Tales From LOTR The Rings Of Power's Red Carpet

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will dive deeper into J.R.R. Tolkien's saga of Middle-earth when it premieres this week on Prime Video. Peter Jackson brought the literary classics to the forefront of pop culture with his film trilogies, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and now Amazon Studios is hoping for a repeat with their high-budget streaming series. However, the Second Age storyline unfolding for viewers has not come directly from the pages of The Silmarillion or anywhere else, but rather has been gleaned from the Appendices Tolkien included with his source material.

This means that while The Rings of Power will slot into the canonical source material, the time period covered onscreen do not already appear in the novels. Creators Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne are thus afforded more space to include characters wholly new to their onscreen story, such as Ema Horvath's Eärien, Leon Wadham's Kemen, and Charlie Vickers' Halbrand. Director J.A. Bayona helmed the first two episodes while Bear McCreary composed the score, and they each melded their book knowledge with love of the original films in order to produce a fresh new perspective on Middle-earth for the new show.

Some of the stars and creatives of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power stopped by the red carpet on premiere night to chat with Screen Rant, sharing how their characters fit into the lore, where they pulled inspiration from in terms of directorial and music choices, and why they were stoked to be a part of the project.

Screen Rant: We're meeting a lot of characters for the first time. Can you tell me who you're playing and use three words to describe them?

Leon Wadham: I'm playing Kemen. He's over in Númenor. He's the son of Pharazôn. a powerful political figure—I've used so many words already. He's charming. He's ambitious. He's naive.

What responsibility do you feel to the fans when introducing a new character? What was your research point for him?

Leon Wadham: This is a new character. He's not in the lore, but Pharazôn is and is a lot about Númenor in the lore. So, I had some footholds in facts and a lot of room to dream around that.

I've got a big responsibility, but the show has been made by fans. We don't think about it as fans over there and us over here. JD and Patrick love this stuff, and everyone that they employed loves it too. I think we are fans ourselves, trying to build something for everyone

Who is your favorite OG Middle Earth trilogy character?

Leon Wadham: How do I pick a favorite? It probably is Samwise. I've just got a lot of affection for the guy.

Screen Rant: What was the starting point for you on this series?

J.A. Bayona: First of all, I read about the show, and I was curious. Like, "Okay, it feels like a TV show is the right place to be." Because it's so rich, the world of Tolkien. But I was a little nervous that it's going to be a repetition of the movies that we saw.

And then I got the call—it was totally unexpected—from the showrunners that wanted to meet me. We sat down, and we talked about the show for hours. I thought it was so smart, going back to the Appendices and bringing new stories; following the path that Tolkien established in the Appendices. And then I read the scripts, and I loved them. From the moment I read the scripts, I said, "I want to be involved in this."

How did the team go about deciding which legacy characters would appear on the show?

J.A. Bayona: It makes sense when you read the Appendices. You have a sense of who are the characters playing in the Second Age, and I think it's very exciting to have Galadriel in the center, and new characters like Nori and the Harfoots. It felt right to me, because it was a perfect balance between the map that Tolkien established and having new material that feels fresh.

We've already heard about multiple seasons. Do you guys have it all mapped out already?

J.A. Bayona: The first time I sat down with the showrunners, they told me everything. The whole arc of not only the first season, but the five seasons that they planned. I was super impressed about it.

Screen Rant: Since we are meeting a lot of new characters for the first time, can you tell me who you're playing and three words to describe them?

Ema Horvath: I'm playing Eärien. She's Isildur's younger sister. Three words to describe her? Ambitious, insecure, and stressed.

What is she stressed about?

Ema Horvath: Her family's kind of falling apart. [Laughs]

What drives her this season? What can we look forward to in her journey?

Ema Horvath: I think her desire to be noticed and appreciated.

Given that this has such a big fanbase, is there a moment that the responsibility to the fans has hit you?

Ema Horvath: I spend a lot of time on the Reddit thread, for better or for worse. I've read a lot of paragraphs about sections of The Silmarillion and why certain things should be realized a certain way or whatnot. I'm very aware of the hardcore fans. I was fascinated by that; I've never been in something that has such a hardcore fan base. That's been very exciting—daunting, but also interesting from a social perspective.

Do you have a favorite fan theory that you've heard so far?

Ema Horvath: My favorite one is that I become a Nazgûl. And... We shall see!

Screen Rant: We're meeting a lot of characters for the first time, so who are you and what are three words to describe you?

Charlie Vickers: I play a character called Halbrand. And let's say he's brave; he is aloof, and... Let's go with interesting.

It's tough. I get a lot of, "Describe things in three words, and I have a thing in my head where I don't want to say the same three words over and over again. I have a challenge to say different words every time.

And where do we find him when we first meet him? What's his challenge or hurdle throughout season 1?

Charlie Vickers: We made him on the Sundering Seas in the middle of the ocean. He's leaving behind a part of his past, and he's moving forward to a new life. He's at a crossroads, so I think that's his challenge; to be able to commit to that new life. And we see that there's some obstacles that emerge as the show progresses.

As I was talking to the creators, they were saying, "We have five seasons mapped out." Do you know all the secrets? Do they sit down and say, "Here's everything that's gonna happen with your character?"

Charlie Vickers: I wish I knew all the secrets. I know some of the secrets; I hope I know more than most. I don't know. Maybe I do; maybe I don't know. By all means, I do not know. I feel the same as a lot of other people, that's the thing. People watching the show don't know anything.

Have you had a favorite fan interaction so far?

Charlie Vickers: There was a fan that had dressed up in a perfect replica of Galadriel's armor. And she did that based off maybe a brief trailer clip or a couple of photos, which is amazingly impressive, because the level of craftsmanship that I saw in the detail was pretty cool.

Screen Rant: The Rings of Power is finally here. What does that feel like?

Bear McCreary: It feels amazing. But it also feels like a big coming-out party, because all of us on the show have been on it for so long. We've been so secret that even people on the show didn't know other people on the show, necessarily. And here we all are, and now everyone's gonna get to see it and hear it.

I love that I've been speaking in code for years, so now I can just say like, "Yeah, I'm going to the premiere for—wait, it's out there! The Lord of the Rings." I can just lean into it. It's great.

Where do you start? What are the influences that you use in the show? Obviously, we have the Middle Earth trilogy to go off. Do you use that? Do you hide Easter eggs?

Bear McCreary: All of the above! Howard Shore's score for the Lord of the Rings films has had an influence on every note of music I have written since I was 21, so that's undeniable. I definitely leaned into that influence, and I want to create a sense of continuity for fans like me. I'm not trying to rock the boat or unpleasantly surprise you.

I hope that when you go to Khazad-dûm, you go, "Yeah, that's right. That's totally right." You know what I mean? We all kind of know. There's a vibe in Moria. What does it sound like when it was alive? I that's what I want to explore. That's why the influence in a way was some of what I'm borrowing, but it's also how I'm changing it. Khazad-dûm is alive. It's a capital of industry; there's machinery; there's light; there's life. I wanted to create something that felt right, but also reflected that we're in the Second Age.

So, yes, Shore was a huge influence. I think also, melodic writers that I've always admired were equally influential: Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein. I just grew up on these big movie melodies, and those are the kinds of tunes that I love writing. And I got to write a bunch of them.

One more secret that's coming up is God of War Ragnarök. What can we expect as fans?

Bear McCreary: It slays. I'm telling you, it slays. It's what I want it to be, as a fan; as a gamer; as an experience. There's some fun musical surprises coming up. Look, it's gonna be amazing.

LOTR: The Rings of Power Synopsis

Ema Horvath as Eärien in The Rings of Power

Epic drama set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.

Check out our interviews with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power cast at SDCC 2022, as well as with stars:

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power begins streaming on September 1 at 6pm PT.