The Rings of Power cast teases the conflicts to come in season 2

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is currently nearing the end of filming on its second season, and the cast and crew are starting to open up about what’s in store.

Take Morfydd Clark, who plays a younger version of Galadriel, who Lord of the Rings fans will remember from Peter Jackson’s movies, where she was played by Cate Blanchett. “She’s about to have a life-changing thing happen to her. She’s about to become acquainted with Nenya, her ring. It’s really exciting to see how the magic creeps in,” Clark said at the show’s FYC event in Hollywood, per Deadline.

Nenya is one of three powerful rings (rings of power, if you will) given to the elves during the Second Age of Middle-earth. The other two are Narya and Nilya; we saw all three get crafted at the end of season 1. “She’s trying to see the light through the darkness,” Clark said of Galadriel’s journey in season 2.

Galadriel will wield the ring Nenya in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2

If you’re familiar with the story, you know there are more rings on the way: seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone, nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, and One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne. Expect all of them to come into play in season 2.

One of them may go to Durin III, the dwarven king played by Peter Mullan we met in season 1. “There are more rings; the show is called The Rings of Power. Maybe I’ll be getting a new necklace, who knows?” Mullan quipped.

In season 1, Durin came into conflict with his son, Prince Durin (Owain Arthur). Apparently things get worse in season 2. “My guy goes through some things that change him,” Mullan said. “So his son is reacting to a very different father; he’s not the father that you see. He’s someone else.”

The father-son relationship between Durin III and Prince During “gets very problematic”

Then there’s Durin’s wife Princess Disa (Sophia Nomvete), who may have been the breakout fan favorite of season 1. “There was real excitement last season because everything felt so new and I was like a rabbit in the headlights,” Nomvete said. “In Season 2, I felt like I wore the backpack of my experiences. Disa was already built and she was there with me and there was this sheer excitement to delve into this new story…Season 2 was about me walking in with more strength and more confidence than I had before. I hope it pays off.”

As for Owain Arthur, he’s looking forward to fans seeing more of the bromance between him and the elf Elrond (Robert Aramayo). “What I like about Elrond is that he’s quite similar to Durin in that they’re different from where they come from,” Arthur said. “Elrond is half human and Durin thinks outside of the box. Going against his father’s word in the first season was massive for Durin, he did that for Elrond, for the greater good and for the elves. That bond and that looking outside of the box and looking away from their own culture is what holds them together. I feel like they’ve got a plan to make the world a better place.”

Shifting over to the elves, we’ll see more of Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) in season 2. “We were in a time of relative peace in Season 1 and all that gets shaken up,” the actor said. “Now we’re dealing with the aftermath of this big evil that is now concrete. We got the guy now; Sauron is here. In Season 2, we’re grappling with that.”

"These characters are grappling with their elvish-ness or their dwarf-ness, with their humanity and their loves. What you’re going to see is the depth of our reality and how it is expressed. That’s where it all takes off."

We did indeed learn the identity of Sauron in season 1: the man we knew as Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) was actually the future dark lord of Middle-earth. Watch out for that guy.

Ismael Cruz Córdova (Arondir) feels like he can “soar” in The Rings of Power season 2

Back to Córdova, he endured a lot of racist backlash from some fans upset over there being an elf of color in the show, but it sounds like the hate has leveled off. “I had a lifetime of preparation for this role and I’ve been fighting for an opportunity like this one for so long. I’ve been wanting to play an elf for around 20 years, a dream that came with a lot of naysayers along the way,” Córdova said. “By the time we started shooting, I had already faced a year of backlash: a lot of negativity, death threats, racism, all of that. I knew going in that I would have to be bulletproof to prove to all these people that I belong there. Fast forward to Season 2, the love and support were concrete—I still get emotional thinking about it. The impact that it had was no longer in a vacuum. I had thousands of hands holding me and pushing me.”

"I knew in the abstract what I was doing before but now I know the faces of those I did and still do it for. Now I feel even more galvanized and like I finally have a break from having to constantly prove that I belong. I’ve always known that I belong and now I feel like I can soar."

The second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is due out on Amazon sometime in 2024.

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