"Elven Kings Under the Sky" | |
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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power episode | |
Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 1 |
Directed by | Charlotte Brändström |
Written by | Gennifer Hutchison |
Featured music | "Golden Leaves" by Benjamin Walker |
Cinematography by | Alex Disenhof |
Editing by | Dan Crinnion |
Original release date | August 29, 2024 |
Running time | 69 minutes |
Cast | |
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"Elven Kings Under the Sky" is the first episode of the second season of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power . Based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings , it is set thousands of years before the novel in the Second Age. The episode explores the reactions of the Elves to the first Rings of Power. It was written by Gennifer Hutchison and directed by Charlotte Brändström.
J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay were set to develop the series in July 2018, and a second season was ordered in November 2019. Filming began in the United Kingdom in October 2022, with Brändström returning from the first season. Production on the season wrapped in June 2023.
"Elven Kings Under the Sky" premiered on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video on August 29, 2024.
At the dawn of the Second Age, the sorcerer Sauron declares himself to be the new Dark Lord following the defeat of his master, Morgoth. Sauron shares his plan to enslave the peoples of Middle-earth using an army of Orcs. Adar, the leader of the Orcs, and others of his kind seemingly kill Sauron. However, Sauron's spirit endures and forms a new body over thousands of years. Taking the name "Halbrand", Sauron joins a group of humans who become shipwrecked. This leads to him meeting Galadriel.
After Galadriel learns that Halbrand is Sauron and rejects his proposal to join him, she encourages the creation of three Rings of Power while Sauron travels to Mordor, a new land for Orcs ruled by Adar. Galadriel reveals Halbrand's identity to High King Gil-galad and his herald, Elrond, convincing Gil-galad that they must use the rings to restore the fading power of the Elves in preparation for a war against Sauron. Elrond objects, fearing that Sauron is manipulating them, and escapes with the rings.
In Mordor, Sauron again poses as Halbrand and is brought to Adar. After being tortured by Adar's followers, he reveals that Sauron has returned and offers to go to Eregion—the Elven realm where the rings were forged—while Adar raises his army. Waldreg, a human follower of Adar, is killed by a Warg that Sauron enthralls.
Elrond takes the rings to Círdan, the oldest and wisest Elf in Middle-earth, who agrees to throw them into a great chasm in the ocean. However, Círdan accidentally sees the rings when a wave bumps his boat and he believes they are true perfection, choosing to put one on. At the Elf-capital Lindon, Gil-galad tells the Elves that they must abandon Middle-earth to its fate, but he is interrupted by Círdan's arrival. Galadriel and Gil-galad put on the other two rings and the faded power of the Elves is restored.
The Stranger—a Wizard who is slowly regaining his memories—and the Harfoot Nori Brandyfoot get lost on their way to the land of Rhûn in the east of Middle-earth. They are followed by Nori's friend Poppy Proudfellow, who brings Harfoot maps of the area that help them find their way. They are also followed by mysterious riders. Though Gil-galad sends a messenger to warn Celebrimbor—the Elven-smith who forged the three rings—of Halbrand's true identity, Sauron arrives at the gates of Eregion first.
Amazon acquired the global television rights for J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in November 2017. The company's streaming service, Amazon Prime Video, ordered a series based on the novel and its appendices to be produced by Amazon Studios in association with New Line Cinema. [1] It was later titled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power . [2] Amazon hired J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay to develop the series and serve as showrunners in July 2018, [3] [4] and Gennifer Hutchison joined as a writer by the following July. [4] The series was originally expected to be a continuation of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, but Amazon later clarified that their deal with the Tolkien Estate required them to keep the series distinct from Jackson's films. [5] Despite this, the showrunners intended for it to be visually consistent with the films. [6] A second season was ordered in November 2019, [7] and Amazon announced in August 2021 that it was moving production of the series from New Zealand, where Jackson's films were made, to the United Kingdom starting with the second season. [8] The season's all-female directing team was revealed in December 2022: Charlotte Brändström, returning from the first season; Sanaa Hamri; and Louise Hooper. [9]
The series is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. [10] Because Amazon did not acquire the rights to Tolkien's other works where the First and Second Ages are primarily explored, the writers had to identify references to the Second Age in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and its appendices, and create a story that bridged those passages. [6] After introducing the series' setting and major heroic characters in the first season, the showrunners said the second would focus on the villains and go deeper into the "lore and the stories people have been waiting to hear". [6] [11] The season's first episode, titled "Elven Kings Under the Sky", was written by Hutchison and directed by Brändström. [12]
The series' cast includes Robert Aramayo as Elrond, [13] Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, [14] Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor, [15] Markella Kavenagh as Elanor "Nori" Brandyfoot, [16] Megan Richards as Poppy Proudfellow, [17] Charlie Vickers as Sauron, [18] Benjamin Walker as Gil-galad, [19] and Daniel Weyman as the Stranger. [16] Also starring in the episode are Ciarán Hinds as the Dark Wizard, Jack Lowden as Forodwaith Sauron, Ben Daniels as Círdan, Sam Hazeldine as Adar, Nicholas Woodeson as Diarmid, Geoff Morrell as Waldreg, Amelia Kenworthy as Mirdania, Virginie Laverdure as Abigail, Jane Montgomery Griffiths as Astrid, Berynn Schwerdt as Eamon, Robert Strange as Glüg, Zates Atour as Brânk, Jamie Bisping as Calenwë, Emily-Jane McNeill as Ídhiel, and Arkie Reece as Kilta. Adam Basil and John Macdonald play unnamed Orcs in the episode. [20]
Filming for the season began on October 3, 2022, [21] under the working title LBP. [22] Episodes were shot simultaneously based on the availability of locations and sets. [23] Alex Disenhof returned from the first season to work with Brändström as director of photography. [24] The production wrapped in early June 2023. [24]
Visual effects for the episode were created by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Rodeo FX, Outpost VFX, DNEG, The Yard VFX, Midas VFX, Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies, Untold Studios, Atomic Arts, and Cantina Creative. [20] [25] The different vendors were overseen by visual effects supervisor Jason Smith. [25]
A soundtrack album featuring composer Bear McCreary's score for the episode was released digitally on the streaming service Amazon Music on August 29, 2024. [26] McCreary said the series' episodic albums contained "virtually every second of score" from their respective episodes. [27] It will be added to other music streaming services after the full second season is released. [28]
All music is composed by Bear McCreary:
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Dawn of the Second Age" | 12:55 |
2. | "The Last Hope for All Middle-earth" | 3:24 |
3. | "Bow or Bleed" | 3:18 |
4. | "Trees of Stone" | 3:21 |
5. | "Círdan" | 7:35 |
6. | "Warning in the Words" | 2:34 |
7. | "To Serve the Lord of Mordor" | 2:01 |
8. | "Three Rings for the Elven Kings" (featuring Benjamin Walker) | 6:44 |
9. | "The Rings of Power – Season One Overture" (Bonus Track) | 3:40 |
Total length: | 45:32 |
"Elven Kings Under the Sky" premiered on Prime Video in the United States on August 29, 2024. [29] It was released at the same time around the world, [30] in more than 240 countries and territories. [31]
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes calculated that 85% of 13 critics reviews were positive and the average rating for the episode was 7.8 out of 10. [32]
Keith Phipps at Vulture gave the episode three stars out of five and called it a "pretty compelling season premiere". He praised the visuals and the cast, felt the episode was successful in outlining the overall story for the rest of the season, and said the action moments indicated a "more kinetic season than the first". He thought some viewers would be frustrated by the episode falling into the same rhythms as the first season and also criticized the fact that the episode did not work as a standalone installment. [33] Arezou Amin of Collider gave the episode 7 out of 10 and called it "a densely packed episode with no shortage of big moments". She questioned the decision to release the season's first three episodes at once, feeling there was so much in the first episode that it would have benefitted from giving the audience a week to think about it before releasing the next episode. Amin said Galadriel and Elrond's storyline was the strongest and most emotional of the episode, and also praised the backstory given to Sauron as well as the reunion of Nori and Poppy. She criticized the amount of exposition in some scenes. [34]
Writing for Gizmodo , James Whitbrook said the episode did a "noble job" catching up the audience on key plotlines from the first season, and highlighted Vickers work as Sauron in the episode. He felt the audience's knowledge this season that Vickers is portraying Sauron worked well for scenes where he interacts with other characters in disguise. On the other hand, Whitbrook criticized the extended drama of Elrond running with the rings and attempting to destroy them considering the audience is aware that the three rings will not be destroyed. [35] Matt Schimkowitz at The A.V. Club said the series returned "more steadfast in its ways" with a lot of heart and more nuance than the first season. He particularly praised the focus on Sauron, but was less positive about Hazeldine taking over as Adar; he felt the first season's Joseph Mawle brought more gravitas to the role. Schimkowitz also felt the arrival of Poppy too closely mirrored the arrivals of Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took in Jackson's films, saying "Rings of Power's over-reliance on Jackson's cinematic language can get tiresome". [36]
Leon Miller of Polygon felt the episode was "more of the same" from the first season, with some changes from Tolkien's lore that worked in context and others that did not. He appreciated the "attention-grabbing" opening sequence, feeling it was a response to the slow start of the first season, and highlighted Adar's role as a supporting villain. Miller felt the central storyline of the coming war between the Elves and Sauron was not as "narratively interesting or thematically rich" as the showrunners thought it was, but he found the episode to be "inexplicably watchable" and thought the same would hold true for all but the "most die-hard Tolkien truthers". [37]
An episode of the aftershow Inside The Rings of Power for "Elven Kings Under the Sky" was released on August 29, 2024. It features actress Felicia Day, the host of The Official The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Podcast, interviewing cast members Walker and Vickers about the making of the episode, with some behind-the-scenes footage. [38] [39]
The Rings of Power are magical artefacts in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, most prominently in his high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. The One Ring first appeared as a plot device, a magic ring in Tolkien's children's fantasy novel, The Hobbit; Tolkien later gave it a backstory and much greater power. He added nineteen other Great Rings, also conferring powers such as invisibility, that it could control, including the Three Rings of the Elves, Seven Rings for the Dwarves, and Nine for Men. He stated that there were in addition many lesser rings with minor powers. A key story element in The Lord of the Rings is the addictive power of the One Ring, made secretly by the Dark Lord Sauron; the Nine Rings enslave their bearers as the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths), Sauron's most deadly servants.
Gil-galad is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, the last high king of the Noldor, one of the main divisions of Elves. He is mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, where the hobbit Sam Gamgee recites a fragment of a poem about him, and The Silmarillion. In the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Gil-galad and Elendil laid siege to the Dark Lord Sauron's fortress of Barad-dûr, and fought him hand-to-hand for the One Ring. Both Gil-galad and Elendil were killed, while Elendil's son Isildur defeated Sauron but took the Ring for himself.
Elrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Both of his parents, Eärendil and Elwing, were half-elven, having both Men and Elves as ancestors. He is the bearer of the elven-ring Vilya, the Ring of Air, and master of Rivendell, where he has lived for thousands of years through the Second and Third Ages of Middle-earth. He was the Elf-king Gil-galad's herald at the end of the Second Age, saw Gil-galad and king Elendil fight the dark lord Sauron for the One Ring, and Elendil's son Isildur take it rather than destroy it.
Sauron is the title character and the primary antagonist, through the forging of the One Ring, of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, where he rules the land of Mordor and has the ambition of ruling the whole of Middle-earth. In the same work, he is identified as the "Necromancer" of Tolkien's earlier novel The Hobbit. The Silmarillion describes him as the chief lieutenant of the first Dark Lord, Morgoth. Tolkien noted that the Ainur, the "angelic" powers of his constructed myth, "were capable of many degrees of error and failing", but by far the worst was "the absolute Satanic rebellion and evil of Morgoth and his satellite Sauron". Sauron appears most often as "the Eye", as if disembodied.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is an American fantasy television series developed by J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay for the streaming service Amazon Prime Video. Based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings, the series is set thousands of years before the novel and depicts the major events of Middle-earth's Second Age. It is produced by Amazon MGM Studios in association with New Line Cinema.
The second season of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings. Set thousands of years before the novel in the Second Age of Middle-earth, the season depicts the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron and the creation of more Rings of Power. It is produced by Amazon MGM Studios in association with New Line Cinema and with J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay as showrunners.
"A Shadow of the Past" is the first episode of the first season and series premiere of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings, it is set thousands of years before the novel in the Second Age of Middle-earth and depicts a time of relative peace. The episode was written by showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay, and directed by J. A. Bayona.
The music of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is composed by Bear McCreary, with additional music by Howard Shore and other artists. The Amazon Prime Video series is based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings, and is set thousands of years before the novel in the Second Age of Middle-earth. It covers all the major events of the Second Age from Tolkien's writings.
"Adrift" is the second episode of the first season of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings, it is set thousands of years before the novel in the Second Age of Middle-earth during a time of relative peace and introduces the Dwarven kingdom of Khazad-dûm. The episode was written by Gennifer Hutchison and directed by J. A. Bayona.
"Adar" is the third episode of the first season of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings, it is set thousands of years before the novel in the Second Age of Middle-earth during a time of relative peace and introduces the island kingdom of Númenor. The episode was written by Jason Cahill and Justin Doble, and directed by Wayne Che Yip.
"The Great Wave" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings, it is set thousands of years before the novel in the Second Age of Middle-earth. The episode was written by Stephany Folsom and showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay, and directed by Wayne Che Yip.
"Partings" is the fifth episode of the first season of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings, it is set thousands of years before the novel in the Second Age of Middle-earth and shows several groups preparing for conflict with emerging evil forces. The episode was written by Justin Doble and directed by Wayne Che Yip.
"Udûn" is the sixth episode of the first season of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings, it is set thousands of years before the novel in the Second Age of Middle-earth and depicts a battle in the Southlands. The episode was written by Nicholas Adams, Justin Doble, and showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay, and directed by Charlotte Brändström.
"The Eye" is the seventh episode of the first season of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings, it is set thousands of years before the novel in the Second Age of Middle-earth and explores the aftermath of the battle and volcanic eruption from the previous episode. "The Eye" was written by Jason Cahill and directed by Charlotte Brändström.
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"The Eagle and the Sceptre" is the third episode of the second season of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings, it is set thousands of years before the novel in the Second Age. The episode primarily follows characters from the island kingdom of Númenor. It was written by Helen Shang and directed by Louise Hooper and Charlotte Brändström.
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