The second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is now streaming on Prime Video.
Ahead of the show’s season two debut, I had the chance to chat with Ismael Cruz Cordova (Arondir) and Benjamin Walker (Gil-galad) about the new season, returning to Middle-earth, the grief their characters experience, and what they love most about each other’s characters.
In regard to return to the set for a new season, Cordova shared, “I mean, for me, I haven’t done a second season of anything. I usually do, like movies or mini-series or things of that kind of length. So coming back, having the opportunity to re-enter a story and go back into the depth of it, was very special.”
Echoing Cordova’s happiness at returning to a series for a second season, Walker said, “Yeah, I mean, it’s great to return to Middle-earth. It’s a privilege do it once, and the fact that they’re having us back, it’s great.”
Both Gil-galad and Arondir experience grief at the beginning of this season and the duo spoke about the different ways their characters deal with and move through said grief, and what how it dictates the choices of their characters moving forward.
Walker said, “I mean, for the king, specifically, we find him abandoning his life’s work basically, you know? They’ve sacrificed so much to stay and protect Middle-earth, and in spite of that, in spite of their efforts, they’re going to have to save what’s left of them. So that’s why the rings are so vital.”
Cruz Cordova followed Walker’s words with, “And for me, I think you know, it’s evident, the grief that he’s experiencing. It just deepens these questions that he has. It’s just has so many questions about who is he? What is he? What is his purpose, even within his own elvenness. Because that’s what I think is brilliant about this show, is that we see the hierarchy of the Elves. We see the elves are fallible, and they also uphold a lot of things that contradict their own values, like the kind of hierarchy that they have.”