Amazon Studios head says that production of The Rings of Power Season 2 is “moving fast.” In an interview with Variety, Jennifer Salke talked about how they were going to get the show out “as soon as possible.” The executive also mentioned the ravenous response to the first salvo of episodes. Much has been made of Amazon’s massive investment in the franchise. For now, that bet looks to be paying off as fans are tuning in for Rings of Power in record numbers. The idea of a Lord of the Rings prequel series made some members of the fandom very nervous. After that, some of the cast and crew had to speak up for the diverse casting decisions made on the show. But, through all of it, viewers have showed up in droves to see what people are planning in Tolkien’s established sandbox. Check out what Salke had to say down below.
“We want the shortest time possible between seasons, but we want to keep the bar just as high,” she began. “So it’ll take what it takes. But there’s been some urgency around moving quickly, which is why these guys have been writing all through their hiatus. We’re moving fast.”
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Director Wayne Che Yip spoke to Comicbook.com about some of the unique challenges with the series. There are some special camera tricks that have to be employed to make Middle-Earth really sing on-film.
“(Forced perspective) is hands down, was the hardest thing,” the director revealed. “The most challenging thing in the whole show was making different actors different heights; and typically, or just Sod’s law, the actor that you needed to play the smallest character would actually be the tallest person in real life. There was a lot of planning. But one of our main goals was to try and make the experience as natural as possible for the actors. Because at the end of the day, if the performances weren’t there, it didn’t really necessarily matter whether we made someone look tall or look smaller. And so we worked very hard with the visual effects department to make sure that the actors could always, to some extent, act with each other.”
He added, “And then, on top of that, we had the latest technology, the latest camera, visual effects technology. And we also used the most sort of rudimentary, most old school techniques as well. Nothing was off the table as long as it looked right. If it looked right in the frame, then that was what we went with. Sometimes it was motion control, sometimes it was digging a hole in the ground or having someone be on their knees.”
You can watch new episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premiere Fridays at 12 AM ET on Amazon Prime Video. The series is only available to watch for Amazon Prime subscribers, available on a monthly or annual subscription, but you can sign up for it here.
Do you think they can get Season 2 out by the end of 2023? Let us know down in the comments!