‘The Rings of Power’ Adds New Cast for Season 2

The second season of the Tolkien adaptation is shooting now in the UK and will see the return of Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel and more.

Morfydd Clark (Galadriel) in Prime Video's 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.' Photo credit: Ben Rothstein/Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon Studios.

Prime Video clearly thinks it has a hit on its hands with ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’, especially given how buzzy the Tolkien adaptation has been, and claiming more than 100 million viewers.

Season 2 was already ordered at the same time as the first, with Shooting underway in the show’s new UK locations (taking over from New Zealand).

Now we know some of the people who will be added to the already sprawling cast, as news arrives that Gabriel Akuwudike, Yasen ‘Zates’ Atour, Ben Daniels, Amelia Kenworthy, Nia Towle, Nicholas Woodeson, Oliver Alvin-Wilson, Stuart Bowman, Gavi Singh Chera, William Chubb, Kevin Eldon, Will Keen, Selina Lo and Calam Lynch.

But as with Season 1, there is no information on who any of them will be playing yet, so start guessing now. The only person for whom there is any confirmation, is Stuart Hazeldine, who is inheriting the role of Orc leader Adar from Joseph Mawle.

In case you’ve yet to dive in, this new adaptation of Tolkien’s sprawling fantasy novels comes courtesy of J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, along with executive producers Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, and Gennifer Hutchison, along with co-executive producer/director Charlotte Brändström.

(L to R) Morfydd Clark (Galadriel), and Benjamin Walker (High King Gil-galad)in Prime Video's 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.' Photo Credit: Ben Rothstein/Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon Studios.

‘The Rings of Power’ unites all the major stories of Middle-earth’s Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.

That “Second Age” refers to a long period in the history of Middle Earth that ends with the defeat of Sauron and precedes Tolkien’s book and Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie trilogy, which take place during the Third Age. The titular Rings of Power were forged in this era and 19 of them were given to elves, dwarves, and humans to incentivize them to support Sauron’s reign.

The One Ring, which figures so heavily into the plot of the original trilogy is the most powerful of the 20 (it’s what Frodo and the gang travelled all that way to destroy). The official description mentions an evil even greater than Sauron, which probably points Morgoth, a god-like creature who tried to rule Middle-earth––and that had Sauron serving as his general.

The first batch of eight episodes features the likes of Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), Elrond (Robert Aramayo), High King Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker), the Harfoots Marigold Brandyfoot (Sara Zwangobani), Elanor ‘Nori’ Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh), Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards) and Sadoc Burrows (Sir Lenny Henry), The Stranger (Daniel Weyman), the Dwarves King Durin III (Peter Mullan) and Prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur), Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), and Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova), Isildur (Maxim Baldry), Elendil (Lloyd Owen), Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle), and Queen Regent Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson).