The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power star Sophia Nomvete reveals why Disa doesn't have a beard in Amazon's Prime Video adaptation. Premiered September 1 on Prime Video, The Rings of Power reintroduces audiences to the vast world of Middle-earth during the Second Age, thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. The new series is from showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, who developed Rings of Power from J.R.R. Tolkien's seminal fantasy novel and appendices.
Though Amazon's adaptation features an enormous ensemble cast, The Rings of Power is led mainly by Morfydd Clark as Galadriel and Robert Aramayo as Elrond, two Elven characters well-known from Peter Jackson's movies. Returning to Middle-earth thousands of years prior, Rings of Power introduces plenty of new Harfoots, Humans, and Dwarves. One of the standouts so far has been Disa, Durin IV's wife and the stone-singing princess of Khazad-dûm introduced in episode 2. However, Middle-earth's first female dwarf hasn't come without controversy and questions about the character's depiction.
During an interview with Total Film (via Games Radar), Nomvete answered one question on every Lord of the Rings fan's mind: where is Disa's beard? The Rings of Power star reveals that full beards were discussed as a possibility for the show's female dwarves, though they ultimately opted for more elegant facial hair. Read what Nomvete shared below:
The conversation was brilliantly collaborative. The production team: they always discussed it, and we always talked about it. We were building this character from scratch. There were all sorts of lengths discussed with the beard, and brilliantly we decided to go with the version of this lovely, beautiful interpretation of facial hair for Disa. And then her look – there was actually a first draft of her costume, which was much more heavier-set, and a little bit more stony and rocky and heavier. And then suddenly a couple of the creative team had this wonderful idea of: 'What if we celebrate Disa’s passion and sexuality, and how unapologetic she is about feeling, and loving, and being, and her body, and her strength?' And for everything that I am, and everything that the world does and does not see filmically enough, I was so happy and proud and excited to be celebrated.
The expectation amongst fans that Rings of Power's female dwarves would have beards stems from a famous interaction from The Two Towers film adaptation when Gimli states that dwarf women are often mistaken for men because of their similar appearances, to which Aragon interjects, "It's the beards." Tolkien never explicitly said that female dwarves have beards, though he did write in the Lord of the Rings appendices that the two sexes look so similar that "other peoples cannot tell them apart," which would imply that dwarf women have beards, as all the men do.
Ultimately, Rings of Power chose not to give its female dwarves full beards and, in Disa's case, opted for some sideburns and a scattering of facial fuzz around her jawline. While many are taking issue with Ring of Power's deviation from its source material and have resorted to review-bombing, in this specific instance, the show manages to pay homage to Tolkien's work while still maintaining the creative freedom to make certain adjustments as they see fit. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power continues with new episodes on Prime Video every Friday.
Source: Total Film (via Games Radar)