Two years ago The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power The showrunners made a bold claim.
Patrick McKay and JD Payne spoke with The Hollywood Reporter on the set of season two and responded to some of the criticisms fans had about the first season of her Prime Video show. McKay promised that her second go-round of JRR Tolkien’s popular fantasy world would be “an order of magnitude bigger and better on every level…”.
On Thursday, fans will find out if they succeeded when Prime Video unveils the first three episodes of the show’s new eight-episode season, which follows the dark lord Sauron (Charlie Vickers) as he pursues his plans to consolidate his power against Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), Elrond (Robert Aramayo) and other rulers in Middle Earth. Ahead of the premiere, I spoke with McKay and Payne about how they took Season 2 to new heights (judging by the episodes I’ve seen, the duo have certainly taken the series to new heights).
“When you do something for the second time, you benefit from everything you’ve learned,” said Payne. “Having done it the first time is a huge help, honestly. In the second season, we know our actors a lot better. We know their voices. We know how they live in these characters. So I think we knew where the sticking point was in terms of how we could play to their strengths. Another thing is that in season 1, you had to build a whole world. You had to introduce the audience to the Second Age. You had to meet all these different characters in half a dozen worlds. It’s a much to get on board. Now we can really get going because this is the next chapter, the board is set and the pieces are moving. We can start with a bang. Sauron is on the move and he never slows down – and neither does the show.”
But that doesn’t mean that there are no quiet moments in the second season. The showrunners emphasize that they were simply able to add more tension to the new episodes.
McKay added: “As a viewer, I love a lot of shows where the tone and rhythm, the characters and their voices were refined in the first season – even in The Sopranosprobably the best television drama of the last 25 years. That’s part of starting a big, ambitious show. Part of the first season is finding your way. And I think by season 2, as JD said, we really know where this show is going. And I think we made that claim to you (two years ago) not to boast, but to say, “That’s the bar.” There it is Needs We’re enormously proud of Season 1 and the success and the huge audience and all those things, but if we don’t reach a higher level every time, we’re not exceeding our own expectations.”
The showrunners also noted that the show benefited from having Charlotte Brändström appointed as production manager for the new season. The Swedish-French director directed two episodes in the show’s first season, including episode 6, which many considered the best moment of the first season. This time, Brändström directed half of the season, including the premiere and finale, and also influenced the remaining episodes.
“We’ve already worked with Charlotte Brändström and her cinematographer Alex Disenhof on episodes 6 and 7 — those are our favorite episodes from season 1,” McKay said. “In those episodes, we really found the tone of the show — they’re more grounded, they’re darker, they’re more dramatic, they’re very emotional. I think they helped us cinematically, but also in terms of performance and tone. I think part of the upswing that we think the show has achieved is in large part due to their influence. They’re some of our closest collaborators, and I really felt like they helped us improve, and I wanted to make sure we gave them the credit for that.”
The Rings of Power returns to Amazon Prime Video on August 29th.
