The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (or LOTR: TROP for short) is only a month away from premiering on Prime Video, and we’re finally (sort of) getting more details on the show’s many characters.
Entertainment Weekly released a primer of sorts on 13 of the show’s 22 series regulars. It gives a very brief and unsurprisingly vague overview of the characters, but it also includes some fun quotes from the actors about how they approached their roles.
If the latest trailer is any indication, it looks like Galadriel — played in TROP by Morfydd Clark — may be the closest the series has to a main protagonist. Clark is taking on the Elven role played by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, which is something she didn’t expect prior to TROP’s audition process.
“I always saw myself as more of a Hobbit,” she jokingly told Entertainment Weekly. Elvish, however, came naturally to her because of her fluency in Welsh. And then there was her character’s armor.
“Rehearsing in my joggers in an office as Galadriel, that was probably the least fun,” she said. “How can you pretend to be an immortal, thousand-year-old magical being in that? Then you get in the ears and the costume, and you’re like, ‘Thank God. Now it makes sense.’”
One of Clark’s co-stars, however, has been ready to play an Elf since he was a child. When he was young, Ismael Cruz Córdova would pretend he was Elven and carry an imaginary bow. Córdova’s character, a Silvan Elf soldier named Arondir, is a non-canon character, which gave the actor freedom he appreciated.
“There’s so many qualities to the role, but being a non-canon character, there’s also a boundless possibility,” he said. “It just felt like a fertile landscape to create.”
We can see Galadriel, Arondir, and the 20 other recurring cast members in action when The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Prime Video on September 2, 2022.
