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Numenorean graffiti? Hand-painted leaves? 'The Rings of Power' cast on the deepest set details they found
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Prime Video on Friday, Sept. 2.
We’re getting more and more glimpses of the upcoming Lord of the Rings series, The Rings of Power, and as the latest trailer makes clear, Prime Video spared no expense to make Middle-earth look as vibrant and expansive as it has existed in many a fan’s imagination.
Like, we're talking possibly as good (or better?) than even the Peter Jackson trilogies.
During San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend, SYFY WIRE had the chance to talk with several The Rings of Power cast members about those amazing sets as well as the costumes they got to wear. Read on to find out little details from the forests of Lothlórien to the alleyways of Númenor, as well as what it’s like to wear those Harfoot feet.
We’ve already seen images of Lothlórien that truly reflect the beauty of the Elven realm. Benjamin Walker, who plays High King Gil-galad, shared that every aspect of the forest was created with an eye to meticulous detail.
“There were hundreds of thousands of hand-cut, hand-painted silk leaves,” Walker told SYFY WIRE about his first day on the Lothlórien set. “And I knew there had been meetings where they had different shapes and colors and sizes. The amount of work that went into that small detail made me feel supported and humbled at the same time. These are the best craftspeople on the planet.”
The Harfoots are a wandering folk, and while they didn’t get a permanent set, the Harfoot cast did have memorable outfits and, of course, notable prosthetics. “I found out I got a job on one of the biggest shows on the planet, and I go to costuming and I was like, ‘What am I going to be wearing? It’s going to be amazing!’ And they put me in this big skirt and feet, and I was covered in mud the whole time, so that was a bit of a comedown,” joked Sara Zwangobani, who plays the matronly Harfoot, Marigold Brandyfoot.
Zwangobani and her fellow Harfoot cast members, however, grew to love their look. “The prosthetic feet were a bit challenging at first,” Zwangobani admitted, “but we had this incredible team of people who kept refining them, and by the end, they became part of us and we didn’t want to take them off.”
The one set that apparently stands above the rest was the island city of Númenor, which felt like a real, lived-in place with a long history. “What you have in the city is history upon history,” explained Lloyd Owen, who plays the Númerean (and Aragon’s 38th great-grandfather), Elendil. “You could see how the residents had previously done something, and something was built over that, even in these little areas that might not even be shot. And indeed, Ema Horvath, who plays my daughter, was learning how to write Numenorean (aka Adûnaic) and she noticed on the set where there had been Elvish written and it had been graffitied over in Numenorean.”
Owen was also greatly impressed with the show’s props and costuming, particularly Elendil’s weaponry. “I can’t leave you without telling you about the armorer, who when he presented me with my sword, said to me with great reverence, ‘I just need to let you know that yours is the biggest sword we made,'" he said.
You can check out the amazing sets, costumes and swords when the multi-season series launches on Prime Video on Friday, Sept. 2, with new episodes available weekly.
Click here for SYFY WIRE’s full coverage of San Diego Comic-Con 2022.
Looking for more fantasy adventures in the meantime? Check out the Harry Potter film series streaming now on Peacock.
