'Rings of Power' cast unveils first look into Season 2 at Comic-Con

By Danielle Broadway and Rollo Ross

San Diego (Reuters) - "Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power" unveiled the first look at Season 2 on Friday as the cast shared insights into what is coming next in the fantasy series at San Diego Comic-Con.

The fantasy series is based on appendices in J.R.R. Tolkien's original "The Lord of the Rings" novels and is set thousands of years before the events of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" novels and films.

Although the show is called “Rings of Power,” the first season did not include any of the franchise’s coveted rings, but they will appear at the beginning of the second season.

The cast of the Amazon Prime Video series is led by Morfydd Clark, who plays the almost immortal elf named Galadriel and Ismael Cruz Cordova, who plays the elf named Arondir along with showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne.

For Clark, wearing one of the iconic rings with conviction for Season 2 was a more arduous task than she initially expected.

“Weirdly, putting on a ring in an elegant way without looking like you're trying too hard was much harder than I expected,” she told Reuters in an interview at San Diego Comic-Con.

The upcoming season, which premieres on Aug. 29, will reunite friends as they work together in a war against the corruption of the rings.

At the end of the first season the character, Halbrand, played by Charlie Vickers, was revealed to be the biggest villain in the “Lord of the Rings” franchise named Sauron, who wishes to rule Middle-Earth. This reveal, according to Vickers, brings chaos into the second season.

"I think chaos is a good word to describe it, especially towards the latter episodes,” he said.

“A lot of things start happening at once and there are huge battles. There is a battle that lasts for three episodes, I think. It is chaotic, that's a good word. Sauron is a trigger for a lot of the chaos, I suppose, through his manipulations of people," he said,” he added.

Stars have returned to the San Diego Comic-Con after the 2023 dual writers’ and actors’ strikes led to a subdued Comic-Con last year with no A-list celebrities or Hall H panels, which are known for delivering some of the biggest industry news.

(Reporting by Danielle Broadway and Rollo Ross; Editing by Marguerita Choy)