First Look At New Characters From Amazon’s ‘The Rings Of Power’
One of the most controversial topics of discussion around Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series is that there are quite a few announced new characters to Middle Earth. These characters are not at all based on any of the characters that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in his stories. Although, from what we do know so far, they seem to fit into the story like Tolkien characters, with their names and who they are. It remains to be seen how these multiple new characters will affect Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth and how divisive their inclusion will be among die-hard Tolkien fans and fans of the show.
The new characters in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series include elves, dwarves, men, and, of course, the Harfoots, the ancestors of the Hobbits, since Tolkien only ever mentioned them in passing and not in detail. A few of the more prominent new characters are Halbrand played by Charlie Vickers. Halbrand is a human character who is “running from his past” according to showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. He reportedly joins up with a younger Galadriel (played by Morfydd Clark), in the early episodes of the series. Arondir is another new character, a Silvan Elf, who is played by Ismael Cruz Córdova. Bronwyn is a human mother and healer, and is played by Nazanin Boniadi. They are both pivotal characters in the show from what fans can tell from promotion material and what Payne and McKay have hinted at. What is interesting about them is that they are in a forbidden relationship. It is unclear whether or not their relationship was added due to the inability to include the most famous of forbidden relationships between an elf and a man: Beren and Luthíen. Amazon does not have the rights to The Silmarillion which is the only book that has that tale in it, so they could not use it in the show. The other famous couple is, of course, Aragorn and Arwen. It seems as though Payne and McKay and the writers wanted to have the same relationship (drama?) in this series and decided to create their own characters. It remains to be seen how they handle it and whether or not they can pull it off so fans actually like the characters.
A few other notable new characters are Lenny Henry as a Harfoot elder, Markella Kavenagh as Elanor “Nori” Brandyfoot, another Harfoot, and Sophia Nomvete as Disa, a Dwarven Princess. There are a few others as well, but these are the ones who seem to have gotten more “screen time” with promotional material and articles so far. It remains to be seen how much of a role they will actually have in the series and whether or not their additions are up to the fan’s expectations or they fall flat as new characters.
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Recently, Amazon confirmed the rumored casting and character of Bronwyn’s son, Theo. Theo will be played by Tyroe Muhafidin, a 16-year-old Australian actor in his first major role. Bronwyn and Theo live in the village of Tirharad, which is a place made up for the Amazon series. It is supposed to be a village of Men near Harad in the south of Middle Earth.
With the official announcement of Tyroe’s casting as Theo, Amazon released more photos of the character. The poster photo was released in February with the rest where the characters are holding special items to their characters. Although at the time, we had no idea who was holding the sword or its significance. Now we have a bit more.
In the photos, it seems like Theo’s special item is a broken sword, which is always intriguing. This one seems very ornate and according to speculation by TheOneRing.Net, could be marked with black speech although the origin and nature of the sword are unknown as of now. It does not look like the nicer swords of Aragorn and Gandalf and does look like it could very well have been crafted by Sauron or Sauron’s alias, Annatar in Númenor perhaps. In Tolkien’s lore, the Númenoreans did colonize Haradwaith to the south of Gondor. We also don’t know yet what happened to Theo’s father. Perhaps it is a mysterious heirloom passed down from him, which is a pretty typical yet effective plot for a fantasy story.
With Theo’s character confirmed, we are starting to see more of the storyline between Theo, Bronwyn, and Arondir. In the photos released, there is also one of Bronwyn standing by a stream with very Middle Earth-esque background around her. It seems like the village is pretty rustic and definitely almost has Rohan vibes.
These photos released are exciting and yet also leave us with more questions. Where is Bronwyn standing? What does her clothing say about her character? What is the sword that Theo has, and how is it all connected? And most importantly, will these characters live up to Tolkien’s iconic cast of characters. It remains to be seen, but the photos show some very intriguing characters. The Rings of Power is set to release the first episode on September 2, 2022.
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Source(s): Wikipedia, The One Ring, Lord of The Rings Wiki