‘Rings of Power’ Director Breaks Down Season 2 Finale Deaths, Film Homages and The Stranger’s Real Name

Note: This story contains spoilers for the “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Season 2 finale.

“The Rings of Power” wanted to go darker in Season 2 and the finale definitely delivered on that promise.

The finale saw heroes lose in every corner of Middle-earth. The elven city of Eregion falls to the orcs, Númenor ousts The Faithful and arrests Queen-Regent Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), and Sauron (Charlie Vickers) gets his hands on the nine rings for men.

On top of all that, a number of characters die in bloody fashion. Sauron gets what he wants from Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) and runs him through with a spear in his forge. The Dark Lord also manages to turn the orcs against Adar (Sam Hazeldine) who betray the fallen elf just as he’s decided to team with Galadriel (Morfydd Clark).

“I wanted this season to — since we know who Sauron is now — we needed to get into the character moments, we needed to make it darker, we needed to make it more dramatic,” Charlotte Brändström – who directed the finale and a number of of other Season 2 episodes. ” And then I said, we actually want it to be a bit grimmer and grittier. I wanted see the blood and feel the elements.”

But the episode wasn’t all dark. Rays of light managed to break through, teasing much for a possible third season. The big reveal being The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) finally getting named — yes, he’s Gandalf. He ends the season singing away with Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear) in his cabin contemplating his next steps.

After their crushing loss in Eregion, the elves also decided to go on the offensive rather than playing defense against Sauron. The episode closes with Gil-Galad (Benjamin Walker) holding his sword high and rallying the elves in the coming war.

Below, Brändström talks about Galadriel and Sauron’s inevitable collision, handling The Stranger’s name reveal, those “Lord of the Rings” film homages, and more.

TheWrap: Looking broadly at the finale: we get the Balrog grabbing Durin by the ankle with his whip, Elendil drawing Narsil in a similar way to how Viggo Mortensen first draws the blade in “Fellowship of the Ring,” the ruins that Galadriel and Sauron fight in look a bit like Amon Hen. How much did you want certain shots in the finale to feel like an homage?

That was on purpose. I wanted those moments to be there, they’re iconic moments that I think are very important to keep and then at the same time I’m trying to tell the story in my unique way.

I definitely had these moments that were like an homage or iconic moment — after all we’re telling a very famous story and those moments are very important to keep I think.

At the beginning of the finale, King Durin says the prince can’t see the mountain the way he does because he doesn’t wear a ring. As a director, are you shooting scenes thinking how it might look for someone under the influence of a ring vs. not?

In that moment, I tried to play it more emotionally because it was father and son coming together. I think the subtext was really about that. It was to show that they understand each other. Prince Durin is trying to reason with his father and has hope for his father to turn around. It was really a father/son moment and I wanted it to be emotional because I knew what was going to happen.

When we finally get back to the Siege of Eregion, it opens on this long tracking shot of the chaos. What went into planning that oner?

I started watching a bunch of movies like “Saving Private Ryan” and then I went into “The Northman.” In that film, I was very impressed by the action scenes and the he handled it. There were some very long oners in the viking village. I thought, ‘Wow that’s a very interesting way to do it, I’d like to have one.’ So I spoke to Patrick [McKay] and he said we could put one in.

We planned it out, we walked it and then it was rehearsed a lot. We have such a great crew and collaborators, everything was so rehearsed and worked together on the day. There were some VFXs to it but a lot was done on the day: the climbing on the roof and jumping down, the camera was handed to someone else, there was a cameraman on a wire. It was a really true oner.

I actually shot it in two hours because we were so rehearsed. I had the whole day and I was done at noon. I was like ‘I’ve done five takes, what else am I going to do?’

Celebrimbor’s torture scene walks a line between brutality and subtlety. What conversations did you have with Charles and Charlie to get this moment right.

I love when he pushes down the arrow just a little bit. That’s a little thing I added when I shot it.

Celebrimbor wants to provoke him in the end so he kills him. He knows there’s no way out and he doesn’t want to have to say where the rings are. By dying he’d go away with his secret and not have to say he gave them to Galadriel.

We took a whole day rehearsing it with the two Charlies and it wasn’t too hard to rehearse – just making sure all the blocking made sense. It was a complicated scene to shoot because Charles Edwards – Celebrimbor – had to be on the wire. It took a day to shoot it and I constantly poured more blood. I remember we had to put blood in his mouth because when he died blood was supposed to come out, so not only was he pulled up on a wire but his mouth was full of blood.

Galadriel and Adar’s reunion in the finale feels heartwarming but it’s undercut with some unease because the scene is shot with dutch angles. What was your thought process in shooting the scene that way?

In Season 1, in Episode 6 that I did, there is a talk between Adar and Galadriel in the barn and I shot that whole scene with dutch angles to show she was out of balance. So I wanted to mirror that scene a little bit.

Then it actually becomes less dutch as they start to come together.

In a season touted as the Season of Villains, did you want Adar’s death to feel heroic?

Absolutely. It was important that he’s finally on her side and gives her the ring back and loses his face again. He’s ready to save his children, to do the right thing and the good thing and then he gets killed. It’s the irony of life.

A lot of this season has been building to Sauron and Galadriel’s collision. What conversations were you having with Morfydd and Charlie about their scenes and how they’re fighting should look?

I wanted it to be a performance piece. That was a sword scene that took a long time to shoot because of the changes in makeup. I said this was a scene where we couldn’t have a second unit, I have to do the whole thing. It’s about performance and building the tension between them. It wasn’t about doing cool shots, it was really about both their characters and how they’ll look at each other and how he constantly puts her out of balance.

What did you talk with Morfydd and Charles about when they momentarily get to play a shapeshifting Sauron?

I had a lot of conversations with them. You go through all the broad strokes but once you’re on set you build those moments little by little. You can’t explain it all to them because nobody remembers. I made a list throughout the scene of when I wanted the turns to happen, and how they’d happen, so I had that in the script.

Many fans have continued to ship Galadriel and Sauron – reading into their enemies to lovers energy from the first season. Did you want to implement any of that kind of tension into these scenes?

It was really important that we had that tension. She’s completely put off balance when she sees Halbrand. She can’t fight for a second because he really deceived her in the first season. She’s still humiliated by that.

On top of all of this happening in and around Eregion, you’re also handling the big two season mystery reveal of The Stranger’s identity. How did you want to approach that moment?

It was a big mystery but I think a lot of people had guessed it. Because I was sure a lot of people knew, I made it a big moment but didn’t want to make a huge moment out of it too much. There was a very important moment when he realizes who he is and he’s at ease and peace because he’s found his destiny.

Everything that Tolkien writes is about destiny and fate. I always say fate is something that happens to you and destiny is a choice.

By the time the credits roll, the heroes have basically lost across Middle-earth. How did you want to cap the season feeling those loses but still having some hope?

I wanted to feel hope. It was really important to me that they decide to fight back. As Galadriel says – the shield and the sword, are we going to hide or are we going to fight back. We wanted to prepare the third season and it’s about fighting back.

All episodes of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is now streaming on Prime Video.

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