100 million people worldwide and has been an unprecedented global success as the top Original series for Prime Video in every region in its first season. Which goes to show, there’s definitely a lot more of us, than there is of ‘them’.

With Season Two ahead in the misty distance, it’s been announced that acclaimed actors, Ciarán Hinds Rory Kinnear, and Tanya Moodie, have joined the series’ cast in recurring roles for the forthcoming second season, currently in production in the UK!

We’d expect Morfydd Clark’s truly excellent Galadriel to return, plus Charlie Vickers is back as Sauron, with Markella Kavenagh‘s Nori and Daniel Weyman‘s The Stranger/probably Gandalf going out on their own adventures. As well as those four, we’ve got Elrond (Robert Aramayo), Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker), Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), and Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova) as well as quite a few others continuing their own lives through the huge world ahead.

Whilst there’s no more in-depth narrative to share at the moment, we figured it was good to get the early news out there, and it’s a timely reminder that Season Two of the series is produced by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. And, with production in mind, they’re joined by executive producers Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, and Gennifer Hutchinson, along with co-executive producer Charlotte Brandström, producers Kate Hazell and Helen Shang, and co-producers Andrew Lee, Matthew Penry-Davey, and Clare Buxton.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season Two is currently expected on Prime Video in 2024