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 Daniel Weyman (The Stranger), Markella Kavenagh (Nori) and Megan Richards (Poppy) about the new season, returning to Middle-earth, and the growth of their characters.
Weyman was excited to return to Middle-earth for a new season. The actor said, “I loved it. I loved meeting you two [Kavenagh and Richards] in character, in costume, getting into character again. It felt like meeting with long lost friends, because it’d been a long time since we filmed season one. So I loved it!”
There’s a standout scene in season two that features Nori, Poppy and the Stranger by a well. So, of course, I asked the trio what it was like filming that particular scene together.
Richards said, “It was hilarious. First of all, the location – we were in this sort of canyon dust bowl that was quite interesting, but, I mean, beautiful, but just really quite funny. But that scene took a week to film, plus another couple of days in studio, which was sort of when all the chaos kind of happens. So it took us a really long time to film those scenes. But what’s wonderful about that is you sort of, you feel like you really begin to really live those moments because of the amount of time that it takes. But I loved the chaos of that scene.”
One noticeable thing from the first season to the second are the journeys and growth the characters have.
When I asked the group about how they felt about their characters’ changes from the first season to now, Kavenagh said, “…In this season, she has a lot of responsibility, but it’s manifested in a completely different way. So now she’s on her own until Poppy comes to be with her and for them to be together again. And then also throughout, you see some obstacles that she has to overcome. But in saying that, her purpose, she feels, is revealed. So there’s a lot going on, but it’s a lot of fun.”
Richards followed Kavenagh’s words with, “I feel like it’s a season of growth, isn’t it? Especially for these three characters, there is just so much character development. There’s an actual journey that they all kind of go through individually, but side by side, which is quite nice.”