Morfydd Clark: Galadriel has to "choose who she is" in The Rings of Power season 2 (exclusive)

The second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is coming round the corner. As before, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) will play a big role. In the first season, she was taken in by the machinations of the budding dark lord Sauron (Charlie Vickers), then posing as a mortal man named Halbrand. As Clark told us and other reporters at San Diego Comic-Con, that failure stings going into season 2.

"Well, she is going to have to choose who she is in this," Clark said. "She's kind of lost all sense of what her place is because she's got something wrong and the elves don't really do that. And so she's in this kind of very vulnerable state of starting again when the world is in turmoil. And so she's growing and changing. She's being guided, but she still has that fire in her."

One of the people guiding her may be Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker), the High King of the Noldoran Elves during the Second Age of Middle-earth, when The Rings of Power is set; we're thousands of years before folks like Frodo and Bilbo are even born. It sounds like Galadriel will be spending a lot of time with Gil-galad in season 2, as opposed to in season 1 when she was off in the wilds trying to chase down Sauron. "I mean, she was off on her own, which isn't really natural for the elves," Clark said. "They kind of need to kind of be together. So she's back with her kind but with her tail between her legs."

As for Walker, it sounds like the actor is relishing the opportunity to dive deeper into his character. "In terms of the first season to now, there's a lot of world-building in the first season, a little bit of introductory material," he said. "Second season, we're getting our hands dirty and we're hitting the ground running. Like, we're covering some second age turf."

Expect beauty and battle in the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

If you've watched any of the trailers for the second season of The Rings of Power, you know there's going to be some serious action, perhaps even a battle that spans the course of two episodes. And based on what Clark said about her preparations, Galadriel will be a big part of it. "Yeah, I did lots of archery this season, which was really fun," she said. "And also if anyone here is bad at throwing a ball, which I am, it's a different type of hand-eye coordination. So I was actually quite good, which was a big shock."

"It's really exciting whether it's a battle or not whenever you're in like big set pieces with kind of loads of supporting actors, huge sets, loads going on, and we were really spoiled for that this season. And you know, those are just as actor, just your dream scenarios because you are literally there in the world, you feel like you are in Middle-earth. And you know, doing those scenes is thrilling and I hope they're going to be thrilling to watch as well."

Clark also teased a lot more eye-popping visuals on the horizon. "I think it's even more beautiful this season," she said. "Like, I think visually it's just spectacular and that's been kind of…it was spectacular in terms of being on set, like all the practical effects, and then it's been elevated so much since we filmed it. So, yeah, it's very beautiful."

The second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power kicks off on Prime Video on Thursday, August 29. The first three episodes will all drop at once.

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