spacetime coordinates: the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is an American fantasy television series developed by J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay for Amazon Prime Video. Based on the novel The Lord of the Rings and its appendices by J. R. R. Tolkien.
Design
It was Jackson’s understanding in December 2018 that the series would be set in the same continuity as the films and Amazon wanted to be consistent with the designs that were created for them, which illustrator and concept artist John Howe reiterated in August 2019, saying the showrunners were determined to remain faithful to the designs of the film trilogies. Payne and McKay later clarified that the series is not a direct continuation of the films, per Amazon’s deal for the series, but they did not want it to “clash” with the films and tried to have similar designs. They took advantage of Howe’s experience working on Jackson’s adaptations, as well as that of costume designer Kate Hawley who worked on the Hobbit films. Other influences included the 1977 animated television adaptation of The Hobbit by Rankin/Bass.
Howe had filled 40 sketchbooks with drawings for the project by May 2022, and said the biggest difference between the films and series was the latter visited new locations, such as the oceans of Middle-earth. Avery’s biggest challenge was making Middle-earth feel both familiar and new. He chose to build as many practical sets as possible, wanting the series to “feel real and honest… to make sure that the actors had a world that felt inhabitable”. Payne said being on set “was like going to Middle-earth every day for work”. Avery used different styles for each location, such as Lindon’s “tree-like columns” which were inspired by Gothic architecture. He added “arboreal details” to reflect the Elves’ love of nature. Khazad-dûm was designed to be “less severe” than the film version, using a “sensitivity toward the stone” rather than “harsh lines and gargantuan statues” to show the kingdom before the Dwarves “got greedy”. Avery compared the large wheels on the Harfoot wagons to the round Hobbit doors seen in the films.
Payne, McKay, and Avery put a lot of focus on Númenor, which Payne explained was because “it’s never been seen before. People have some ideas of what Elves look like or what Dwarves look like and what those kingdoms might look like. But Númenor was, in some ways, a blank canvas.” They planned out the entire city, and made sure that this reflected Tolkien’s description of it originally having Elvish influences but becoming more “Mannish” as it was developed. Tolkien also compared the city to Venice, so Avery took inspiration from that city and its connection to water. He used the color blue in a lot of the city’s locations to emphasize the culture’s relationship with water and sailing. Númenor’s “looming marble structures” and “bold shapes, rich colors, and geometrical ornament[s]” were inspired by Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, and the rest of North Africa and the Middle East. The distinct shape of the sails on Númenórean ships were based on the ceremonial headwear worn by Gondorian kings, the descendants of Númenóreans, in the Third Age. Avery worked with experts to ensure the ships were still functional with the unique sails. The main Númenor set was almost 300,000 square feet (28,000 m2) and was described as “an entire seaside city” with buildings, alleyways, shrines, graffiti, and a ship docked at the harbor inside a large water tank. There were additional sets for specific locations within the city. The sets were built with a lot of real materials that were cheaper to source in New Zealand than the “movie fakery typically used to save time and money on sets in Los Angeles”. Avery’s team also created a form of Roman concrete using seashells that they used in the alleyways to show some of the history of the city. To further help immerse the actors, Avery used real plants, fruits, and incense on set so the “smells were right”. Yip described the Númenor sets as “breathtaking… we were there for weeks, but every day I’d notice a new detail”.
Jamie Wilson was the head of prosthetics for the series after previously working on the film trilogies. He noted that there had been advancements in the technology available since the films were produced, including encapsulated silicone that looks much more like real skin than previous techniques. The prosthetics team also worked closely with the series’s visual effects department for digital “tweaks” to the prosthetics. The showrunners were particularly interested in the series’s depiction of Orcs and ensuring that practical effects were used where possible. Wilson explained that the Orcs in the series were intended to be “younger”-looking than those in the films, since these groups are just emerging from hiding. Because of this, the series’s Orcs feature less battle-scars than those in the films and are also lighter-skinned with some skin conditions caused by new exposure to the sun. (wiki)
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