There’s a lot of very Lord of the Rings-ian things in The Rings of Power. There’s elves, dwarves, orcs, and hobbit-adjacent smallfolk. There’s tales of hope, rising darkness to be fought, and, well, rings of power. But if anyone’s doing some proper Lord of the Rings-ing in season two, it’s not the elves preparing for war or even Sauron pulling the strings in his fair disguise: it’s two halflings and their strange friend, running around the most beautiful vistas you’ve ever seen and just having a proper adventure.
That is, of course, the unlikely trifecta of the Stranger (Daniel Weyman), Nori (Markella Kavenagh), and Poppy (Megan Richards), who all find themselves swept up to a journey into Middle-earth’s eastern lands coming into season two of the Amazon prequel. Having learned that the Stranger is in fact one of the powerful Istari—magical agents sent by the Valar themselves to combat the growing threat of the Dark Lord—at the climax of season one, Nori finds herself tagging along as he journeys to Rhûn alongside, as we learn quickly into season two, her best friend Poppy. But even if their journey is that one that feels most traditionally Lord of the Rings, from quiet camping moments to treks across sweeping landscapes, this season the Stranger, Nori, and Poppy’s storylines will intersect a little closer thematically to the rest of the series. For in Rhûn, just like anywhere else in Middle-earth, there are new allies to be found… and new darkness to deal with.
For the Stranger at least, that newfound help will come in the form of a legendary figure from Tolkien’s writing: Tom Bombadil, the mysterious forest-dweller encountered by Frodo and his friends early into The Lord of the Rings, but famously up to this point largely cut from adaptations of the books. Played by Rory Kinnear in Rings of Power, Tom will be vital to the Stranger’s exploration of his true self in the coming season.
“In season one, there’s a lot of time when the Stranger doesn’t really understand how his energy is working, and therefore how it affects Nori and Poppy, and the wider Harfoot community,” Daniel Weyman recently told io9 during a press junket for Rings of Power‘s second season. “It feels like the Stranger is doing these fairly random things, and that the Harfoots are having to respond to this rather wild character. But with Tom Bombadil, it feels like it’s been flipped. Suddenly the Stranger, for the first time, is interacting with a being that’s steps ahead of him, and doing random things he doesn’t understand.”
“He’s really trying to catch up [to Tom], trying to follow him… and so that’s quite a fun place to see the Stranger, I think. We haven’t seen him in that zone before, and it should be quite a good watch seeing how he copes with all the sort of enigma.”
It’s not just the Stranger finding new friends though: Nori and Poppy, distantly separated from their Harfoot family, will both get to explore familiar faces when they come across some distant cousins in the form of the Stoors. One of three predecessors to the Hobbits we know and love, the Stoors and their settled culture will provide an interesting avenue of exploration for the young halflings.
“It’s mesmerizing for Poppy to even see that as a possibility, as a way of living,” Richards said of the Stoors’ appearance in season two. “Obviously they have their own differences, but there’s definitely similarities there which causes their intrigue. To see that they aren’t migratory is the main thing [for her], that she’s like ‘wow, you have a place, a belonging’—which, for Poppy, is something she’s constantly looking for. That is her journey throughout this season, finding her places and her beings that represent that belonging for her.”
“For Nori, it’s also an indication that it’s a possibility for the Harfoots to one day, hopefully, have that same sense of place,” Kavenagh added. “It really kind of opens her eyes to what her purpose might be outside of her helping the Stranger.”
They’ll all need the help they can get in this far-flung land, especially as we’ve since learned that Rhûn is home to one of Rings of Power‘s new and most mysterious threats in the form of Ciarán Hinds’ Dark Wizard. Indeed, it seems that no storyline this season will be able to escape the rising darkness.
Rings of Power returns to Amazon Prime Video later this week, on August 29.
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