Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne have already begun developing Season 3 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The writers’ room has not yet been gathered, but Payne and McKay have “started to break the initial story outline” for Season 3, according to Amazon.

Based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, the Amazon Prime Video series focuses on events that take place during the Second Age of Middle-earth. Filming has wrapped on Season 2 of the show, and the release date has been confirmed as later in 2024, although an exact date has not yet been announced.

The all female slate of directors for Season 2 includes: Charlotte Brändström (4 episodes), who directed episodes 6 and 7 on Season 1 of The Rings of Power; Sanaa Hamri (2 episodes), director of Wheel of Time Season 2; and Louise Hooper (2 epsisodes), who has directed episodes of The Sandman and The Witcher.

Season 2 Directors (L to R): Charlotte Brändström, Sanaa Hamri, Louise Hooper

Season 2 is expected to feature many returning cast members from Season 1, including Morfydd Clarke as Galadriel, Robert Aramayo as Elrond, Owain Arthur as Prince Durin, Sophia Nomvete as Disa, Ismael Cruz Córdova as Arondir, and Charlie Vickers as Sauron, among others. There is an extensive list of newcomers to the show including some well-known actors such as Ciarán Hinds (Game of Thrones), Rory Kinnear (James Bond), and Tanya Moodie (Star Wars).

New Season 2 actors (L to R): Ciarán Hinds, Rory Kinnear, Tanya Moodie

Though we’ve already seen the three Elven rings forged, a likely focus of Season 2 will be the creation of the remaining twenty rings that Tolkien’s famous poem mentions, along with the subsequent war that Sauron brings to Eregion in order to reclaim them.

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

–JRR Tolkien

Personally, I’m hoping we get to see some of the early days of the Nazgûl, or in the common tongue, the Ringwraiths, in Season 2. The Men, to whom Sauron gave the Nine Rings along with promises of power and immortality, would have interesting story arcs to watch as they succumb to the power of the Rings and become wraiths.

McKay and Payne have signed a new three-year deal with Amazon MGM Studios.

If not in Season 2, perhaps we will get to see the creation of the Ringwraiths in one of the later seasons. It has been confirmed that McKay and Payne have signed a new three-year deal with Amazon MGM Studios, ostensibly to create the remainder of the five seasons of The Rings of Power that Amazon initially announced. The new deal has the two showrunners developing projects at Amazon MGM through 10:40 PM Productions, McKay and Payne’s own production company.

Production on future seasons of the“The Rings of Power” will take place at a new purpose-built facility on the outskirts of London. Amazon inked a multi-million-dollar long-term contract with Shepperton Studios to create the new space destined for “original TV series and movie productions”, the studios’ owner Pinewood Group said in a statement. The new facility will include nine sound stages, workshop and office spaces, comprising about 450-thousand square feet. Shepperton will be the second largest studios in the world with the new addition.

Recent SPY REPORTS for Season 2 of Prime Video’s The Rings of Power series sourced from anonymous but now-deleted posts on internet messageboard 4Chan are currently prompting a wave of discussion about their veracity and implications across Discord and Reddit .

WARNING: potential SPOILERS for Season 2 abound below.

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Last chance to not be spoiled by significant story leaks for The Rings of Power.

Without further ado, here’s the potentially explosive leak about the story direction for Season 2 of The Rings of Power. While TheOneRing.net has no way of confirming this, the sources are allegedly people close to the series Producers.

Continue reading “SPY REPORT: The Rings of Power Season 2 to expand on Sauron in huge new ways”

The Hollywood Reporter in conjunction with Prime Video recently posted a series of behind-the-scenes videos focusing on the set design in the Prime Video series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”.

The “Building Middle-earth” series of videos show details that can be missed while watching the series at home. The commentary by set designers, actors, and craftspeople reveals insights and secrets about the decisions that went into the direction the series took and how it was made. The craft and care that went into the sets is truly amazing! It’s the type of stuff Ringers everywhere are trying to spy out about the Season 2 of the show.

You can watch the series here:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/building-middle-earth/

We hope you enjoyed this April Fools’ Day joke for 2023!

Just when we thought casting had been finalized for season two of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Amazon insiders have revealed an unexpected surprise.

Los Angeles, CA – Amazon Studios has announced that Orlando Bloom, break-out star of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, will appear in the next season of the The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

Credit: Samir Hussein, Wireimage

Developers J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay confirmed that Bloom will appear in the second half of the season as Oropher – the grandfather of Legolas.

“J. D. was chatting with Orlando at an industry event and Orlando said that he wished he could step back into Middle-earth because he’d had so much fun the first time around,” said Patrick. “We put our heads together and came up with a way to have him play his own grandfather. This actually works well as Orlando is 25 years older than he was when the Fellowship of the Ring was filmed. Therefore, he’ll bring more depth and gravity to Oropher.”

Oropher was a Sindarin elf who led his people north to lands around the Mountains of Mirkwood. His motive was to move out of range of the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm and avoid the threat of Mordor. If the series continues through to the Battle of Dagorlad, we’ll get to see Oropher’s final battle and death.

Patrick wouldn’t give details of Oropher’s story arc but a source told TheOneRing.net that the character will be involved in the Silmaril storyline.

A separate source claims that Elijah Wood has also been approached for a cameo. However, John Rhys-Davies has flat-out refused to be involved in The Rings of Power because he “wouldn’t wear those bloody prosthetics again for all the jewels in Moria. Ishkhaqwi ai durugnul!”.

On April 1, 2023, Twitter is sunsetting Verified blue checkmarks from the previous 15 years. Many actors, writers and production people were verified to prevent spoofing and shenanigans, so fans could be safe and secure knowing they are following the real person and not a fake or bot. Since most are expected not to pay for a bluecheck going forward, here’s a handy list of all (we believe!) the official Twitter accounts of people involved with The Lord of the Rings:

Twitter LOTR verified

LOTR fans started to embrace twitter as a community platform during The Hobbit years, ultimately helping #VoteBilbo win an MTV Movie Award. Twitter became the default social network for many fans over the years, including the most recent focus on (and disagreements over) The Rings of Power. Billionaire Elon Musk bought the website in 2022 and spent the first 6 months downsizing the company and free features, making blue-check verification pay-to-play instead of on merit. Many celebrities deal with imposters on social media, tricking fans into giving money to fake accounts. It is generally expected that with the removal of “fame” verification, there will be more copycat accounts showing up. As Gandalf would tell us, ‘Be on your guard!’

If we missed anyone, let us know in Discord and this post will be updated with the official accounts of our favorite LOTR people.

Update 21/04/2023: It appears that Nazanin Boniadi no longer has a presence on twitter. The best way to find Boniadi’s official online presence is probably via https://nazaninboniadi.com/. Thanks to Mirthfather on our Discord for the heads-up.

Prime Video have announced the final new cast members who will play recurring roles in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season Two.

The three actors are, as with previously announced new cast, acclaimed stalwarts of British television and theatre, with impressive credentials and long pedigrees of excellent work. It is exciting to see Rings of Power welcoming such talent to the fold, and bodes well for the quality of the show to come. (You can read about the rest of the new cast members announced for Season Two here and here.)

Here’s the official press release:

The One Ring

Ciarán Hinds, Rory Kinnear, and Tanya Moodie Join Cast of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for Season Two

Mar 20, 2023

All three acclaimed actors join the existing cast of the global hit series in recurring roles for the forthcoming second season, currently in production in the UK

CULVER CITY, California—March 20, 2023—The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which has been 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, has 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.

Ciarán Hinds
CIARÁN HINDS

CIARÁN HINDS

Nominated for both an Oscar and a BAFTA Award as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as “Pop” in Kenneth Branagh’s film Belfast, acclaimed actor Ciarán Hinds has had an illustrious career on both stage and screen. He has starred in such films as Steven Spielberg’s Munich, Martin Scorsese’s Silence, There Will be Blood, Road to Perdition, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, In Bruges, The Phantom of the OperaThe CookThe Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Persuasion, First Man, Amazing GraceZack Snyder’s Justice League, and The Eclipse, a role for which he was awarded Best Actor at the Tribeca Film Festival. He is also known for his voice role as “Grand Pabbie” the Troll King in the animated films Frozen and Frozen II.

Television audiences know Hinds from his roles as “Mance Rayder” in Game of Thrones (HBO) and “Julius Caesar” in Rome (HBO) as well as starring roles in The English (BBC/Prime Video), Ivanhoe (A&E), Above Suspicion (ITV), Political Animals (USA)and Prime Suspect 3 (ITV). He most recently appeared in the comedy-drama series The Dry (BritBox).

Hinds’ wide-ranging theatre credits include Uncle Vanya, Translations, The Girl from the North Country, Hamlet, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Burnt by the Sun, Closer, The Seafarer, and many others. He toured internationally in Peter Brook’s company in The Mahabharata and has played leading roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court, the Donmar Warehouse, and the National Theatre.

RORY KINNEAR

RORY KINNEAR

Rory Kinnear is an award-winning British actor, perhaps best known for his role as “Bill Tanner” in the James Bond films Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre. Kinnear recently starred in Alex Garland’s Men, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and saw him nominated for a BIFA award. Other recent film credits include Bank of Dave, Mike Leigh’s Peterloo, Broken (for which he won Best Supporting Actor at the BIFAs), and the Academy Award- and BAFTA Award-nominated The Imitation Game. Kinnear’s TV credits include Inside No. 9 (BBC), Penny Dreadful (Sky Atlantic), Southcliffe (Channel 4, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor), Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror (Channel 4), and the dramaLucan (ITV) in which he starred in the title role. He can currently be seen in Taika Waititi’s series Our Flag Means Death (HBO Max).

Kinnear is hugely respected for his theatre work, winning Best Actor at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2010 for his performances in Measure for Measure (Almeida Theatre) and Hamlet (National Theatre), and again in 2013 for his performance as “Iago” in Othello (National Theatre), for which he also received an Olivier Award for Best Actor. He previously won an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as “Sir Fopling Flutter” in The Man of Mode in 2008, and was nominated twice before for his performances in Hamlet and Burnt by the Sun. Most recently, Kinnear starred in Force Majeure at the Donmar Warehouse. Kinnear is also an award-winning playwright, penning his debut play The Herd in 2013.  He made his directorial debut with the English National Opera’s production of The Winter’s Tale in 2017.

TANYA MOODIE

TANYA MOODIE

Tanya Moodie is an acclaimed British actress who won the Royal Television Society’s Breakthrough Award for the role of “Meg” in the BAFTA Award-winning comedy Motherland (BBC). Her numerous television roles include starring as “Hunter” in the miniseries adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere (BBC), as well as roles in Tin Star (Sky Atlantic), A Discovery of Witches (Sky One), The Man Who Fell to Earth (Showtime), and Sherlock (BBC).

Some of Moodie’s recent film roles include J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker as “General Parnadee” and Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light as “Delia.”

In the theatre, Moodie is a two-time Olivier Award nominee for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for her roles in Intimate Apparel and The House That Will Not Stand. She played “Gertrude” in Simon Godwin’s production of Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her performance as “Rose” opposite Lenny Henry in August Wilson’s Fences in the West End earned her a WhatsOnStage Awards nomination for Best Actress. She was nominated for a UK Theatre Award for Best Performance for her role in Trouble in Mind, and she has received additional Best Actress nominations from the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards and the UK Theatre Awards. Moodie studied at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she was later employed as an associate teacher and council member.

The One Ring

All eight first season episodes are now available to stream exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories in multiple languages. 

The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared reemergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the farthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.  

The first season of The Rings of Power has been an unprecedented success, viewed by more than 100 million people worldwide, with more than 24 billion minutes streamed. The highly anticipated series attracted more than 25 million global viewers on its first day, marking the biggest premiere in the history of Prime Video, and also debuted as the No. 1 show on Nielsen’s overall streaming chart in its opening weekend. The show has also broken all previous Prime Video records for the most viewers, and has driven more Prime sign-ups worldwide during its launch window than any other previous content. Additionally, The Rings of Power is the top Original series in every region—North America, Europe, APAC, LATAM, and the rest of the world. The season finale also created a global cultural moment, with multiple series-themed hashtags, including #TheRingsofPower and others, trending in 27 countries across Twitter for over 426 cumulative hours throughout the weekend.

Season Two of the series is produced by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay. They are joined by executive producers Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, and Gennifer Hutchison, along with co-executive producer Charlotte Brandstrom, producers Kate Hazell and Helen Shang, and co-producers Andrew Lee, Matthew Penry-Davey, and Clare Buxton.