The Rings of Power “scan[s] your eyeballs” just to get on set

We have one more episode to go before the end of the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The show has introduced us to several key players who will likely be around for a long time, if Amazon gets its wish to stretch this series out over five seasons. That includes Halbrand, the mysterious would-be king of the Southlands…although probably not anymore, since the Southlands have been wiped out of existence by a volcanic eruption. Folks call it Mordor now.

Halbrand is played by Australian actor Charlie Vickers, who got the break of a lifetime with this gig. He never read The Lord of the Rings books as a kid, but he did play a lot of The Two Towers hack and slash video game for the PlayStation 2, according to an interview in The Guardian. “It was so good!” he remembered. “I would spend hours playing it. I didn’t even own it – my brother and I would go to Blockbuster and rent it every week. By the end, we definitely could have just bought it.”

Since then, Vickers has made up for lost time. “I read The Silmarillion a few times, Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth series and then you have The Hobbit and the trilogy, of course,” he said. “What I found really useful were Tolkien’s letters – there are hundreds of them and there’s so much of his opinion of his world in them. Because Halbrand is an original character, you have to live and breathe Tolkien to get it right.”

He’s done a good job, all things considered; Vickers didn’t even realize he was playing Halbrand until after he showed up on set; that’s how secretive they’re being. Apparently they “scan your eyeballs” just to get on set everyday…although he could be joking. It’s tight over at Amazon Studios, is the takeaway.

There’s been a lot of mystery surrounding Halbrand’s identity. Will we find out what’s really going on with him in the season finale? Tune in tomorrow.

Bronwyn is a “great female screen warrior” on The Rings of Power

Another big player on The Rings of Power has been Bronwyn, played by actor Nazanin Boniadi. A resident of the Southlands, Bronwyn convinced her people to take refuge in a tower used by the elves once it became clear that their home was under assault by orcs, and later took up arms to fight the beasts.

That Bronwyn played an active role in her own story was important to Boniadi. “I had a conversation with the showrunners before I took on the role,” she said during NYCC last weekend, per SYFY WIRE. “I point blank asked them, ‘Does she have agency?’ Because I don’t want her to just serve the male storyline. I don’t want her to just serve the men around her.”

Bronwyn does act for love of her son Theo and for the elf Arondir, but I don’t think you could accuse her of lacking agency of her own. Boniadi thinks of Bronwyn as something closer to a “great female screen warrior” than a love interest. Her performance was inspired by action stars like Michelle Yeoh and Sigourney Weaver, while still keeping everything anchored “in Tolkien.”

We’ll see what becomes of Bronwyn very soon. The season finale of The Rings of Power drops tomorrow on Amazon Prime Video.

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