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Prime Video prequel revisits
‘The Lord of the Rings’
BY JAY BOBBIN
The size of streaming series has gotten ever bigger,
but that’s about to take a major leap forward with
one of fiction’s best-known brands.
Author J.R.R. Tolkien’s saga is revisited as the new
series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”
begins streaming eight weekly episodes Friday, Sept.
2, on Prime Video. Filmed in New Zealand, the
epic production uses appendices from the Tolkien
work to unfold thousand of years before the events
in “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” as
the Second Age of Middle-earth sees widespread evil
prompt a final alliance between elves and men to
defend the world.
Boasting huge physical sets rather than relying
principally on computer imagery, the fantasy-drama
boasts a large cast, as the “Rings” feature films have.
Lloyd Owen’s character, Elendil, is a sailor and
warrior who becomes the leader of exiles – split into
two Realms, Arnor and Gondor – from the island
kingdom of Numenor.
“Especially with something as broad as this, which
is trying to match Tolkien’s vast imagination, I think
part of the absolute joy of this series is the level
of skill and work and dedication and attention to
detail that went into it,” Owen reflects. “That was so
present once we got to the set for Numenor, which
is where much of the action is based.”
Lloyd Owen is among the stars of
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings
of Power,” which begins streaming
Friday on Prime Video.
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Owen’s own familiarity with “The Lord of the
Rings” dates back to his youth. “I was given a
paperback edition, and it’s got one of Tolkien’s own
drawings on the front cover. I remember seeing
a friend at school reading a monster-sized book,
which actually was the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy in
paperback, and he was about 10 pages from the end.
“I said, ‘Well done! Congratulations on getting
so far into such an enormous book.’ And he said,
‘Yeah! I can’t wait to finish it, because then, I’m
going to read it all over again from the beginning.’
And I remember thinking he was insane, but that
gave me an inkling of the effect that Tolkien’s
writing was having.”
Also an accomplished stage actor, Owen – whose
previous TV work includes “Monarch of the Glen”
and “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” – allows
that he hasn’t been involved before with anything on
the scale of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of
Power” (which moves to England for production of
Season 2).
“I just feel so privileged and excited to be a part
of it,” he concludes. “And with my own interest
in Tolkien as well, it was just an opportunity
impossible to turn down ... despite the fact that I
had to go to the other side of the world to do it.”
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