SPOILER ALERT: This video contains details & exclusive behind-the-scenes looks from the fourth episode of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which dropped on September 15. A new episode of Inside the Ring will drop every week of Season 1 of Rings of Power. Check out past episodes here.
“There have historically not been a variety of characters of color, if any at all, in this franchise per se,” states The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power star Ismael Cruz Córdova of past adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth saga.
“This journey has come with a lot of love, a lot of people feeling extremely proud of us for being here, but also our share of opposition,” the Berlin Station alum adds of the vile backlash that Amazon Prime Video’s grand series has received for casting people of color in key roles.
As Cruz Córdova and co-star Nazanin Boniadi make very clear on today’s edition of our video series Deadline’s Inside the Ring: LOTR: The Rings of Power after show, this is about representation, disruption and talent – as you can see in the video above.
“I just feel more proud than I ever have of this cast,” emphatically adds How I Met Your Mother vet Boniadi of the diverse and skilled actor in the J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay showrun Rings of Power. “I cannot image anyone else in any of these roles, Ismael, Cynthia. Sophia, Sara ..they all belong, because they were the best person for the role, and at the crux of it, that’s all it’s about.”
In today’s wide-ranging episode of Inside the Ring, Cruz Córdova and Boniadi, who respectively portray intwined Elf Watchman Arondir and human healer Bronwyn, are joined by Númenor’s finest Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Queen Regent Miriel) and Trystan Gravelle (Pharazon), plus Tyroe Muhafidin (Theo) and Maxim Baldry (Isildur). Taking us even further behind the camera, “The Great Wave” episode director Wayne Che Yip, Rings of Power producer/scribe Justin Doble, and near effortlessly entertaining and insightful dialect coach Leith McPherson are on deck too. Plus, as always, we have exclusive looks at the making of this week’s Rings of Power episode.
There are great shifts afoot in “The Great Wave” as conflict flares in the Southlands, the strident Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) clashes with dream haunted Queen Regent Miriel, and the Dwarves discover a new mineral that could change everything for everyone. Take a look above at the latest edition of Deadline’s Inside the Ring video series to get the skinny on how it all went down, and where it all may be going in the eight-episode first season of Rings of Power.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is led by showrunners and EPs Payne & McKay. They are joined by executive producers Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, J.A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado, and producers Ron Ames and Christopher Newman. Wayne Che Yip is co-EP and directs along with J.A. Bayona and Charlotte Brändström