Colin Farrell has said he’s not sure he’s up for a second season of The Penguin because it’s really hard wearing all of the required prosthetics. It takes a whole lot of time and effort to transform him into the much larger Oz Cobb. But while Farrell grew tired of wearing all that extra bulk by season’s end, he still appreciates how his makeup team went the extra mile to make sure he had all the…girth…he need in the show’s premiere. The Penguin star said even though we didn’t see it, he was wearing an anatomically correct little penguin during his nude scene.

The Penguin‘s first episode ended with a naked Oz Cobb tied to a chair. Sofia Falcone had him tortured while questioning him about her brother’s murder. While a fantastic scene on its own, it really highlighted just how talented the show’s hair and makeup really are. We got to see all of Oz in all his glory. Mostly. Though completely naked we didn’t see the Penguin’s personal…south pole. Turns out if we had we would have seen a properly sized henchman for the character.

Farrell told Variety the show’s prosthetics designer Michael Marino was “kind enough to make Oz, shall we say, anatomically correct.” Marino did that by constructing a “velcro piece to stick on” to Farrell’s other body prosthetics. And as if that wasn’t enough, for extra naked authenticity, Farrell shared his character was also sporting “a nice retro bush.”

That’s how we looked after reading that. If you need a moment/lifetime to get over knowing this information, so do we. So. Do. We.

As for actually filming as a nude Oz Cobb, Farrell said it was “strange” and “discomforting.” Even though he wasn’t actually naked, he felt as though he was. In-between takes he asked for a towel to cover up because he “felt incredibly exposed,” even though he knew he was anything but.

Would he have felt that way without his phony phallus? Maybe. Maybe not. Unless he returns for a second season and films another nude scene without one on we will never know. What we do know is we’ve already thought about the Penguin’s penis too much already.

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The Fantastic Four’s main cast it all set. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Marvel doesn’t have many big roles left to fill in the MCU. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Recently, Brad Winderbaum, Marvel Studios’ Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation, shared which character he would want to green-light an MCU series for immediately if he could. He revealed, “I would wanna do the Danny Ketch era of Ghost Rider. I think there are a lot of people who would be here for some Ghost Rider.”

And he’s right, there are a lot of people who would be here for it. And that includes one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, who still wants to play one of the few remaining standout characters yet to debut in the franchise. Ryan Gosling still hopes Kevin Feige picks him to play Ghost Rider.

Last year, the Oscar-nominated Barbie actor (and star of both Drive and Place Beyond the Pines, it should be noted, considering the character) told Josh Horowitz he wants to play Ghost Rider in the MCU. While interviewing Gosling and Emily Blunt for The Fall Guy, Horowitz pointed out to Gosling he personally relayed the actor’s Ghost Rider dream to Kevin Feige. That means the MCU head honcho knows he has two A-listers vying for the role. Because, another person who would be here for some Ghost Rider is Keanu Reeves. When asked to name his ideal role, Reeves has also said he wants to play the character, too. Reeves has actually wanted to play Ghost Rider since he was 10!

Will Feige choose either when the time comes to cast the role? He should choose both! What’s the point of a multiverse if you can’t have both Gosling and Keanu play Ghost Rider.

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“Lucius, take your father’s strength. His name was Maximus, and I see him in you.”

Gladiator II‘s newest trailer dropped an epic bombshell in the Colosseum. Lucilla’s son Lucius is really the child of General Maximus from Gladiator. That familial bond will give Lucius’ story as Rome’s unlikely new hero greater meaning. But is this previously unknown connection simply a retcon? Or is it confirmation of something the original film was clearly suggesting? The answer depends on how good of a liar you think Lucilla really is.

Gladiator never revealed exactly what led to Maximus and Lucilla breaking up many years before the start of the film. All we learned was they had once loved each other very much when they were younger. We also learned they never really stopped caring for one another.

We don’t know the specific reason they broke up. The movie hints at some possibilities, none of which have to do with Lucius. It’s obvious things did not end well between them, though. Each had “wounded” the other deeply. Their first few interactions also showed Lucilla and Maximus both still felt the pain from their split. They experienced the kind of hurt you can only suffer from losing someone you truly cared about.

Both did move on, though. Lucilla eventually got married and she and her late husband had a son “nearly eight years old,” the same age of Maximus’ son with his wife.

Rewatching that conversation now, the first between the two in Gladiator, with the knowledge Lucius is Maximus’ son makes this revelation feel like a retcon. (As do all of the other times they talk about either of their children.) The scene is full of obvious animosity and distrust. An uneasy Maximus tries to walk away from her multiple times. It’s only when they talk about their kids that both Lucilla and Maximus show actual warmth towards one another. Their anger and awkwardness fades away for that brief moment.

In print, that might sound like evidence Lucilla was keeping the truth from him, but it doesn’t play that way in Connie Nielsen’s performance onscreen. It comes across as though their children are the one thing that separates the former lovers because neither child is connected to the other. Their shared pain comes from their previous relationship. Their kids were not a part of that. And at no point in the film, which implies the two broke up more than a decade ago, does Maximus ever think he’s Lucius real father. They don’t look alike, either.

That reading also works within the context of the story, because shortly after this moment Commodus orders the murders of Maximus’ wife and son. The loss of his own child helps motivate Maximus to work with Lucilla, whom he resents yet cares for. Her entire motivation in the film becomes protecting her son from his maniacal Emperor uncle. She doesn’t care about avenging her father or making Rome a republic once more. She only wants to keep Lucius safe. And she convinces an angry and untrusting Maximus she needs help by appealing to him as a parent. That helps win over the honorable Maximus.

But while the scenes where Lucilla discusses her son with Maximus make Gladiator II‘s revelation feel like a retcon, they’re not definitive proof they are for some very compelling reasons.

(Note: We’re talking retcon in a strictly in-world sense rather than what Ridley Scott originally planned nearly 25 years ago. This might be a true retcon off-screen, but were evaluating this question purely on-screen.)

Lucilla told Maximus she had “felt alone all my life” except when she was with him. She also told him her brother was jealous because both her and her father loved Maximus, and their love was the one thing Commodus craved. And she knew better than anyone her brother was completely unhinged and not even she could control him if in certain cases. That’s exactly why she never would have—or even could have—told Maximus Lucius was his child while Commodus lived. Her number one motivation after her brother killed their father was to keep Lucius safe, and the number one thing that would have endangerd her boy was that fact getting out.

She trusted Maximus to keep her song safe, but until Commodus was dead and Maximus ruled Rome, it was too dangerous to tell the General the truth. If Commodus ever found out his beloved nephew was really the child of the man he detested it would have meant Lucius’ head. Commodus would have done it, too. After the new Emperor found out his sister betrayed him he convincingly promised to kill his nephew if Lucilla so much as looked at her brother the wrong way ever again.

Could Lucilla have kept such an important secret from everyone for so long, even Maximus, while her dad was alive? It would have been easy for the eight or nine previous years before Gladiator. They didn’t see one another during that time. It would also explain why two people who loved each other so much split up and had so much animosity for one another. (Especially Maximus, who had far more anger for her than she did for him.) The unwed daughter of the Emperor getting pregnant with a Spanish soldier’s son would put them all at risk. Especially Maximus. Burying the truth was the only way to protect him.

If she broke up with him without telling him the actual reason why it’s easy to understand why she wounded Maximus so much. It’s also obvious why she would have kept that secret forever from Maximus. The general died moments after he killed Commodus.

Whether or not Gladiator II is truly retconning the identity of Lucius’ father comes down to one question: Could Lucilla have convincingly kept the truth from both him and the audience? There’s not even a hint of Lucius’ secret parentage in her words. There’s not even a slight look that suggest that. If it was always true she concealed it so well that even after decades of rewatching Gladiator we’re wondering if this is a total creation of a sequel desperate for meaning and connections to the original film. So could she have really been that good of a liar?

Everything we learned about her in the film says yes. Her father gave her the highest praise when he told her, “If only you had been born a man, what a Caesar you would have made.” That spoke to her political skills and tactfulness. Senator Gracchus also extolled her self-control under pressure during a tense meeting with Commodus. He told Lucilla, “Your lightest touch commands obedience.” She also conspired against her brother while simultaneously manipulating him. And when an angry Maximus grabbed her throat and accused her of lying, she calmly explained how she’d lived every day since her father’s murder in quiet fear. Sharing her real emotions would only imperil her son. But she was always able to manage those, even from those she loved.

Lucilla was smart, cunning, capable, and disciplined. And she desperately loved her son. If anyone could hide the dangerous truth about Lucius’ father from Maximus, Rome, her own father, Commodus, and everyone watching Gladiator it was her. So while you might rewatch Gladiator and think its sequel’s big revelation is a retcon, it’s still a totally believable one because we can believe Lucilla was so good at keeping a dangerous secret.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who saw Gladiator in the theater four times when it came out. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Here’s an idea that definitely makes sense: Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans co-starring in an action-comedy. No-brainer, really. Sign us up. Now here’s an idea that…uh…we’re not as sure about (to be polite): Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans co-starring in an action-comedy Christmas movie that looks like a fake Saturday Night Live sketch. Who would produce such a strange film about a manhunt for Santa Claus? Amazon MGM Studios. We know because there are multiple trailers for Red One.

Buff Santa Claus is missing and the North Pole needs help. As do we after seeing this trailer, which is really silly, really cheesy, and really unbelievable. No, seriously, we’re having a hard time believing it. We’re positive this isn’t a practical joke, right? The official press release we got would indicate it’s not. As would the movie’s official synopsis:

After Santa Claus – Code Name: RED ONE – is kidnapped, the North Pole’s Head of Security (Dwayne Johnson) must team up with the world’s most infamous bounty hunter (Chris Evans) in a globe-trotting, action-packed mission to save Christmas.

Directed by Jake Kasdan (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) the script comes from longtime Fast & Furious scribe Chris Morgan. The film also stars Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju, Nick Kroll, Wesley Kimmel, and J.K. Simmons as Old Swole Nick.

We pretty much like everyone involved in this film, so we’re not dismissing it out of hand. It could prove to be the good kind of silly. But hoo boy some of the “jokes” in this trailer are truly painful. If saying so gets us put on the naughty list so be it. Or at least that’s what we would say if we weren’t so scared of buff Santa and his giant head of security.

Red One comes to theaters just in time for the holiday season, on November 15, 2024.

Originally published June 25, 2024.

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Maximus Decimus Meridius bravely gave his life to fulfill an old man’s dying wish. Unfortunately Gladiator II shows that Rome did not become a Republic again following the General’s sacrifice. That doesn’t mean it was made in vain, though. His legacy did live on. And in more than one way. The new trailer for Ridley Scott’s sequel shows how terrible Emperors make a formidable enemy who personally witnessed how Maximus stood up to an Empire. Now he’s bringing more than just his own quest for vengeance to the Colosseum. He’s bringing real war. And he’s doing so with the memory of his father by his side.

Scott’s star-studded sequel looks as epic as the Empire it’s about. From wild primate and water battles inside the Colosseum, to political intrigue and a conquering army outside, a war for the very heart and soul of Rome is on the line. But how did a young prince end up a gladiator in the first place? Did it have anything to do with Lucius being Maximus’ actual son!? Here’s the film’s official synopsis from Paramount Pictures:

From legendary director Ridley Scott, Gladiator II continues the epic saga of power, intrigue, and vengeance set in Ancient Rome. Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.

Gladiator II stars Paul Mescal as the grownup Lucius, SON OF MAXIMUS. (Sorry, we’re very excited about that reveal.) The film also features Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Lior Raz, and Denzel Washington, the most stylish subject of Ancient Rome ever. Original stars Derek Jacobi and Connie Nielsen are also back for more swords and sandals fun. The script comes from David Scarpa (Napolean, All the Money in the World.)

The hope to returning Rome to a republic once more came from Marcus Aurelius. And the inspiration to actually make that happen came from Maximus.

We’ll find out if that dream finally comes true when Gladiator II arrives for war on November 22.

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Netflix is heading back to Night City. We just don’t know when. We don’t even know what the streamer is going to do when it returns there. And we definitely don’t know if this new animated story is connected to the site’s previous anime series set in the video game world. The streamer and CD Projekt Red released a “special announcement” trailer for a mysterious new Cyberpunk project. They just didn’t share any details about it.

As part of this year’s digital Geeked Week event Netflix revealed it’s getting back into Cyberpunk 2077‘s world of technology and body modification. This new animated series will seemingly just be known as Cyberpunk without any year designation just yet.

And that’s about all we actually know about it! The streaming site and CDPR only said “more info” is “coming soon.”

With so few/any details, the lack of information might be more telling. This will not be the first animated show from the franchise to debut at Netflix. In 2022 the two companies released Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, an animated miniseries based on CD Projekt Red’s video game. That ten-episode season told the story of “a street kid trying to survive in Night City” by becoming “a mercenary outlaw also known as a cyberpunk.” This brief teaser also makes no mention of Studio Trigger, which was behind Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

It’s certainly possible this new series could have a direct connection to the previous one, either through recurring characters or plot. The change in title and a complete lack of nods towards it has us lenaing towards this new show being an all-new thing. We’ll just have to wait to find out.

In the meantime, fans of the franchise can celebrate the total turnaround it has undergone since the original game’s less than stellar debut. It did not initially live up to its highly anticipated release. (To put it kindly.) Yet here it is about to have another anime spinoff series. The fact we don’t know anything about it doesn’t change how telling that fact is.

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On The Rings of Power season one, the orcs, following their mysterious leader Adar, searched for a powerful weapon. We were curious about the weapon, itself, but also wondered, just who is The Rings of Power‘s Adar? In the sixth episode of the show, Adar and his orcs get their wish and found their weapon. But, while Theo’s sword hilt may have given Adar’s children a dark new home on Middle-earth, the episode also revealed more than the creation of Mount Doom. It revealed Adar no longer serves Sauron, as we initially thought the mutilated elf might. Throughout The Rings of Power, we’ve slowly uncovered Adar’s true identity. The show has offered us insight into the one-time elf, his origins, and why the otherwise hateful orcs adore Adar as they do. As we delve into season two of The Rings of Power, here’s what we know about Adar, the Lord-Father of Orcs/Uruk.

Jump to: Who Are the Orcs? // The Orcs’ Tolkien History // Adar as the First Orc Created by Morgoth // The Meaning of the Word Adar // Why Did Adar Turn on Sauron? // Adar and Sauron’s History // Adar Recast on Rings of Power Season 2 // Adar’s Future

Who Are Lord of the Rings’ Orcs?

On The Rings of Power, the orcs follow Adar. And so, first understanding these creatures helps us to understand their leader. Orcs, called goblins in The Hobbit, have loomed large in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world since the beginning. The Lord of the Rings‘ orcs served Morgoth during the Years of the Trees before the First Age. And they continued as soldiers of evil until the end of Middle-earth’s Third Age.

Ugly, violent creatures, orcs hate almost everyone and everything. That includes themselves. This is why it’s so interesting that The Rings of Power‘s orcs do not hate Adar. They also abhor natural beauty and handcrafted works. But that doesn’t prevent them from making things themselves. From weapons and tools, to torture devices and machines of war, Lord of the Rings‘ orcs are crafty.

Orcs live in darkness, most notably deep inside mountains. They are excellent tunnel builders who shun the sun whenever possible because the light burns them. That’s why on The Rings of Power, Adar and the orcs had elves and humans digging for that missing sword hilt. And why the orcs wear robes if forced to go out during the day. They cannot go into the light.

While it’s unclear exactly how long orcs live, one infamous orc was at least 150 years old. And though they lack anything resembling culture, orcs are also much smarter than they look and have great stamina and strength. We know we’ll be seeing nearly 1,500 Orcs in season two of The Rings of Power.

The History and Origins of Middle-earth’s Orcs and The Rings of Power‘s Adar

J.R.R. Tolkien himself changed the origin story of orcs during his lifetime. At one point, he said Morgoth created orcs through sorcery from “the heats and slimes of the earth.” But the author later wrote that only the supreme being Eru Ilúvatar could create life. (Well, minus when the Valar Aulë created dwarves.)

Morgoth’s inability to make life was one of the things that made him jealous of Ilúvatar in the first place. That’s why he needed one of the supreme being’s own “children” to bring orcs to the world. So if Morgoth didn’t create orcs, where did they come from? From Ilúvatar, just not the way he made them. And it is that very The Lord of the Rings tale from which The Rings of Power draws Adar’s origins.

The accepted origin of The Lord of the Rings orcs is the one found in The Silmarillion. It says Morgoth kidnapped some elves when they first awoke in Middle-earth, before the Valar could find the first “children” of Ilúvatar. He then used dark magic to transform them into horrible creatures who served him, just as they would eventually serve the next Dark Lord, Sauron.

The Rings of Power confirms that this history is actually Adar’s own. The truth comes out in a scene between Galadriel and Adar in The Rings of Power season one.

Adar as the Elf Who Became the First Orc, Created by Morgoth

Galadriel more or less reveals exactly who Adar is in The Rings of Power‘s sixth episode. She tells us that she heard stories about elves like Adar. He is one of the elves Morgoth “tortured” and “twisted” into “a new and ruined form of life.” She called those elves, the first orcs, “the Moriondor, the Sons of the Dark.” In The Rings of Power season two, we get a bit more information about this. Adar shares, “Thirteen of us were chosen to be blessed of Morgoth’s hand with the promise of power, a new birth.” That leaves us curious to know the fate of the other 12 Moriondor. Did they go on to create orcs as well?

Regardless of what happened to the other elves, in season one, Adar says his children prefer another name: Uruk. And he defends his children’s right to live and have a home by saying orcs are creations of “The One, Master of the secret fire.” According to Adar, orcs have names and hearts, just the same as Galadriel, and by extension, Adar, who links them all together. In one scene, The Rings of Power confirms both Adar’s identity, an elf turned to evil by Morgoth, and the origins of orcs, once and for all.

Why The Rings of Power‘s Orcs Call Their Leader Adar, The Elvish Word for Father?

Now we know that Adar is literally the orcs’ father on The Rings of Power. So, it thus makes sense that the elves call him “Adar.” In Sindarin Elvish, “Adar” is the word for “father.” (The Sindar spoke their own version of Elvish because they never made it to the land of the Valar like other elves. After awakening in Middle-earth, they never left, same as the kidnapped Moriondor.) Pretty obvious if you think about it.

But as strange as it sounds for orcs, the love Adar shows for them is reciprocated. The orcs are all Adar’s offspring, and he cares for them, just as he is the only figure orcs truly care for in all of Tolkien’s Middle-earth. The use of the word “Father” when it comes to Adar thus feels more emotional than just a factual title. Through Adar, we get a whole new look at orcs on The Rings of Power.

Are There Female Orcs on Middle-Earth?

If orcs are made from elves, do they replicate like elves, too? Some believe that Morgoth’s creatures (which include orcs, werewolves, trolls, dragons, and more) self-reproduce. However, we actually get to meet some female orcs on The Rings of Power. Adar confirmed this idea when he spoke of “brothers and sisters” among his orcs in season one. And in season two of The Rings of Power, we actually get to see an orc family, complete with father, mother, and baby. D’awww!

For now, though, the specifics of orc reproduction is unknown. (Which is almost certainly for the best.) But it’s not unreasonable to think it is a slow one since Sauron sometimes hid for thousands of years while gathering and reinforcing his army. The forces of evil always needed more orcs because, unlike elves, they don’t live forever. And the further removed from their father, Adar, the less like him they become.

Why Are Orcs So Different From Adar on The Rings of Power?

Adar has lived for thousands of years and remembers Beleriand (a land that went under at the end of the First Age) because he’s an ageless elf. That’s also why, unlike his children, the sun does not burn him. Adar can still feel the warmth from the sun of the Valar, which he says he will miss when it’s gone. But despite Adar and his past, The Rings of Power‘s orcs are not elves.

The orcs get uglier and more twisted the further removed they are from their elf ancestors and Ilúvatar. That’s also why the orcs of the show’s Second Age don’t even look as hideous as their ancestors of the Third Age. Those differences and vulnerabilities are a big reason why Adar turned on Sauron, who saw his children as disposable.

Why Did Adar Turn Against Sauron?

Adar had his orcs digging for the sword hilt Theo possesses, but he wasn’t doing it for Sauron. In fact, Adar believes he killed Sauron. The one-time elf was doing it for his orc children whom he loves, many of whom Sauron had sacrificed in his quest to rule Middle-earth. Adar wanted to give The Rings of Power‘s orcs a new home, one where they would not only be safe from light but safe from Dark Lords who treat them as disposable. Neither Morgoth nor Sauron ever loved orcs. They were slaves in service of evil.

Adar thinks he not only stopped serving Sauron, but that he also stopped the Dark Lord forever. Adar tells Galadriel that he killed Sauron himself. In a flashback revealed during The Rings of Power season one, episode one, we actually see Adar and the orcs attack Sauron until he appears to disintegrate. But alas, it’s not that easy to kill a Dark Lord.

The history of orcs says his desire to take care of his children guaranteed them another age of servitude. Adar brought Mount Doom from the depths of the earth. It will be orcs’ new home, free from the sunlight that plagues them, as he desires, but Sauron will be the one to rule over it. Sauron needs the fires of Mount Doom to forge the Rings of Power, a fact that Adar could not have known. But in seeking solace, Adar has given Sauron everything he needs to bring his evil down on Middle-earth.

The Rings of Power Season 2 Reveals More About Adar’s Backstory and His History with Sauron

In season two of The Rings of Power, we find out that Adar’s betrayal of Sauron is a bit more intimate than we once thought. In fact, the pair have a deep history that stretches back into the ages of Middle-earth. And this history goes beyond just a bad leader and his angry general.

In the first episodes of The Rings of Power season two, Adar takes Sauron, who is posing as Halbrand, captive. Sauron is, of course, deceiving him, telling him that it’s the elves who are working with Sauron and that Halbrand can help him. Adar eventually agrees to make a deal with Halbrand in order to “stop Sauron,” but not before imprisoning and torturing him.

When Adar eventually comes to release Sauron from this fate in The Rings of Power season two, episode one, he tells Halbrand a little bit more about his backstory and history with Sauron. He offers, “I was in your place once, in the eldest of the elder days. Thirteen of us were chosen to be blessed of Morgoth’s hand with the promise of power, a new birth. I was led up to a dark and nameless peak, chained and left. And after what seemed endless thirst and hunger, I saw it. His servant’s face, Sauron’s face. And it was beautiful. He offered me wine, red as a blood moon. He offered me wine and on that dark and nameless peak. I drank it, I drank it all.”

Without a doubt, this “rescue” deeply resonated with Adar, enough that he still thinks of it now. We’ll have to see if The Rings of Power season two shines a light on how that seeming gratitude turns into resentment and hate enough to attempt to kill Sauron.

Adar and Galadriel Could Team Up Against Sauron

Of course, Sauron isn’t dead. Adar can’t be certain if that’s true, but he is marching on Eregion now to make try and find out. On the way, he encounters Galadriel in the woods and seems to successfully trap her. The pair have had a stormy relationship so far on The Rings of Power, but it’s possible the threat of Sauron will trump all. Teasers from the series seem to hint that the pair might team up against their mutual foe as The Rings of Power season two progresses. We’re certainly hoping for that.

In the latest episode of The Rings of Power, Adar suggests to Galadriel that they could be allies, but though Galadriel seems to come to an agreement with him on this point. Adar turns away from her in the end, noting that she’s given him everything he needs. He intends to march against Sauron and Eregion, hoping to destroy Sauron with his very own iron crown, which has pieces of Morgoth’s helm in it. To us, it seems like the wiser play would have been to join with the elves. But we’ll have to wait and see what befalls Adar and his children as The Rings of Power draws to an end.

Adar Recast on The Rings of Power Season 2—Sam Hazeldine Replaces Joseph Mawle

In bittersweet news, in 2023, we learned that Sam Hazeldine would replace Joseph Mawle as Adar in season two of The Rings of Power. Recasts can be tricky, but we hope that the character will continue his journey and evolution into this next season of the show. It certainly sounds like there will be a lot in store for Adar. In June 2024, we got our first look at the newly recast Adar, and we felt pretty good about what we saw.

Sam Hazeldine previously acted in Peaky Blinders and appears on The Sandman. While we have no doubt he will do a great job in the role, we will miss Mawle’s version of Adar. We’re glad that Hazeldine appears to capture the same balance of tragic and antagonistic that Mawle did so far into season two of The Rings of Power.

The Rings of Power season two will likely continue to delve into this duality in Adar. Showrunner JD Payne recently noted to Vanity Fair, “You’ve got Sauron, who is not cloaked behind the guise of [the human refugee] Halbrand anymore. The audience knows he’s Sauron, so now we’re watching him maneuver as he’s manipulating [the burn-scar covered dark elf] Adar, who’s another big villain of the season.”

You can see Sam Hazeldine in action as Adar in some of The Rings of Power season two’s sneak peek clips.

Adar’s Future on Season Two of The Rings of Power

It would seem that on The Rings of Power Adar even christened the new land with the name Sauron will use, Mordor. But there’s unlikely to be a place in Mordor for an Adar that orcs will love more than they fear Sauron. In the final episode of The Rings of Power season one, Halbrand, who we now know to be Sauron, seems to refer to Adar as his enemy. And with Sauron already manipulating Adar to his ends, it feels like trouble ahead.

Charlie Vickers who plays Sauron, has given us some insight into what will transpire between Adar and Sauron in season two of The Rings of Power. In an interview Vickers offers more about the interaction between himself and Joseph Mawle, who originally played Adar:

Joseph and I worked really hard in creating that story and it’s something we see more of in the second season. We see Adar and Sauron’s time and how they first connected. Adar’s going to have to do some saying sorry at some point though [for what he did in season one].

It sounds like Vickers is already alluding to Sauron threatening Adar’s existence. A newly released description of Adar’s journey this season on The Rings of Power season two seems to echo this, noting:

Having secured a home in Mordor for the orcs, in Season 2, Adar faces an unexpected threat when he learns that Sauron, the former master he betrayed and murdered, is alive and well – and scheming to take back everything Adar has taken from him.

Well, we know who Adar is now, but he also may have just sealed his fate on The Rings of Power. We’ll have to continue to tune into The Rings of Power season two as it airs this fall.

Originally published on September 12, 2022.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post Who Is Adar on THE RINGS OF POWER? A History of LORD OF THE RINGS’ Orcs appeared first on Nerdist.

The Rings of Power has made one thing very clear: Galadriel is right. A long-dormant evil is rising in Middle-earth. Orcs are kidnapping entire villages. Strange beasts are wandering the countryside and destroying ships. And the land itself has spoiled, not to mention erupted. But the forces of good might soon find help in a new ally. Well, new to them, at least. Because the Stranger who arrived on a comet might be an old supernatural being. He might also be the first incarnation of a great hero The Lord of the Rings fans know and love. And you don’t have to be a wizard to see why. Especially not if you can see gray. More and more, we’re thinking the Stranger on The Rings of Power might be the wizard Gandalf himself.

Who Sent the Comet That Carried the Stranger?

No man, elf, dwarf, or orc could have survived a comet crash. Of course, no mortal race in the world can travel via small meteorite. It would take an entity far more powerful than any who walks Middle-earth to send someone careening through the sky. There’s only one logical explanation for who sent that celestial traveler: the Valar.

The Valar are supernatural entities who watch over Middle-earth. They are the most powerful beings in the universe besides the supreme Ilúvatar. For centuries the Valar did not interfere in the great battle of Middle-earth’s First Age. They looked on from afar as the “children” of Ilúvatar suffered at the hands of the original Dark Lord, Morgoth. (Himself one of the Valar.)

The Valar eventually relented and came to Middle-earth to defeat Morgoth for good. That victory ended the First Age. But the Valar then returned to their own western continent of Aman. That’s where Valinor sits, the realm to which Galadriel refused to return at the end of episode one.

While The Rings of Power takes place during the Second Age, we know the Valar got involved in the great war of Middle-earth’s Third Age. However, rather than come again themselves, they sent five Maiar.

The Maiar are powerful spirit servants who helped the Valar shape the world. But the Valar sent them to Middle-earth inside the bodies of old men. Called the Istari, The Lord of the Rings fans know those five-robed, bearded, wise figures as wizards.

Before We Consider Gandalf, Is The Rings of Powers‘ Stranger Even a Wizard?

By the start of the Third Age, the Valar had separated Aman from the physical world. So wizards came to Middle-earth from the sky. (Repeat: from the sky.) The Valar sent them to assure the world the Valar had not forsaken Middle-earth nor its people in their renewed fight against the returning Sauron. One wizard, above all, aided Middle-earth in defeating Sauron for good before returning to reclaim his place in Aman.

In order to be Gandalf, The Rings of Power‘s Stranger would first have to be a wizard. As it transpires, the confused old man Nori miraculously found in a field of fire where the comet crashed—millennia before wizards arrived during an entirely different age—does possess many of the same powers wizards had.

What are the Stranger’s Powers on The Rings of Power?

The paranoid, unusual, easy-to-anger Stranger arrived nearly naked and acting erratically on The Rings of Power. He survived his crash but doesn’t remember how to fully communicate. He’s not even sure who he is or why he’s here. Hearing Nori say he’s “good” seemed to be a revelation for the Stranger, who fears he’s going to accidentally hurt the Harfoots.

That’s because despite his confusion, The Rings of Power‘s Stranger still incredibly powerful. He’s also unquestionably far more skilled than any race of Middle-earth. He can move things with his mind. He can pick up monstrous wolves and throw them, or run them off by hitting the ground and causing a huge shockwave. And his scream, which turned the world dark, doesn’t just shake everything around him. That terrifying, inhuman roar seems capable of destruction.

He’s also impervious to fire. The fire from his comet didn’t harm him. No surprise, then he could also pull flames into himself and snuff them out without injury. He also took Nori and Poppy’s fireflies and controlled them to form stars in the sky. Unfortunately, that also killed all the fireflies, which is one ability that should frighten everyone on Middle-earth. The Stranger can suck the life from livings things, though he did not take joy in killing the fireflies. Either that was unintended or a sacrifice required to use his magic. But because he’s not fully in control of himself or his abilities, he is paranoid and scared.

Nori is now scared of his powers, too. The Stranger instinctively came to her rescue and damaged his arm fighting wolves. He was able to heal himself by placing the injured limb in water, which iced over. But when Nori grabbed him, the ice also consumed her arm. He couldn’t even sense she was there, let alone keep her safe. We see the Stranger come into his powers in the final episodes of The Rings of Power, pushed to attack by the mysterious white-cloaked cult. Interestingly, when the Stranger annihilates the dweller on The Rings of Power, she turns into a moth, in perhaps another subtle connection to Gandalf, who is known to talk to the creature in The Lord of the Rings‘ movies.

But while he can destroy, he can also create. The Stranger touched a dying, burned tree and restored both it and the surrounding area to full life in a single night. He took a wasteland and gave the desperate Harfoots a verdant bounty.

So is the Stranger a wizard? Well, he has more in common with the Istari than any creature ever born on Middle-earth. And Poppy herself realizes he’s no man or elf but “something else.” And, of course, The Rings of Power confirms that the Stranger is an Istar in its finale. The cult of Sauron tracks him down, thinking he is their leader, only to name him a wizard instead.

So the question just remains, is The Rings of Power using the Stranger to introduce Gandalf?

What Is the Stranger Trying to Tell Nori on The Rings of Power?

Like Nori, deep into The Rings of Power‘s episodes, we still don’t what the Stranger is trying to communicate. What did those drawings on the rock, his first attempts at communication, mean? (They looked like runes.) What about the lines in the dirt the Stranger drew? Are they a map?

When the Stranger saw them, he repeatedly said, “Mana úrë.” in Elvish that translates to the question, “What is heat?” What is heat! But even with this knowledge, we can’t say for sure the purpose of these strange words from the Stranger.)

Finally, what’s the significance of the constellation the Stranger highlighted to Nori with fireflies? He seemed to find that exact same collection of stars on an old Harfoot parchment. Clearly, its significance dates back to a past era. Sadoc Burrows tells the Stranger those stars haven’t been sighted in thousands of years. Could the Stranger have seen them before? Where does their image come from?

Ultimately, we learn more about them from the mysterious white-cloaked cult following the Stranger also possesses the image of these stars. They point to the mysterious realm of Rhûn, where mystics and men lie in wait for a new power to arrive. We bet that’s a location we’ll surely go in season two.

But we can do something Nori can’t—we can also find meaning in both his size and appearance. Nori’s “giant” friend wears a tattered gray robe, has a long gray beard, and long graying hair. This powerful being sent through the sky by the Valar—who is impervious to fire, and has powers of a wizard—really loves the color gray.

And there’s only one figure in all of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth that fits the same description as The Rings of Power’s Stranger—Gandalf the Grey.

Is The Rings of Powers‘ The Stranger Actually Gandalf?

Tolkien’s unofficial notes for his fantasy world say that the two (of the five) Blue Wizards sent during the Third Age (Alatar and Pallando) had previously come to Middle-earth during the Second Age. So it’s possible wizards first came to Middle-earth long before anyone realized. Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales also says wizards “had need to learn much anew by slow experience” when they came to Middle-earth. The Maiar’s transformation into a physical body and their trip seem to leave them confused initially. All of this lines up a wizard like Gandalf with The Stranger on The Rings of Power.

We also know Gandalf—whose name among the Maiar is Olórin—occasionally walked among the Elves in disguise. So if he ever came to Middle-earth previously, they might not have even known the shapeshifter’s real identity and purpose.

Gandalf, like the Stranger, also had a special relationship with fire. It could not injure him, and he could create it from nothing to light torches with magic. Ultimately he also bore Narya, the Elvish ring of fire. Gandalf, who wrote on Bilbo’s door in runes, also talked to bugs and fought off wolves singlehandedly. And when the One Ring tempted him, the world turned dark as he screamed at Bilbo and Frodo, just as the Stranger did when Nori frightened him.

The otherworldly voices the Stranger heard also sounded a lot like the voice of Sauron that Frodo heard when he put on the One Ring. And, just like Gandalf, Sauron is one of the Maiar.

The Rings of Power season one’s final episode saw Nori and The Stranger head off to find parts unknown. The Stranger is now wandering Middle-earth, and Gandalf was known as the Wandering Wizard for traveling across the lands without a home to call his own.

But the connections between the two bearded men go even further. Gandalf the Grey died in The Fellowship of the Ring. His Maiar spirit did not depart Middle-earth for long. Ilúvatar sent a naked Olórin back to fight Sauron. Despite now being another entity entirely (but with the same spirit), the wizard let his former companions still call him Gandalf, only this time, he was Gandalf the White. However, at first, he did not even remember the name Gandalf. It took a few days for Olórin to piece everything together in his mind.

And what did Olórin, who was unquestionably “good,” do when he first returned naked to the world? “There I lay staring upward” from a mountaintop, he said, “While the stars wheeled over, and each day was as long as a life-age of the earth.” Like the Stranger does on The Rings of Power, Gandalf looked to the stars for guidance. That might be because both had the same mission on Middle-earth.

The Rings of Power seems to tease that the Stranger is Gandalf in its final season one episode. After the Stranger is named an Istar, or wizard, for certain, he also appears to echo Gandalf’s quote from The Lord of the Rings movies, telling Nori that when in doubt, she should follow her nose. Of course, it could be that the Stranger is a different wizard altogether on The Rings of Power. Only season two will tell us more.

The Rings of Power Season Two Will Reveal More About the Stranger

The Stranger is heading off on some new adventures in season two, that surely will help us determine his identity once and for all. The wizard has even met the enigmatic being, Tom Bombadil. Of course, Tom Bombadil isn’t in any hurry to get into the fray himself, but he does tell The Stranger that his destiny is to face both Sauron and the Dark Wizard of Rhûn. He also tries to encourage The Stranger to give himself a bit more over to fate and destiny. Tom Bombadil notes to The Stranger that both a staff and powers are his to weild… when he proves himself worthy. Something he has not yet done. Perhaps he will both prove himself worthy and find his name in one fell swoop.

Most importantly, though, Tom Bombadil offers The Stranger this quote in The Rings of Power season two, episode six. He notes, “Many that die deserve life, some that live deserve death, who are you to give it to them?” This is very eerily reminiscent of line that Gandalf will later tell Frodo speaking about Gollum, “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them?” This latest line really does make us feel like The Stranger is slowly transforming into Gandalf.

A newly released description of The Stranger’s journey in The Rings of Power season two reveals a little bit more about what we can expect from him. It shares:

In search of his origins and purpose, in Season 2 the mysterious, magic-wielding Stranger seeks the constellation that has haunted him since his arrival to in Middle-earth – and the wizard’s staff he hopes to find under it.

Well, if we see The Stranger hammering a nail through his staff, we’ll know it’s a sign he really is Gandalf. In the meanwhile, we find it very suspicious that Poppy and Nori speak of his search for a staff as his search for a “Gand.” The Stranger is searching for a gand on The Rings of Power, you don’t say… It’s almost like The Rings of Power is saying, The Stranger is Gandalf. But we suppose it could be a misdirect. Gandr is an Old Norse word for “wand” or “staff,” but it seems pointed here.

The Stars of the Valar and Middle-earth’s Smallest Heroes

Varda, Queen of the Valar, created new, brighter stars before the elves awoke on Middle-earth. They were the first things the elves saw, and they loved them. But Varda created some to be more than beautiful lights. She arranged certain constellations to serve as warnings of future doom.

That’s why the Valar sent wizards to Earth during the Third Age, to help fight a coming doom. Now it appears the Valar did the same thing during the Second Age, too. Possibly with the same Maiar, Olórin. And if that’s the case, through the Stranger, The Rings of Power might have just shown why Gandalf put the world’s fate in the hands of Middle-earth’s small-folk.

Nori found the Stranger and refused to leave him. She kept him safe, in part, because she feels some unknown powerful entity sent this man to her. But also because Harfoots—the hobbits’ ancestors—are good, caring people. And after his discovery, he returned the favor by making sure her family did not get lost during the Great Migration. He protected them because the Stranger and Nori are already great friends who rely on each other.

The Valar sent the Stranger to Middle-earth. Like the stars he looks to above, his arrival is an omen of a coming doom. And if he really is Olórin, it’s easy to see why Gandalf trusted in the bravery, courage, and heart of hobbits—Nori’s showed Olórin their worth on Middle-earth long before.

Originally published on September 1, 2022.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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The Boys fourth season is days away from premiering, but we already knew it wouldn’t be the series’ last. Prime Video recently announced it had already ordered a fifth season. But now we know that season five of The Boys will also be its final season. Showrunner Eric Kripke took to Twitter to say that, after admittedly being “cagey,” he’s ready to admit season five will be The Boys supe swan song. Yes, The Boys will end with season five.

After it seemed as though The Boys might (maybe even likely) continue past season five, Kripke has surprisingly revealed it will actually end after five seasons. (Plus what should be at least two years of its spinoff Gen V.) The showrunner said that ending The Boys after five seasons was always his plan, which is both good and bad.

It’s good because it means Kripke is telling the story he set out to tell and it’s ending where he thinks is the show’s natural endpoint. But it’s bad because this means no more The Boys, one of the best, most consistently entertaining shows in TV history, after season five.

In full, Kripke’s message about the end of The Boys reads as follows, “The Boys Season 4 Premiere Week is a good time to announce: Season 5 will be the Final Season! Always my plan, I just had to be cagey till I got the final OK from Vought. Thrilled to bring the story to a gory, epic, moist climax. Watch Season 4 in 2 DAYS, cause the end has begun!”

Additionally, Kripke later shared, “This story of The Boys will not continue on. With any luck, Gen V will continue on, there will be hopefully a couple others in development that we’re talking about that can continue on, but The Boys story ends in season 5.”

Of course, this begs the question, does Eric Kripke know exactly how The Boys‘ ending will play out? It sounds like Kripke has a vision for season five of The Boys‘ very final moments… But not necessarily the whole arc of the season. Here’s what he had to say:

I’d say we’re squarely in the middle. Every season we know that we want Homelander to get a little more disconnected from reality, and we want Butcher to get a little scarier. The show is, at the end of the day, about these two forces charging towards each other, between Butcher and Homelander. I know that them finally smashing into each other, once and for all, will be a big part of whatever end game we come up with. But beyond that, and beyond knowing where I want Hughie, it’s like I know where I want a lot of the characters to end up. That’s what I would say. I actually don’t even necessarily know the climax of the show, as much as I know that 10 pages that happens at the end, when they say six months later, and you see where everyone is. I know where everyone is. Then my job, as whenever we get to it, my job is to just make sure we can back into that.

On top of this, Kripke warns fans that “there will probably be lots of death” to come in season five of The Boys and offers “no guarantee” anyone will survive. Additionally, he notes that since season five of The Boys is the final season, it doesn’t have to worry about anything after it and “you can have really shocking, big things happen all the time.” More shocking than what The Boys already has on offer? That’s a hell of a warning, indeed.

Recently, another The Boys figure, Giancarlo Esposito, commented on The Boys season five, noting, “I think it’s going to be a whirlwind season… Every show that comes to an end has an explosive ending in its final season, and The Boys is just such a very outrageous show, but also reflective of the world we live in now.”

With all that said, the end of The Boys is still a ways away. And f***ing hell, we are going to enjoy every last second of this series.

Originally published on June 11, 2024.

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Oz Cobb is coming to HBO, but like a true supervillain he’s arriving on his own terms. The Batman spinoff series starring Colin Farrell is launching with a very weird release schedule. The Penguin will debut on both the network and Max at nine p.m. on Thursday, September 19. But rather than stick with that night, the way most shows only air on a specific day of the week, it’s immediately moving to another. Starting with the second episode new installments will air Sunday night during one of the most sacred spots in all of television.

Oz Cobb is ready to take over Gotham, HBO, and Max with The Penguin‘s highly anticipated first episode. I’ve seen it and thought it was excellent. Unfortunately those who agree with me will have an extra few days to wait before getting the next one. Warner Bros. Discovery has revealed that instead of sticking with a Thursday night release schedule, the show will instead slide over to the nine p.m. slot on Sundays nights.

That’s excellent news for the series and how the company feels about it. HBO’s nine p.m. Sunday slot is the network’s most prestigious place on the TV calendar. That time slot has been home to revered mega hits like The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, and countless other critical and ratings darlings.

But if HBO is so high on The Penguin, why not just start the show on Sunday? Why kick things off on a Thursday? Some viewers will inevitably be upset when they turn on their TVs seven days later only to realize episode two isn’t on. Just as some will tune in the night of September 29 confused by a show “starting” with its second episode.

It’s chaos! Like Gotham City after the Riddler destroyed the sea wall!

Okay, maybe waiting three extra days is not that chaotic, but we doubt this would be happening if Carmine Falcone was still in charge. Oz Cobb has his work cutout for him if he wants to be in charge.

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WandaVision‘s nosy neighbor turned out to be far more dangerous than most sitcom characters. Now the show’s spinoff starring Kathryn Hahn has introduced its own mysterious witch. Aubrey Plaza is an entirely new Marvel character who clearly has a complicated past with Agatha Harkness. But who is she and what happened between them? And does she really want Agatha dead? Here’s what we know about Agatha All Along‘s black hearted green witch Rio Vidal so far.

What Marvel Comics Character Is Aubrey Plaza’s Agatha All Along Character Based On?

Rio Vidal, who says she has a “black heart,” is an original character with no direct or obvious comic counterpart in name or role. As of now she seems to be an entirely new figure in the world of Marvel.

Because Rio is a Green Witch, some have speculated she could be loosely connected to or even based on Marvel Comics’ villain Dian. He is a powerful evil sorcerer known as the Emerald Warlock. (Get it? Green Witch/Emerald Warlock? You get it.)

Beyond their names and the fact each has lived for hundreds of years (at least), there’s nothing to suggest the two characters are related. If they are, though, Dian’s history does provide some tantalizing possibilities. He once worked with Agatha Harkness and later became a major enemy of the Scarlet Witch, whom he battled with on the Witches Road.

What Is a Green Witch on Agatha All Along?

Agatha’s efforts to form a coven revealed that their are different kinds of witches living in the MCU. Some are divination witches, others are potion witches, and some are green witches. Green witches have a magical connection to the land, as revealed by Agatha using local gardener “Ms. Hart” (her real name is Sharon) as a green witch proxy.

What Happened With Rio Vidal and Agathan Harkness Before Agatha All Along?

Rio Vidal came to Westview to help Agatha escape (the now-dead) Wanda’s spell. It had locked Agatha inside her own mind as Agnes for three years. But once Agatha broke out of her faux police procedural, which Rio appeared in as an FBI agent, suggesting Rio had created that fake realit, the Green Witch, who is also a fierce warrior, attacked Agatha. She said she would have killed the powerless Agatha if not for witch rules that forbid it.

But why would Rio help Agatha break out of her mental prison if she hates Agatha? Was it only so the Salem Seven could finish off Agatha Harkness for her? Or is their love behind that animosity? The two witches violent interaction hinted at a previous romantic relationship that goes back many centuries. Rio also knew that Agatha’s original coven betrayed her, which is why Agatha attacked them.

Does Rio really want to see Agatha destroyed? Or did she show up in Westview to ultimately save someone she loves? Or is she looking for something a little less serious/more fun we wouldn’t expect to see on Disney+?

There’s so much more we have to learn about Aubrey Plaza’s Rio Vidal on Agatha All Along, and we can’t wait to see what other secrets she’s hiding.

The post Aubrey Plaza’s Mysterious AGATHA ALL ALONG Character Rio Vidal, Explained appeared first on Nerdist.

Adar told Galadriel his plan for defeating Sauron forever during episode six of The Rings of Power season two. The Uruk leader wants to combine the strength of the three elven rings with something just as powerful. He has the Dark Lord’s own crown. Only, Adar said that crown once belonged to someone else. He claims it was reforged from the Iron Crown Morgoth used to carry the famed Silmarils. Is Adar telling the truth? Or does he only think he’s telling the truth because “the deceiver” lied? To find out we must dig into J.R.R. Tolkien’s lore to see how The Rings of Power is connecting Sauron’s to Morgoth’s, either in truth or deception.

Morgoth was the most powerful of the Valar who brought evil to the world. (You can read more about him with our primer Who is Morgoth?) He was also the Dark Lord of the First Age, the era before The Rings of Power‘s time period. Sauron was Morgoth’s most loyal servant and hand-picked heir, but while more famous than his master, Morgoth was even more powerful.

Morgoth crafted his own Iron Crown in the volcanic mountains of Thangorodrim. He made it to hold the three famed Silmarils he’d stolen. Those were the jewels that contained the light from the Two Trees of Valinor. Celebrimbor’s grandfather Fëanor, the greatest elf craftsman whom Celebrimbor has been desperate to live up to throughout season two, made the Silmarils.

The Iron Crown was not easy to wear, but Morgoth refused to take it off. Ultimately he would be forced to wear it for eternity. When Morgoth finally fell in the War of Wrath the Valar beat the Dark Lord’s Iron Crown into a collar for his neck. They then threw the bound Morgoth into the Timeless Void outside of space and time. According to The Silmarillion that’s where the remnants of Morgoth’s crown remain. That’s likely the story Galadriel was told, the one she was about to reference when Adar cut her off during their conversation at dinner.

Adar tells a different tale of the crown’s fate. For while he says “there are many stories of what happened after the Silmarils were pried from (the Iron Crown’s) settings,” he was “there when Sauron re-fired it to to fit himself.” Adar says he was present when Sauron “kneeled to be crowned,” just as he was the one who used the crown to slay Sauron.

We saw Adar try—but ultimately fail—to kill Sauron in a flashback at the start of season two, so at least part of his story is true. What we didn’t see was Sauron actually finding and taking Morgoth’s crown. In fairness, we did not see the Valar turn it into a collar, either. So could Adar’s story be true? Yes, we just don’t know how yet.

The Silmarillion is a definitive text, but The Rings of Power is an adaptation that has not been bound by Middle-earth canon. The show does more than just fill in gaps or use a lack of lore to tell its story. (Like how it gave a backstory for the creation of mithril.) The series sometimes makes major change to Tolkien’s writings, like how it has reversed the order Celebrimbor forged the rings of power. (He made the elves’ rings last and without Sauron, not first with him like on the Prime video series.) Adar might have told Galadriel a totally true story within in the reality of the show.

Adar could also be telling the complete truth without breaking any Tolkienian lore considering what else we know about Morgoth’s Iron Crown. It had to be huge. Morgoth was gigantic, anywhere from two to three times bigger than the seven-foot elves he fought with during the First Age. His presence, as briefly seen during the Prime Video series’ first episode, was easily that large. The Silmarillion itself says Morgoth stood over an elven king “as a tower” and “cast a shadow over him like a storm cloud.” That’s how he’s always depicted.

Did the Valar need all of Morgoth’s humongous, lengthy spiked crown to make a single collar? What if they only needed some of its iron and left the rest behind? That would have been plenty for Sauron, who was around a third the size of his master, to make his own crown out of Morgoth’s.

For sticklers that might seem like a convenient way to technically not break lore while still being too loose with it, but it actually fits in seamlessly with other Middle-earth adaptations. Sauron’s crown, including in Peter Jackson’s films, is based on Tolkien’s description of Morgoth’s. Since Sauron was his chosen successor, that has always made sense. The Rings of Power is now building on that tradition in a meaningful way. This season has seen Annatar manipulate Celebrimbor into creating the rings of power. He’s been able to do that because the elven craftsman is desperate to best his grandfather and the Silmarils, the very thing Morgoth’s crown was made to hold. The history of Middle-earth, the elves, and evil are all connected.

This is Sauron we’re talking about, so it’s possible the story Adar “knows” is nothing but a lie. Sauron would have many reasons to claim his crown came from Morgoth’s. It would give him legitimacy and authority as Morgoth’s rightful heir. It would also serve as an imposing symbol and a feared source of actual power, one imbued with both Morgoth’s strength and that of the Silmarils, just as mithril is on the show.

If Sauron was lying that might explain why Adar couldn’t kill him with just the crown. That deception could now also be leading Adar down a faulty path. He hopes to combine Sauron’s helm with the elves’ rings Sauron himself helped make. Or it might be even simpler. It might be that Morgoth’s crown could never truly harm the original Dark Lord’s chosen one.

Whatever the truth is—as interesting and meaningful as it might be—it won’t change one thing. Sauron is coming back for his crown and he’s going to get it.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He never trusts Sauron, but this time? This time it might be different. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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The Office, fittingly, is never going to let us go. We’re clearly always going to be tethered to a sitcom desk. And not just because we can’t stop watching old reruns. The franchise that started in the UK before making waves across the Atlantic is still going strong. An upcoming spinoff will return the show to U.S. airwaves (likely) in 2025. But before it does, we’ll have another way to get our fix of workplace comedy with a very different kind of boss. Well, not that different. Because while the new trailer from Prime Video’s Australia remake of The Office features the franchise’s first-ever woman boss, she reminds us a whole lot of David Brent and Michael Scott.

Meet Hannah Howard (played by Felicity Ward), manager of the latest iteration of The Office. She’s heading up the Aussie version of the show, the first iteration in any country to ever star a woman. This trailer also introduces Lizzie (played by Edith Poor), who is clearly the show’s answer to “Dwight.” Steen Raskopoulos’ also joins them as Nick, who looks to be Australia’s version of Jim. Of course you can’t have a Jim without a Pam, and Shari Sebbens’ Greta will fill that role.

The rest of the cast includes What We Do in the Shadows‘ alum Jonny Brugh as Lloyd, who takes his job so seriously he lives at it. And Josh Thomson plays Martin, whom we already empathize with.

They all work at the fictional packing company Flinley Craddick. But its boss isn’t the show’s only twist. It will also see its characters responding to a post-COVID world. Here’s what Australia Prime Video said about the new boss show when it was first announced:

When she gets news from Head Office that they will be shutting down her branch and making everyone work from home, she goes into survival mode, making promises she can’t keep in order to keep her ‘work family’ together. 

We’re confident she’ll only be able to do some of that. And even less of it well. We’ll find out just how much when Australia’s The Office debuts at Prime Video on October 18.

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Parasite came out in 2019. That’s a lot longer than it feels, right? Not if you’re one of the many moviegoers who’ve been dying to see what director Bong Joon Ho will do as a followup to his Best Picture winner. It turns out he’ll be making Robert Pattinson die. A lot. The first trailer for Mickey 17 introduces an “expendable” employee in the most literal sense. His job requires him to give his life to his employer. And then he has to give it again. And then again, and again… in a film that looks like it will be more than worth the long wait it took to get another Bong Joon Ho movie.

Everything about this trailer is perfect. Visually it looks incredible. It also features an amazing premise, as it’s based on Edward Ashton’s novel Mickey 7. And it also boasts an incredible cast that will excel in a sci-fi comedy that will also deliver scathing social commentary. It’s basically everything we want in a movie. Also, if you’re a huge Robert Pattinson fan, it essentially has more than what you want since it has extra hims.

In addition to its not-so-expendable star, the movie also features Naomi Ackie (The Rise of Skywalker), Steven Yeun (Nope), Toni Collette (Hereditary), and Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things).

Bong Joon Ho also produces the film along with an equally impressive group. That includes fellow producer and longtime collaborator Dooho Choi (Okja, Snowpiercer). The film’s other producers include Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, who both worked on Moonlight and 12 Years a Slave.

Mickey 17 will come to theaters in the U.S. on January 31, 2025. The rest of the world will get a head start when it debuts outside North America on January 28. Will it prove to be as successful as Parasite? That’s a tall task for any employee, but we’re dying to find out.

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Talk about a Lando Calrissian spinoff movie starring Donald Glover began when 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story arrived in theaters. Eventually a potential Lando Calrissian movie became a greenlit series. In 2020 Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy announced the development of a Lando show for Disney+. Since then fans have waited for Disney to kick things into hyperdrive. Now the Lando series’ latest update might be the clearest sign yet it will really happen, just not anytime soon. Donald Glover himself will now co-writing the show for Disney+ with his brother Stephen Glover. But it’s possible the Lando series will actually return to its original movie form.

Haunted Mansion director Justin Simien’s week took an unexpected turn a while back. It was revealed that he was no longer writing the Lando series for Disney. That might not have been as big a surprise for him as we thought. Shortly before the news about the Glover brothers broke, Simien told The Hollywood Reporter he was still attached to pen the series. Since then Above the Line, who broke the news of Glover’s new role, reports Simien left the project last summer because of his Haunted Mansion duties. (Why be evasive about the Lando series? Simien likely didn’t want to announce news Disney didn’t want out in the world just yet.)

In September 2024, Glover spoke to The Wall Street Journal (via IGN) about the series, which he hopes will bring a bit more fun to the current state of Star Wars.

“As a Star Wars fan myself, I think it’s important that there needs to be fun being had. It’s very hard to have fun right now. It’s tough because there are very serious things happening and those are the only things that connect us, weirdly. So I get why things are serious, but part of the human experience, I believe, is we have a responsibility to have enjoyment. And I just feel like we’re lacking in that department.

“Star Wars, I love it, but sometimes it can be super serious. Sometimes it be, like, way too serious. Everything that has to do with the Skywalkers is like so serious. [With] Lando, I think the best part about him is he’s a scoundrel. And I feel like people can relate to that, and he’s probably like ‘man, this war is whack. I need money,’ which I feel everyone can relate to. I want to bring fun to Star Wars. I just want it to be fun.”

Questions arose as to the timetable of when Glover and his brother Stephen, with whom Donald has collaborated with before (Atlanta, Swarm), agreed to write the show despite the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in place at the time of the announcements. Disney hired the two before either began. But until each has resolved, we’re no closer to actually seeing the Lando series than we were before this report came out.

Additionally, it’s possible the Lando series won’t even be a series anymore. Recently, Stephen Glover noted on an episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, which we saw via Deadline, “It’s not even a show…The idea right now is to do a movie.” Although we’re still unsure what kind of a project the Lando one is, Donald Glover recently noted that it will have a very specific perspective. He shared with The Hollywood Reporter, “I feel like I have enough control. And maybe you get painted as a control freak, but it’s like, yeah, control allows for the vision to be singular. And if the vision is singular, people want it more. The less it’s singular, the less people want it because they feel like they could’ve made it.” It certainly sounds exciting.

The good news is that Donald Glover’s new role in series, movie, or whatever else essentially guarantees he’ll reprise the role as young Lando Calrissian. That was still technically in doubt. Whether Glover’s involvement in the Lando series means Billy Dee Williams will also appear as the elder hero of the Rebellion is yet unknown. (But we hope he will.) Just getting one of them back in the smuggler’s cape will be a better than getting neither of them. Hopefully, Disney will stop changing the deal and get Lando off the ground.

Originally published on July 28, 2023.

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The Witcher only has two seasons left on Netflix, but they won’t be the only new chapters in Geralt of Rivia’s story. Another spinoff animated film is set to debut at the streamer before The Witcher‘s live-action series returns. And now we know exactly when it will premiere. As part of this year’s Geeked Week event Netflix announced a February 11, 2025 release date for The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep. Since that’s still a long ways away for fans of monsters and magic, the site also provided something to tide them over until the movie arrives on its shores. Netflix also shared an all-new clip from the film. This The Wicher: Sirens of the Deep clip features Geralt and his best, slightly annoying friend, Jaskier.

Geralt and Jaskier talking? That’ll do. We’d watch a whole movie of that. But we’d like it to also be introduced by Dock Cockle, the voice of Geralt in both The Witcher video games and this animated film. This scene doesn’t feature any merpeople, though, so what’s going on. Well, it’s a watery tale centuries in the making. Here’s the official synopsis of The Wicher: Sirens of the Deep from Netflix.

Geralt of Rivia, a mutated monster hunter, is hired to investigate a series of attacks in a seaside village and finds himself drawn into a centuries-old conflict between humans and merpeople. He must count on friends — old and new — to solve the mystery before the hostilities between the two kingdoms escalate into an all-out war.

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep comes from director Kang Hei Chu, with a script from Mike Ostrowski and Rae Benjamin. The animation is the work of South Korea’s Studio Mir Co. (The Legend of Korra, Voltron: Legendary Defender.) Studio Mir Co. also worked on Netflix’s previous spinoff movie set in the Continent, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.

We were big fans of that film. Hopefully Sirens of the Deep makes as big a splash in the world of The Witcher. Knowing it’ll feature some quiet time between Geralt and Jaskier makes us think it will.

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Things got witchy in Los Angeles last night when Marvel Studios held its red carpet premiere of Agatha All Along at the El Capitan Theatre. But Hollywood and Westview weren’t the only municipalities well-represented during the event. Some of the most famous denizens of Pawnee, Indiana were also in attendance. Agatha All Along stars Kathryn Hahn and Aubrey Plaza had an impromptu reunion with fellow Parks & Rec alums Amy Poehler and Adam Scott.

For a brief moment ahead of Agatha All Along‘s big night, Kathryn Hahn went back to her old job in politics. Parks & Rec‘s high-price strategist Jen Barkley was posing with local Pawnee public servants April Ludgate and Leslie Knope when none other than Ben Wyatt showed up. Adam Scott jumped in for a delightful photo that will make fans of the beloved NBC sitcom very happy.

Poehler and Scott were both on hand to celebrate their former co-stars actual onscreen reunion. Plaza is joining the MCU on the Hahn-led WandaVision spinoff. Plaza plays Rio Vidal, a witch who knew Agatha long before Wanda Maximoff left Agatha powerless and trapped in Westview.

This impromptu Parks & Rec reunion for Agatha All Along makes us smile. But it really made the people who participated in it happy.

If we didn’t know Amy Poehler is a delightful human being, we’d think she showed up on the red carpet in character as Leslie Knope.

Since the MCU takes place in an infinite multiverse this raises an obvious question: what would Leslie and Ben think if they found out both Jen and April were actually witches? That probably wouldn’t surprise in them in the slightest, right? It makes sense. It just makes sense.

That would not be the case if Pawnee’s finest found out about Andy Dwyer’s Variant. That guy is a beloved guardian of the entire frickin galaxy. Meanwhile Andy could barely shine shoes in without messing up.

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The cast for Prime Video’s upcoming action-comedy Brothers is reason enough to watch. It stars some of our favorite performers. The film features Peter Dinklage, Josh Brolin, Marisa Tomei, Glenn Close, and Brendan Fraser. But Brothers‘ new trailer provides more than just some famous faces as a convincing selling point. Dinklage and Brolin play twins looking to cash in on one final, outrageous job. If they succeed it could change their lives forever. Failure could mean ruining what they have. But if they want to get rich they’ll have to survive each other first. That won’t be easy when they’ll also have to survive dealing with their long-lost mother, too.

You can check out the official trailer for Brothers (and all of Brolin and Dinklage’s antics) below.

Emotional, funny Josh Brolin is everything we need in life, which makes everything else going on in this wonderfully absurd trailer a true bonus. What’s going on between these two siblings? In addition to the trailer, here’s Brothers‘ official synopsis from Prime Video:

Brothers tells the story of a reformed criminal whose attempt at going straight is derailed when he reunites with his sanity-testing twin brother on a cross-country road trip for the score of a lifetime. Dodging bullets, the law, and an overbearing mother along the way, they must heal their severed family bond before they end up killing each other.

Brothers comes from director Max Barbakow (Palm Springs), with a script from Macon Blair (The Toxic Avenger). It also stars the late, great M. Emmet Walsh, as well as Taylour Paige and Jennifer Landon. And there’s also a big friendly primate named Samuel who we would steal any jewels for.

While Brothers will debut in “select theaters” on October 10, it will hit Prime Video everywhere one week later on October 17. That’s not too far away now, but just enough time to rewatch Brothers‘ trailer another hundred times. Will the twins Jady and Moke (truly amazing names) make it even a week together? That might depend on how long their mother is also with them.

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Hearing aids are not cheap. At least they haven’t been in recent history. However, that might change soon. For the first-time ever, the Food and Drug Administration has authorized an over-the-counter hearing aid software. The FDA has approved Hearing Aid Feature, a device that will work with versions of the Apple AirPods Pro headphones.

In an announcement giving Hearing Aid Feature (HAF) a greenlight, the FDA wrote that the software will “amplify sounds for individuals 18 years or older with perceived mild to moderate hearing impairment.” That will mean some Apple AirPods Pro headphones will now double as actual hearing aids. Users who install the software will then customize the the software for their own needs, as HAF “utilizes a self-fitting strategy.” How will that work? From the announcement:

The HAF is set up using an iOS device (e.g., iPhone, iPad), and the user’s hearing levels are accessed from the iOS HealthKit to customize the HAF. Users can refine the volume, tone and balance settings after setting up the HAF.

The approval came after a clinical study with 118 subjects in the US who are perceived to have mild to moderate hearing loss. HAF’s “self-fitting strategy achieved similar perceived benefit as subjects who received professional fitting of the same device.” The study’s results also showed “comparable performance for tests measuring levels of amplification in the ear canal, as well as a measure of speech understanding in noise. No adverse events related to the device were observed in this study.”

This type of product, which should prove far more economical than traditional hearing aids, once seemed impossible. It was only in 2022 when the FDA created an entirely new category of over-the-counter hearing aids for adults. Before that, those who needed hearing aids had to undergo a medical exam so they could get prescription and fitting adjustment by an audiologist. We love when technology changes the world for the better.

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Former X-Men ’97 showrunner and creator Beau DeMayo has shared what he claims was the original plan for Wanda Maximoff in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He says that version of the film would have featured Wanda as a great hero rather than the film’s greatest threat. At least she would have been until a shocking ending that saw her kill a beloved MCU character. The abandoned plot line is a fascinating and tantalizing glimpse of what could have been. The question is whether or not DeMayo’s account of the narrative is entirely true.

Marvel Studios shockingly fired Beau DeMayo in March, right before X-Men ’97 premiered on Disney+. Since then the acrimony between the two sides has only increased. That doesn’t mean DeMayo is lying about the original idea for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, though. It just means we can’t take what he says about Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff and Doctor Strange 2 as the absolute truth just yet.

But a lot of what DeMayo says sounds very possible and fits with official reports that aren’t in question. A lot of what he says about Wanda’s narrative also sounds very good.

DeMayo took to social media to comment on a story from ComicBookMovie.com about the scrapped plans for the Doctor Strange sequel. The post covered something said by Twitter/X user @MyTimeToShineH who wrote that concept art teased a dramatically different story than what the MCU delivered. In the first version, Wanda Maximoff and Doctor Strange would have teamed up immediately to chase down the movie’s main villain. Instead of Scarlet Witch, it would have been Nightmare. Ultimately, though, they said Kevin Feige wanted to go in a totally different direction.

While that claim about Scarlet Witch’s story is unverified, it would explain a big change behind the camera that happened. The original film’s director Scott Derrickson left the sequel in 2020. He cited “creative differences” and has since confirmed that’s really what happened.

Sam Raimi eventually signed on to direct, instead, with Loki writer Michael Waldron penning the script. (His own screenplay also underwent major changes.) In the final version of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Wanda Maximoff was the main antagonist from the start. But now DeMayo has added even more behind-the-scenes insights into the original plot of Doctor Strange 2 that flesh out the abandoned idea a whole lot more. It went to a very dark place.

In a series of tweets DeMayo laid out how the “OG drafts” for the Doctor Strange sequel did Wanda Maximoff “justice.” That included a cliffhanger twist that would have served as one of the most iconic moments in MCU history. DeMayo shares the following about Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange 2 in his thread:

Wanda was with Strange recovering after Westview, feeling bad about what she did. She helps him, Wong and Chavez (who she tutors) beat Nightmare across Multiverse, where she also sees her variants happy with her kids.

Still, Wanda resists and she — not Chavez — helps Strange save the day against Nightmare, who turns out to be a Darkhold-corrupted Strange variant. Also, she used her experiences in WandaVision to warn Chavez about abusing her power.

Only after saving the day, unable to resist finding a multiverse where she can be with her kids, does Wanda — sobbing — break from Strange and accidentally beheads Wong, who tries to stop her from fleeing into the multiverse. That was film’s cliffhanger.

…Damn. That all sounds great, including the Nightmare/Doctor Strange Variant twist.

DeMayo also added he thinks this story “made far more sense” than what we ultimately got. “Even when she flees,” he wrote, “Wanda is torn up by guilt in classic comic book fashion and keeps apologizing to Strange as she vanishes and leaves him with his dead friend’s body.”

Whether you agree with DeMayo or not (or don’t believe him), at minimum this is a fascinating “what if.” But even if that Wanda Maximoff plot line would have made for a better film (and sequel), we can all take comfort in one thing: Wong is still with us.

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The Penguin didn’t even get a chance to premiere before a potential second season seemed unlikely. That had nothing to do with early critical reaction to the spinoff series, though. (Initial reviews are stellar.) It’s not because Warner Bros. Discovery has budget concerns, either. (At least not yet/we hope.) It’s because star Colin Farrell isn’t sure he can keep wearing all the prosthetics the role requires. He told GamesRadar that by the end of season one he found himself saying, “I never want to put that f***ing suit and that f***ing head on again.”

As much as we love the character, we don’t blame him. Fortunately, there’s a way for him to continue living in Gotham without having to first spend hours in a makeup chair. His Oswald Cobblepot can instead transform into Emperor Penguin, an alternate version of the Batman villain who is a DC Comics character whom Colin Farrell naturally looks like.

Colin Farrell was definitely not the most obvious choice to play The Penguin in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, but he turned out to be an inspired one. The Irish actor completely disappeared into the role of the street-wise American mobster. His Oz was equal parts frightening and funny, an unforgettable presence who fit perfectly into Reeves’ version of Gotham City. Farrell didn’t do that alone, though. World-class movie magic helped him physically transform into the role. If no one told you Colin Farrell was the one waddling around underneath those scars and body you would have never known it was him. His own co-star John Turturro didn’t even believe it was him!

Obviously, all those prosthetics take a lot of time and patience to put on every day. Acting in them also takes a lot of extra energy. There’s also a big difference in how many total days you have to wear them as a supporting character in a single movie compared to when you’re the titular star of an eight-episode TV show. It’s no surprise Farrell was beyond tired of the whole process after shooting The Penguin. It’s more surprising he ever agreed to do it in the first place.

While Reeves has already said The Penguin will appear in The Batman 2, that doesn’t mean Farrell will sign on for a second season of his spinoff show. Not if it will mean many more months wearing those heavy prosthetics. But what if he doesn’t have to? There’s a way to do exactly that. Reeves and the show could let the actor appear with his own face if they adapt the story of Batman villain Ignatius Ogilvy.

Ignatius Ogilvy is a lesser-known DC Comics villain who has something very important in common with Bruce Wayne. He saw his parents killed outside a theater. His dad was a small-time crooks. But while he never stepped out of line, that didn’t get him ahead. Nor did it save his life. Ignatius never forgot the hard lessons he learned from his father’s life. They drove his own ambition as he built an underworld career.

As a kid, Ignatius joined The Penguin’s crew. In his low-level henchman role he battled with (and lost to) Batman multiple times. Eventually he rose to become Oz Cobblepot’s most trusted, favorite lieutenant. But Ignatius wanted more, and when the opportunity presented itself he took it. He usurped The Penguin’s entire criminal empire from his boss. He then named himself Emperor Penguin and started taking drugs that gave him super strength and abilities.

Before his skin turned blue and he became known as Emperor Blackgate, Ignatius Ogilvy also just so happened to look exactly like a blonde-haired Colin Farrell.

Colin Farrell did not look like an obvious choice to play Oz Cobblepot. Yet he looks like he was born to play Ignatius Ogilvy.

Matt Reeves and the writers of The Penguin don’t have to kill off Oz to make the switch. They certainly could have Farrell double dip until Ignatius replaces The Penguin entirely. Or they could simply adapt Emperor Penguin’s story. The Penguin is trying to becoming Gotham’s unquestioned underworld boss. That will make him the #1 target of Batman. If Oz gets what he thinks he wants, he might quickly find himself in need of a new identity and face. His newfound riches could make that possible with some pricey plastic surgery. It might be easier to rebuild his empire as Ignatius than it would be to keep it as Oz.

Colin Farrell’s The Penguin is a memorable comic book villain. His look, which gives him an imposing presence and identity, is a big reason why. But as much as we love his Oz and want him to come back for multiple seasons and movies, if those prosthetics prove too much to work with, we’ll gladly take Farrell’s version of Emperor Penguin instead. Especially if they end up being the same person anyway.

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Westeros isn’t getting any bigger, but its presence on HBO certainly is thanks to a very large and legendary knight. A second live-action Game of Thrones spinoff is coming about the Realm’s most beloved duo, Dunk and Egg. What’s the show called? Who is this famous knight and his young Targaryen squire? And why are fans of George R.R. Martin so excited to see them come to life?

In a “Coming to Max” preview, we got our first very small taste of what this spinoff will give us.

Additionally, seven new cast members have come aboard the show. Variety shares that the following actors have joined the show: Edward Ashley as Ser Steffon Fossoway, Henry Ashton as Daeron Targaryen, Youssef Kerkour as Steely Pate, Daniel Monks as Ser Manfred Dondarrion, Shaun Thomas as Raymun Fossoway, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Plummer, and Danny Webb as Ser Arlan of Pennytree. 

We are indeed one step closer to getting this show. Actor Dexter Sol Ansell, who portrays Egg, revealed in an IG video that A Knight of the Seven Kingdom‘s is done filming.

And no, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ Daeron Targaryen is not the same as House of the Dragon‘s Daeron Targaryen. Thank you for playing the game of thrones.

Here’s everything we know about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms so far.

Title

At one point the spinoff was working under the wordy title of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. But a recent report says HBO has—thankfully—dropped the latter. The prequel is now operating under the simpler name and the book it’s adapting, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ Plot 

The show’s official logline provided an introduction to the series’ time period and characters. From HBO:

A century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros… a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.

Fans of A Song of Ice and Fire know much more about the beloved duo’s exploits and lifelong friendship. Martin’s three novellas cover both big and small events related to Westeros during a dangerous time in the Seven Kingdoms. Dunk and Egg began their time together shortly after the second Targaryen civil war known as the Blackfyre Rebellion. The fresh wounds of that Realm-splitting battle is why Egg needed to hide his real identity while serving as Duncan’s squire.

Martin has also previously confirmed a fan theory that the honorable, noble Ser Duncan the Tall is the ancestor of Brienne of Tarth. (Though we don’t yet know how.) Despite taking place a century before its HBO predecessor, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will also have more direct ties to Game of Thrones. Brynden Rivers, Egg’s uncle and the most notorious figure in Westeros, would go on to become the Three-Eyed Raven. And Egg’s older brother is none other than Maester Aemon of the Night’s Watch.

Martin has long said he has plans for many more Dunk & Egg stories. The show could ultimately adapt those unwritten/unpublished tales into entire seasons. HBO’s head of drama Francesca Orsi has said the series will “ideally year-to-year and arcing out a three-season series, which maps out the three novellas that George wrote.” But that doesn’t mean it will only run three years. She also said, “Of course, we’d like more beyond that, and George is continuing to think about the remaining novellas that he still wants to write, but at this point, we have our eye on three seasons that would map out each book, each novella.”

The adult exploits of Dunk and Egg are also explored in Martin’s massive compendium book The World of Ice and Fire. (Spoilers!)

Behind the Scenes

Martin and Ira Parker will write and serve as executive producers the show. House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal will also serve as as executive producer along with Vince Gerardis. Owen Harris (Black Mirror‘s “Be Right Back” and “San Junipero”) will direct the show’s first three episodes. Sarah Adina Smith (Lessons In Chemistry) has also come aboard to direct three of the season’s six episodes.

Production began in the spring of 2024 following the end of the writers and actors strikes.

Additionally, Martin wrote The Hedge Knight will be shorter than the other Game of Thrones series on HBO, however, it will be no less brutal, to be sure. Success for The Hedge Knight could mean other Dunk & Egg stories receive spinoffs. (And maybe Martin will even write a few more.)

Here’s what Martin shared in full.

THE HEDGE KNIGHT will be a lot shorter than GAME OF THRONES or HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, with a much different tone… but it’s still Westeros, so no one is truly safe  Ira Parker and his team are doing a great job.  I hope to visit the shoot come July, when I swing by Belfast on my way to the worldcon in Glasgow.    The show will make its debut next year… and if it does well, THE SWORN SWORD and THE MYSTERY KNIGHT will follow.  By which time I hope to have finished some more Dunk & Egg stories (yes, after I finish THE WINDS OF WINTER).

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ Cast

The 6’4″ tall Peter Claffey (Bad Sisters, Vikings: Valhalla) will play the legendary Ser Duncan the Tall. Young Dexter Sol Ansell (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) will serve as Dunk’s diminutive squire, the fiery secret Targaryen prince Aegon forever known as “Egg.”

Martin publicly praised Dexter Sol Ansell’s transformation into Egg.

Ser Duncan is officially here. HBO has shared the first official image from the production in Belfast and it features the “lunk” known as Dunk walking through a market. His raggedy clothes suggest this moment comes from his pre-Egg days. (Not that he’ll look that much better later. Hedge knights aren’t exactly the best dressed knights.)

The network also announced some major new cast members and their roles along with the photo’s release:

• Finn Bennett as Aerion Targaryen
• Bertie Carvel as Baelor Targaryen
• Tanzyn Crawford as Tanselle
• Daniel Ings as Ser Lyonel Barotheon
• Sam Spruell as Maekar Targaryen

Additionally, the following cast members and characters have come aboard the Game of Thrones series: Edward Ashley as Ser Steffon Fossoway, Henry Ashton as Daeron Targaryen, Youssef Kerkour as Steely Pate, Daniel Monks as Ser Manfred Dondarrion, Shaun Thomas as Raymun Fossoway, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Plummer, and Danny Webb as Ser Arlan of Pennytree. 

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ Release Date

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has previously said HBO is targeting a “late 2025″ premiere.

Originally published May 22, 2024.

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The 76th Primetime Emmy Awards turned out to be a big night for some shows, just not for one of our personal favorites. Shōgun had a record-setting evening at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. As did The Bear, even though it didn’t take home the top prize for a Comedy. Unfortunately, Fallout got completely shut out by the Television Academy at the Emmys and did not take home a single prize during the 2024 ceremony.

Shōgun took home a whole lot more than just the Emmys’ most prestigious award at the 2024 awards show. The Best Drama Series winner racked up three more of the event’s biggest awards. That included Anna Sawai for Best Actress in a Drama Series. Her co-star, the great Hiroyuki Sanada, also nabbed Best Actor. And Frederick E.O. Toye went home with the win for Best Directing in a Drama Series. That gave the show’s first season 18 total Emmys, as it had previously won 14 during the Creative Arts Primetime Emmys. That is the new record for a single season of a show. Shōgun shatters the previous record of 13 Emmys held by Game of Thrones and HBO’s John Adams miniseries. All that said, we were rooting for Shōgun‘s Tadanobu Asano to take home “Best Supporting Actor in a Drama,” but Asano lost out the 2024 Emmy to Billy Crudup in The Morning Show.

The Bear, that very funny show everyone is always laughing at, had another successful Emmy Awards, competing in the Comedy categories, although many out there aren’t quite sure it counts as a comedy. It broke its own Primetime Emmys record for a single season by taking home 11 total 2024 Emmys for the show’s sophomore outing after adding four at the Peacock Theater. Jeremy Allen White (Best Lead Actor), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Best Supporting Actor), and Christopher Storer (Best Directing) all won their Comedy categories. As did Liza Colón-Zayas, who took home a historic Best Supporting Actress win. She is the first Latina winner in the category’s history.

Despite The Bear‘s continued stranglehold on the Television Academy, it was Hacks that earned Best Comedy Series and Best Lead Actress (Jean Smart) at the 2024 Emmys. That surprise win also meant Curb Your Enthusiasm finished its run setting the wrong kind of record. The iconic series was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series 11 times. That’s the most ever without actually winning. (A travesty!)

While the show featured some other wins that made us very happy (The Crown‘s Elizabeth Debicki, Fargo‘s Lamorne Morris, True Detective: Night Country‘s Jodie Foster), it was disappointing to see Fallout never get called to the stage at the Emmys. Despite the fantastic first season’s 16 Emmy nominations, it ultimately only took home one for Outstanding Music Supervision at the Creative Arts Primetime Emmys.

You can find the full list of winners below.

While you won’t find anyone from Fallout down there, it’s okay. If season two is anywhere as good as season one it will have many opportunities to win more Emmys long after 2024. It’ll just be easier as long as Shōgun season two doesn’t air that same year. And also if no one forces The Bear to admit it is not a comedy.

2024 Emmy Awards Winners

Drama Series
Shogun

Comedy Series
Hacks

Limited, Anthology Series, or Movie
Baby Reindeer

Actor in a Drama Series
Hiroyuki Sanada, Shogun

Actress in a Drama Series
Anna Sawai, Shogun

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Billy Crudup, The Morning Show

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Elizabeth Debicki, The Crown

Actor in a Comedy Series
Jeremy Allen White, The Bear

Actress in a Comedy Series
Jean Smart, Hacks

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Liza Colón-Zayas, The Bear

Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear

Actor in a Limited, Anthology Series or Movie
Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer

Actress in a Limited, Anthology Series or Movie
Jodie Foster, True Detective: Night Country

Supporting Actress Limited, Anthology series or Movie
Jessica Gunning, Baby Reindeer

Supporting Actor in a Limited, Anthology Series or Movie
Lamorne Morris, Fargo

Scripted Variety Series
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Talk Series
The Daily Show

Writing for a Variety Special
Alex Edelman, Just for Us

Reality Competition Program
The Traitors, Peacock

Writing for a Comedy Series
Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky, Hacks

Writing for a Drama Series
Will Smith, Slow Horses

Writing for a Limited Series, Anthology or Movie
Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer

Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series
Steven Zaillian, Ripley

Directing for a Comedy Series
Christopher Storer, The Bear

Directing for a Drama Series
Frederick E.O. Toye, Shogun

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Cobra Kai‘s final season is not the end for The Karate Kid franchise. A new featured film starring familiar faces will soon continue the martial arts story on the big screen. Who else will join Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan in this latest chapter? How will it connect different eras? And who will bring it to the screen and when?

One thing is for sure: Ralph Macchio is a little nervous about being opposite of Jackie Chan. Cobra Kai actor Jacob Bertrand told GamesRadar+ that Macchio said it was intimidating to fight against the martial arts legend.

“[Macchio] said that Jackie Chan still moves like he’s a 20-year-old, and it’s really scary to fight with him,” Bertrand said. “But you know, he’s obviously a master and is so cool to work with. He was just talking about being nervous to fight Jackie Chan, ’cause Jackie Chan is freaking Jackie muh-fricking Chan. But he said the fights went super well and that all his stuff was great, and I’m stoked for the movie.”

We love when friends give us some secondhand inside scoops.

Here’s everything we know about the next Karate Kid movie so far.

Title

The original film was titled The Karate Kid but we are not 100% certain what this new film’s official title will be. With our luck, it will have the same title but perhaps they will just go with Karate Kid.

Karate Kid‘s Plot

Sony Picture’s still-untitled Karate Kid featured film will see Ralph Macchio (Daniel LaRusso) and Jackie Chan (Mr. Han) return to the franchise, in a story that combines their different eras of The Karate Kid movies. The studio has not yet released an official synopsis for the film. Sony has only said it will “continue the mythology of the original franchise.”

Early reports indicate it will take place on the East Coast rather than in California, and that it will center on on a teenage from China “who finds strength and direction via martial arts and a tough but wise mentor.”

Behind-the-Scenes

Jonathan Entwistle (I’m Not Okay with This) will direct. The screenplay comes from Rob Lieber (Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day).

Cobra Kai co-creator Jon Hurwitz is not involved with the film. He also confirmed the movie is not connected to his TV series.

Karate Kid‘s Cast

In addition to Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan, the film will also feature the great Ming-Na Wen. And after announcing the movie with a global talent search for its young star, Sony picked American Born Chinese‘s Ben Wang as its new martial arts student.

Karate Kid‘s Release Date

The newest Karate Kid won’t take long to reach theaters. It will premiere on May 30, 2025.

Originally published March 8, 2024.

The post Ralph Macchio Was ‘Nervous’ About Fighting Jackie Chan in New KARATE KID Movie appeared first on Nerdist.

Venom: The Last Dance‘s last trailer was the first time we got to see the film’s main villain. It’s the biggest one in Venom comics history, Knull. As exciting as that reveal was, inexplicably, that promo was also the first time the people who actually created Knull found out that he’s in the movie. And now that Knull’s creators know the symbiote creator is making his live-action debut in Venom‘s third outing, they’re hoping to see something else soon: money.

Following the release of Venom: The Last Dance‘s latest and final trailer, two of the creators behind Knull took to social media. They revealed something genuinely shocking. Sony never informed them of their character’s inclusion in the film. The first of the posts (which we first saw at IGN) came from Ryan Stegman. He penciled the issue of Marvel Comics where Knull made his debut. On Twitter, he wrote that since Knull is the movie’s big bad, he expects a big payment.

A lazy river moat at home does sound nice.

Meanwhile the writer of the comic, Donny Cates, was far more direct with his thoughts. He posted a photo of the word “MONEY” alongside “lol.”

Not a whole lot of mystery around how either of them feel. These creators gave life to Knull on the Marvel Comics page. Now that he’s appearing in a live-action film, they want to be paid accordingly.

Without question or reservation, they should be.

Hollywood has not exactly treated comic book creators fairly. (Which is truly an understatement.) By going public with this blatant absurdity, Stegman and Cates are drawing attention to the latest example of money-printing companies taking advantage of people they owe everything to. There would literally not be a Knull to put into Venom: The Last Dance if not for comic book writers, artists, and other creators.

The fact Sony didn’t even tell them Knull is in the movie is not a great sign for future payment. But public outcry can change that. Hopefully, it will. Hopefully, this will stop happening to comic book creators entirely. We want to root against Knull when we see him in Venom: The Last Dance. But not for this reason.

The post We Hope the Creators of VENOM: THE LAST DANCE’s Villain Knull Get Paid appeared first on Nerdist.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice isn’t a perfect movie, but it sure is a wildly entertaining one. It’s also a return to form for Tim Burton. The Ghost With the Most helped the director find some of his old mojo. That has led many to wonder what other franchises Burton could return to next. The most popular—and most obvious—choice has been another one his Beetlejuice star also headlined. And you know what? That should absolutely happen. Warner Bros. Discovery, right now, should sign Tim Burton and Michael Keaton to make a third and final Batman movie together.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s already massive box office haul is proof moviegoers, even after waiting for decades, will turn out in droves to see Michael Keaton in a Tim Burton movie. And that was with a property not nearly as guaranteed to find success as a new Batman film would be. Superman is not DC’s single most bulletproof cinematic superhero. It’s the Caped Crusader. Every time Warner Bros. makes a solo Dark Knight, film people show up.

A third Burton Batman wouldn’t pose any problems for James Gunn’s burgeoning DCU, either, even though that cinematic universe will soon introduce its own Bruce Wayne. Movies set outside of the DCU, like Joker: Folie à Deux, fall under a separate “Elseworlds” banner. And it’s not as if anyone would confuse Burton’s surreal Gotham with Matt Reeves’ far more grounded and grittier “Battinson” Elseworlds franchise, either. There’s room for all of them. Especially since Burton and Keaton would almost certainly only be making one final Batman film.

But ticket sales are a concern for the studio, not fans. Just as the multiverse and canon questions are something for James Gunn to worry about. The best reason Burton and Keaton should bring back their Dark Knight is the only one that actually matter: the movie itself.

Burton’s two Batman films are distinct, memorable, and fantastic in their own ways. He created a stylish, heightened universe that stands out from every other live-action adaptation of Batman. His Gotham is a comic book full of iconic characters come to life. The director’s films also feature what many consider to be the greatest Batman ever. For an actor who was a “controversial” pick at the time, Keaton delivered a perfect Bruce Wayne for Burton’s vision. The Flash also showed Keaton still has great Batman performances left to give. (After Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, it’s obvious Michael Keaton can put on any old costume and it will seem like he never took it off.)

Yet, the two never got to finish their story. Batman Returns is not a satisfying conclusion in any way. It’s ending is a somber setup for another entry. And as much as DC would like us to think George Clooney and Val Kilmer’s turns as Bruce Wayne served continuations, no one really believes that. Joel Schumacher’s far sillier, far more “family-friendly” Gotham was definitely not Tim Burton’s, which is even more beloved and appreciated now than it was when him and Keaton walked away from the franchise.

The very long delay for a third film could also end up being a huge blessing. It could help Burton and Keaton make something special. Had they returned for Batman 3 in the ’90s, they would have told another chapter in the same story. It would have been the same Bruce Wayne dealing with a new problem. But decades later, Keaton’s Caped Crusader would be so much older and different in meaningful ways.

What would that mean for him? How would he have changed? Did failure harden him? Did loss soften him? How would he have reacted to age and diminishing strength? How would experience and wisdom have shaped him over the years? Did he train someone else to take over as Gotham’s hero?

There are plenty of great stories about an older Bruce Wayne, including Batman Beyond, that Burton could take inspiration from while crafting his own tale, just as he did with his first two films. The possibility alone is enough to that DC should greenlight this movie tomorrow without a script. Simply returning to that version of Gotham is, too. Just as seeing Michael Keaton as that Batman, and not his multiversal counterpart, is.

But there’s one final reason Beetlejuice Beetlejuice should lead to Batman 3. Burton’s two installments are among the most important movies ever made. Yes, movies, not just superhero movies. The genre now dominates Hollywood, and superheroes would not be as ubiquitous on the big screen without Keaton’s time in the cowl. Few movie franchises have left behind a legacy like that. And even fewer are worthy of a legacy sequel.

Parents upset about McDonald’s toys should not have deprived Tim Burton from closing out his time in Gotham the way he wanted. It should not have made Michael Keaton walk away from Wayne Manor. They should have been able to drive off in the greatest Batmobile ever they way they wanted.

Tim Burton spent decades away from the afterlife, but when he returned there with Michael Keaton they found cinematic magic once more. Now that they have it’s time to finally let them do the same in Gotham City.

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Lord Celembrimbor is going to do something he swore he wouldn’t. He’s going to help craft nine rings for men. In The Rings of Power‘s “Halls of Stone,” Annatar used the elven smith’s ego, vanity, and guilt to manipulate Eregion’s leader into doing the Dark Lord’s bidding. Before he did, Sauron saw firsthand what it takes to make a ring that will bring its wearer into the Unseen world. With that knowledge, and his time as Annatar coming to an end, the question must now be asked: Will we see Sauron forge the One Ring during the show’s second season?

Celebrimbor’s refusal to make rings for “easily corruptible” men led Annatar to try making them himself with the other smiths of Eregion. That ploy did more than tempt Celebrimbor. It also allowed Sauron to learn from trial-and-error. Mirdania was working with a ring that featured more mithral than previous ones.

When she put it on she vanished from sight and ended up in a place Frodo will one day know all too well. Mirdania went into the Unseen world, “a place, like this, but shrouded in mist and darkness.” There she saw a tall being of flames with eyes “pitiless and eternal” that reeked of “death.”

Lord of the Rings fans also know that realm as the wraith-world, because Sauron’s One Ring will draw the Nazgul into that dimension. That flawed ring might be the most important failure in all of Middle-earth, because it might have taught Sauron what he needed to know when he forges his ultimate ring alone in Mordor.

This episode also saw Sauron learn something important about how to bend the rings to his will. King Durin’s ring has made him different. His son says he is “colder, quicker to anger” and suddenly greedy. Sauron said that’s because they made the dwarf rings under a pall of deception. Celebrimbor lied to his High King about what was happening in Eregion. Sauron might be lying about that cause and effect, but he loves to deceive by bending the truth. And he certainly was honest when he told Celebrimbor “these are matters of spirit, as much as craft.”

The Dark Lord’s time in Eregion is proving tremendously fruitful. Each iteration of rings make its wearers more and more corruptible. This is reversed from official lore, yet will still work in the same way. We know from The Lord of the Rings how each generation of rings will work (or not) on Sauron’s behalf. And on The Rings of Power nine mortal men doomed to die will soon wear rings Celebrimbor swore never to make. Those rings will connect those men to the Unseen world Mirandia visited.

Once the rings of men are made the only thing left for Sauron to do is make the One Ring to rule them all, to find them to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them. With his partnership with Celebrimbor almost done, it’s very possible Sauron will end season two by finishing his life’s work.

Fortunately when he does he will seemingly forget about another lesson he learned in Eregion. He also told Mirdania that the crafting of the rings left Celebrimbor “diminished.” It surely has, just as the One Ring—whenever he forges it—will leave Sauron diminished, too.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. A ring of power would not corrupt him (maybe). You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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The end is here for Eddie Brock and his symbiote better half. The only question is whether or not Venom: The Last Dance will also be the end for all of Earth. The film’s final trailer makes clear humans can’t survive Symbrock staying together after Venom’s home world finds their way to his new one. But even before they’ll have to make the difficult decision whether or not to split up, they’ll have to deal with their most dangerous foe ever. This final look at their final film introduces the franchise’s most dangerous villain yet, Venom’s creator Knull.

Yes. YES! Venom: The Last Dance is basically a nightclub Stefon would tell us about. This trailer has everything: hippies, an alien invasion, gambling addictions, a symbiote horse, Juno Temple.

It obviously won’t be all fun and casino games for Eddie and Venom, though. It’s all out war, as the symbiote’s evil creator Knull makes the jump from the pages of Marvel Comics to the big screen. What exactly is going on? Here’s the official synopsis for Venom: The Last Dance from Sony Pictures to pair with this trailer:

In Venom: The Last Dance, Tom Hardy returns as Venom, one of Marvel’s greatest and most complex characters, for the final film in the trilogy. Eddie and Venom are on the run. Hunted by both of their worlds and with the net closing in, the duo are forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie’s last dance.

The film also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rhys Ifans, Peggy Lu, and Alanna Ubach. Stephen Graham is also back as former detective Patrick Mulligan. It comes from writer-director Kelly Marcel​​. Venom: The Last Dance arrives in theaters on October 25, which means you don’t have much time left to prepare for the end of Symbrock.

Honestly, it’s probably best if Knull destroys Earth during this film. Who wants to live in a world where Eddie and Venom can’t be together?

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Ar-Pharazôn now rules in Númenor, but he craves much more than a scepter. He seeks something forbidden to men: eternal life. Not even the gods will stop him from trying to attain it. In The Rings of Power season two’s fifth episode, Númenor’s ambitious new king turned his gaze west across the sea to The Undying Lands. That is home to immortal beings like the Valar, Maiar, and elves. What is that very real place? Why are men are barred from entering it? And why will The Undying Lands soon vanish from sight entirely? It all began the moment Ar-Pharazôn set his sights on a kingdom he could never have.

The Lord of the Rings fans know The Undying Lands (which we explained in-depth during season one) as a special plane of existence hidden to those on Middle-earth. One day Círdan the Shipwright will bring Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf, to the realm of gods and elves. It exists outside of the physical world Hobbits and men call home know, but that wasn’t always the case.

Also known as Valinor, the Undying Lands sits on the continent of Aman. During the First Age of the world mortals were permitted to travel there. In The Rings of Power‘s first season Galadriel sailed there to live out eternity before she jumped to stay behind and fight Sauron. It’s where Gil-galad said all elves would go if they could not restore the light of the Valar in Middle-earth. All elves will go there eventually. Some never left it at all.

Mortal beings were no longer permitted to walk in Valinor after the defeat of Morgoth during the War of Wrath. At the end of the First Age the Valar rewarded the men who suffered greatest in the fight by raising up a grand island from the sea. Those who lived there were also granted vastly longer lifespans then normal men.

For generations Nûmenoreans thrived, building beautiful cities full of skilled craftsmen and warriors. The Valar only placed one limit on the otherwise privileged Nûmenorans. The gods banned them sailing west beyond sight of their island. The Undying Lands were no longer open to mortals.

For centuries those on the island obeyed the rules. Even when they began conquering the mainland they did not sail west. That changed when evil came back with them…

The Lord of the Rings fans know Nûmenorean survivors will go on to found great kingdoms of men in Middle-earth. The Rings of Power series will show us how they lost their island home in the first place. It will explain why the universe’s supreme being, Eru Ilúvatar, will soon make the world round so no mortal can ever sail to Valinor again. The Prime Video series has now began telling the story of Nûmenor’s end.

Ar-Pharazôn’s followers are destroying temples as he rejects something better than eternal life. The Valar barred men from their land, but Eru Ilúvatar gave men something special instead. He called their mortality “the Gift.” But when Nûmenor’s greedy King looks across the sea to the White Tower of Eressëa in The Undying Lands he only sees a limit. He wants to climb higher. In doing so he will help bring his own land down.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who would simply not be mad about Valinor. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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The Rings of Power‘s first season began telling a beautiful backstory about the legendary Doors of Durin. That magical gateway, which famously held up Frodo and his companions in The Fellowship of the Ring, was borne from the special bond between Elrond and Durin IV. Now that passageway is ready to serve as Khazad-dûm’s West-gate. It’s also ready to serve as a lasting testament to a once unlikely connection between two proud races. Only, season two has now shown the tragic side of this otherwise touching tale. The Doors of Durin stands as a symbol of friendship between elves and dwarves, but fittingly it also stands as a testament to the dark lord whose watchful and deceiving eye it was made under.

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that Celebrimbor and the celebrated dwarf craftsman Narvi made the Doors of Durin together. The Rings of Power showed them doing just that in season two’s fifth episode. The sequence also highlighted the significance of this joint endeavor. “Dwarves and elves working together?” said a smiling Celebrimbor. “It was said to be impossible. But our cooperation has achieved this wonder. And today we embark on a new dream, to enshrine our friendship in stone.”

The Doors of Durin are “un-breachable, visible only by moonlight, and guarded by a password known only to friends.” (Or grey wizards who eventually figure it out long after they should have.) That gateway truly is a symbol of the “lasting friendship between elves and dwarves.”

That friendship will see its ups and downs, just as Elrond and Durin IV have. But it will always prove true when it matters most. Elves and dwarves will soon fight side-by-side against Sauron in the The War of the Last Alliance. And they will come together in the Third Age when the world needs them. Gimli and Legolas will join Frodo on his journey to Mordor. That journey that will bring them to much more than the Doors of Durin. It will lead to a lifelong bond.

The Rings of Power has also expanded the passageway’s lore by delving deep into the creation of mithral. In season one, the show shared an original tale about a battle between a pure-hearted elven warrior and a balrog of Morgoth. They fought above a tree said to contain one of the famed Silmarils created by Celebrimbor’s grandfather Fëanor, the greatest elf craftsmen ever. When a bolt of lightning struck the tree the elven warrior poured “all his light” into saving the tree. Meanwhile the balrog “channeled all his hate” into its destruction. Legend says their combined power led to the creation of mithral, which Gil-galad described as being equally “pure in light as good” as “strong and unyielding as evil.”

Mithral brought elves and dwarves together. Elrond asked for that special metal to save the elves of Middle-earth. But it also made both races vulnerable to Sauron’s false friendship. The Dark Lord is deceiving the world with rings of power. “Annatar” was also there when the two races came together to make the Doors of Durin, which fittingly uses mithral.. Celebrimbor made his magical moonlight inlay with ithildin, a thin, extremely refined form of mithril.

The very thing elves and dwarves made together—the one that encased their bond in stone forever, the door that will protect dwarves of Khazad-dûm until they must abandon their home because of greed driven by Sauron’s rings—contains both good and evil in it. Just as all of Middle-earth does.

Fortunately for elves and swarves the one power in Middle-earth that always proves un-breachable is friendship.

The post THE RINGS OF POWER Gave the Doors of Durin a Backstory That’s Both Beautiful and Tragic appeared first on Nerdist.

As a child of the ’90s, I am always on high alert no matter where I go. That’s because you never know when you’ll be called on to find where in the world is Carmen Sandiego. The famed thief could be anywhere at anytime. Until now. Soon you’ll know exactly where to find her: a new video game from Netflix that will allow you to stop chasing her entirely. That’s because for the first-time ever you’ll be able to actually be Carmen Sandiego in a video game.

HarperCollins Productions and Gameloft are teaming up for a brand-new single-player premium puzzle adventure game. Carmen Sandiego is going to upend her original 1985 game Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?. In that iteration, she headed up the global crime syndicate VILE, as players chased her around the globe. This time they’ll instead put on her iconic scarlet jacket and hat. They will then “experience the thrill of being the notorious super thief as they navigate a world of espionage, utilize high-tech gadgets, and ultimately capture VILE.”

The game’s official announcement trailer provides a great look at the art and game-style. The official press release also shared more about what players can expect during their travels:

The Carmen Sandiego game will enable players to traverse the globe, immersing themselves in vibrant cultures while visiting iconic cities and landmarks. From the bustling streets of Rio de Janeiro to the picturesque shrines in Tokyo, every corner of the world becomes their playground as they unravel elaborate capers and bring VILE’s most elusive criminals to justice. Every decision players make will shape the outcome as they compile dossiers and race against the clock to foil VILE’s nefarious plans. Whether playing through story-driven campaigns or classic modes, this modernized Carmen Sandiego experience promises to enthrall both new and long-time fans alike.

The Carmen Sandiego game will initially debut early next year exclusively at Netflix. The streaming site is also home to the character’s animated series that premiered in 2019. It’s also where a live-action film starring Gina Rodriguez is in production. The game will then arrive on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam. It will not feature any in-game purchases (yay!) or online play (boo!).

Until it does, though, keep your eyes out. Until you are Carmen Sandiego she could be anywhere.

The post New CARMEN SANDIEGO Video Game Will Finally Let You Play as the Iconic Thief appeared first on Nerdist.

Forget sea power. Forget air power, too. In fact, you can even forget about desert power. This year HBO is going to harness “con power.” The network has announced it’s bringing a massive Dune: Prophecy experience to New York Comic Con. This set of Dune: Prophecy excitements will include panels, screenings, and an activation that will command you to listen to “the Voice.” Are you ready to join the Sisterhood?

The upcoming HBO and Max prequel series Dune: Prophecy will take viewers back ten thousand years before the rise of Paul Atreides. The show will follow two Harkonnen sisters during the founding of the Bene Gesserit. Fans eager to see the origin story of the infamous sect will get a sneak peek starting on October 17 when New York Comic Con kicks off.

That’s when the weekend-long interactive fan activation, titled the Dune: Prophecy Experience, will open on the 4th-floor Pavilion of the Javits Center. Done in partnership with Droga5, HBO calls it a “beautifully rendered activation” that “will transport participants to the mysterious world of Wallach IX, where The Voice will command them to undergo a series of trials reflecting the Sisterhood’s rigorous training methods.” Those who do and “successfully complete the challenges” will be rewarded with exclusive NYCC swag. And we all know the only thing more precious than spice is swag.

Fans will want to make sure they don’t miss out on one other exciting opportunity on the 17th. Starting at 3:00 pm, the Dune: Prophecy cast and crew will hit the Empire Stage for a panel. It will feature showrunner and executive producer Alison Schapker as well as executive producer Jordan Goldberg. Stars Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Travis Fimmel, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Josh Heuston, Chloe Lea, and Jessica Barden will also join them onstage. They will surely reveal some tantalizing teases for what’s to come in the series, so if you’re a Dune fan, make sure to make your calendars with this one. The Dune: Prophecy panel will also reveal a new official trailer.

For those who won’t be in the Big Apple that day, fear not. You can head to your local Alamo Drafthouse theater for a Dune: Prophecy screening all your own. Nationwide Alamo Drafthouse theaters will host immersive fan screenings for the upcoming show. These pre-premiere events will include “themed menu items, pre-screening trivia, and other unique elements.”

As Pia Barlow, Executive Vice President, Originals Marketing, HBO and Max, notes, “By offering interactive experiences, panels, and special screenings, we’re bringing the epic story of the Sisterhood to life, allowing fans to connect with the series in a whole new way.” Worth noting that for those looking to connect even further, a Dune: Prophecy companion podcast “that will offer insights from the creators, creatives, and cast” is also coming soon.

All of this, of course, is a prelude to the Dune: Prophecy‘s premiere this November. At that point “con power” will give away to “television power.”

Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks

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Pop culture has long warned us about the perils of spending too much time inside an office. Yet Hollywood can’t stop spending time in one. And now, it’s official. Peacock has picked off The Office spinoff and given it a series order. We officially have some details about The Office spinoff’s plot and cast members.

In recent news from Palisadian-Post, The Office spinoff added Melvin Gregg, Chelsea Frei, and Ramona Young to its growing cast. I personally loved Gregg in The Blackening and know he will be hilarious in this.

The Office Spinoff’s Setting and Plot

We finally have some more information about The Office spinoff. Variety reveals that this series is “a new mockumentary show with a new cast set in the same universe.”

Additionally, the logline for The Office spinoff is as follows:

The documentary crew that immortalized Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch is in search of a new subject when they discover a dying historic Midwestern newspaper and the publisher trying to revive it with volunteer reporters.

Very interesting indeed.

Lisa Katz, president of NBCUniversal Entertainment shares “It’s been more than ten years since the final episode of ‘The Office’ aired on NBC, and the acclaimed comedy series continues to gain popularity and build new generations of fans on Peacock. In partnership with Universal Television and led by the creative team of Greg Daniels and Michael Koman, this new series set in the universe of Dunder Mifflin introduces a new cast of characters in a fresh setting ripe for comedic storytelling: a daily newspaper.”

The Office Spinoff’s Cast

Star Wars‘ Domhnall Gleeson and The White Lotus‘ Sabrina Impacciatore are the first performers to join The Office spinoff’s cast. The Hollywood Reporter says Gleeson and Impacciatore have signed on for a possible new sequel show to the smash hit NBC series, which remains as popular as ever thanks to streaming.

More About The Office Spinoff

This new version of The Office is in development from original series creator Greg Daniels and Michael Korman. Reports of a potential The Office spinoff first came to light last September. Daniels then put together a writing room in January. But there’s still a long way to go for it before it airs.

With two established stars joining the show, though, it feels closer than ever to filming. Impacciatore is an Emmy-nominated actress, and Gleeson is known around both this world and the galaxy far, far away as the detestable General Armitage Hux. Does that mean Gleeson could be stepping into the Michael Scott-equivalent role on this new series? (He did just star opposite Steve Carrell on FX’s The Patient.) Or could the show opt to have Impacciatore play the show’s boss? That only happened for the first time ever on any country’s version with Australia’s The Office last year. And she does have the necessary managerial experience thanks to White Lotus…

Or could neither of these two be the boss? Might they be the new Jim and Pam instead? Dwight and Angela? To find out we’ll have to go to the one place pop culture keeps telling us is terrible for us to be, even if it’s fun to watch others go there.

Originally published on April 29, 2024.

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We’re currently in the middle of a full-on Sonicssaince. Everyone’s favorite Blue Blur now headlines a big screen live-action cinematic universe that shows no signs of slowing down. It’s a good time to know him. If you do and are lucky enough to get invited to his next red carpet premiere we know exactly what you should wear. OppoSuits latest pop culture creation is a speedy way to look stylish while also celebrating the Sega Genesis icon. The company’s Sonic the Hedgehog suit and tie combo is a colorful, wearable ode to the beloved speedster.

The Sonic the Hedgehog Two-Piece Suit & Tie set from OppSuits is a vibrant flash of color and characters. In addition to Sonic himself, the blue-hued suit and matching neckwear feature franchise favorites like Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Cheese the Chao, and more. Like Sonic himself, this is some seriously flashy attire.

The un-hemmed, 100% polyester suit comes with zip fly flat-front trousers. They have a button-tab closure, slant pockets, and back pockets. The lined jacket is also adorned with notched lapels, four-button cuffs, chest pocket, flap pockets, interior pockets, and side vents. All those many pockets will come in handy when you need some place to store all the gold rings you pick up while wearing it. (We also imagine some people will also give gold rings when they see you run down the street in these clothes.)

You can also some of those gold coins to actually pay for the suit. You can grab yours from Nordstrom’s online shop for $119.99. If you’re wondering how they…ahem…run, the company says its Sonic the Hedgehog Two-Piece Suit & Tie set is “true to size.”

It’s also true to something else: the Sonicssaince. We’re all living in Sonic the Hedgehog’s world these days. It’s only fitting we dress for it.

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Long live the writers! And I’m not saying that just because I write for a living. It’s because Denis Villeneuve revealed he is writing the script for a potential Dune: Part Three. At 2024’s Toronto International Film Festival, the director spoke to Variety who asked about the state of the script. Villeneuve replied “It’s in the works. It’s why I’m not staying here [at the festival] that long.

Villeneuve further clarified that if he makes the second Dune book into a third movie, it won’t be a “trilogy” in the traditional sense. “First, It’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych,” he said. “It was really a pair of movies that will be the adaptation of the first book. That’s done and that’s finished. If I do a third one, which is in the writing process, it’s not like a trilogy. It’s strange to say that, but if I go back there, it’s to do something that feels different and has its own identity.”

Back in April, Villeneuve spoke to The New York Times about Dune: Part Two and all things Muad’Dib-related. Fans of the box office smash will definitely want to hear his thoughts on Paul’s possible Messiah-complex, Lady Jessica’s face tattoos, Chani’s expanded role, and the rules of Fremen intimacy. But the most exciting part of the interview came when he casually mentioned the future. He’s working on the script for a possible third entry in the franchise.

While speaking about how Paul and Chani’s connected stories ended in Part Two, the director said, “[Paul] will try to find a way to save his soul in the third part.” Then, while discussing Chani’s feelings towards Paul at the end, Villeneuve said, “That anger is tremendous. I don’t want to reveal what I’m going to do with the third movie. I know exactly what to do. I’m writing it right now. But there’s a lot of firepower there and I’m very excited about that decision.”

These quotes come just a couple of weeks after Variety reported Legendary Pictures is already developing Dune: Part Three with the director. And it comes as Part Two is returning to IMAX theaters this month. That’s when it’s expected to cross the $700 million box office mark. Those are all great signs for fans hoping to see Villeneuve adapt Dune: Messiah, which he has said he wants to do. But there’s still a long way to travel from “writing” to “Arrakis.”

In the recent interview, he did keep to his promise that Dune: Messiah would be his final outing. “Listen, if Dune: Messiah happens, it will have been many years for me on Arrakis, and I would love to do something else,” Villeneuve said. “I think that it would be a good idea for me to make sure that, in Messiah, there are the seeds in the project if someone wants to do something else afterwards, because they are beautiful books. They are more difficult to adapt. They become more and more esoteric. It’s a bit more tricky to adapt, but I’m not closing the door. I will not do it myself, but it could happen with someone else.”

If he’s already working on the script—in any capacity—viewers can probably at least start at least thinking about what color stillsuit they’ll want to wear to the premiere.

Originally published April 22, 2024.

Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks.

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Last week George R.R.Martin well full dracarys on House of the Dragon with a blistering, quickly deleted blog post. Now he’s returned to his “Not a Blog” with a much tamer, yet still somber entry. Martin’s latest entry includes a small update on The Winds of Winter. But just as the night is dark and full of terrors, he still throws some subtle shade at his problems with HBO and House of the Dragon.

In a post titled “A Belated Blog” Martin wrote about his busy schedule and travels during the summer. He also wrote about his continued struggles following the death of his close friend, Howard Waldrop, early this year. That is just one of the issues contributing to him feeling “stressful.” Unfortunately he says he has been unable to find “much solace” in work. Not that he hasn’t done any.

Martin said he was able to do some writing about Westeros. Only it was not nearly as much as he’d hoped. George R.R. Martin shared a bit abou his progress on Game of Thrones’ next book, The Winds of Winter, and Fire & Blood‘s sequel, Blood & Fire. He shares, “Writing came hard, and though I did produce some new pages on both THE WINDS OF WINTER (yes) and BLOOD & FIRE (the sequel to FIRE & BLOOD, the second part of my Targaryen history), I would have liked to turn out a lot more.”

“Some” is definitely better than “none.” But this small update from Martin leaves a lot to still be desired after The Winds of Winter‘s prolonged delay.

Martin said his TV obligations contributed to his less than ideal writing output. While Martin called some of those TV matters good, the bad seems to clearly means House of the Dragon. Here’s what he said about his TV work:

Some of that was pleasant (DARK WINDS, and THE HEDGE KNIGHT), most of it was not. The stress kept mounting, the news went from bad to worse to worst, my mood seemed to swing between fury and despair, and at night I tossed and turned when I should have been sleeping. When I did sleep, well, my dreams were none too pleasant either.

“Fury and despair” perfectly captures his already legendary post about his issues with House of the Dragon. The fact he specifically cited The Hedge Knight as a positive shows his issues are not with HBO at large. But unlike that “Not a Blog” post, this is a lot more subtle. No one will be able to ask him to take it down. This time he opted against direct conflict and instead chose to let us read between the lines.

Reading between lines is the best we can probably hope for these days. At least until “some” becomes “all” when it comes to Martin’s The Winds of Winter. But don’t stress about it, George. We know you have a lot on your mind.

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My summer does not officially begin until I watch Chief Brody and Hooper start paddling back to shore. It’s my one and only summer tradition. And this year it never happened. I never saw Jaws. Not a single scene! Don’t feel too badly for me, because I found an amazing way to appreciate one of my favorite films ever. LEGO sent us its new set based on Steven Spielberg’s seminal 1975 blockbuster, and piecing together the Orca and big ole Bruce more than made up for not seeing them on screen. But just like Alex Kintner never should have been allowed in the water that fateful day, this advanced LEGO Jaws collectible is definitely not for kids.

The new Jaws LEGO set is the latest fantastic design to come out of the company’s LEGO Ideas. Jonny Campbell of Belfast submitted this concept back in March of 2022. His original layout is still very much present in this spectacular set, which adds lots of detail and kinetic energy to his submission.

The official set consists of two main pieces, the Orca and the enormous shark that took it down. You can display each on their own, with “Bruce” getting his own little stand and movie nameplate. Or you can attach them both to an intricate base that recreates movement of waves and whitewash. (Along with some yellow barrels that giant shark is somehow dragging along.) But getting to those finished products takes some work. This is very much an 18+ set.

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The Orca features a ton of great details and touches. There are fishing rods, spears, a shark cage, and more. It also includes a very full interior cabin that feels cramped as you are building it, but it looks fantastic when it’s done. While some portions of the boat are straight forward to and not especially difficult to make, I found the front especially hard to piece together. It’s very delicate. It was hard to know if I was doing something wrong or it was just made that way to give the boat a sense of vulnerability. I lean towards the former because I had some issues later that I obviously created and needed to very carefully correct. That’s on me, but just be aware that bag 4 (of 13) poses some trouble if you aren’t extra cautious.

Some of the details that make this ship feel like it might really sail away are also extra tricky. You have to tie the rope segments onto the tiniest possible pieces. That was not exactly a day at the beach for my sausage fingers. Also the ropes ultimately run through the very tall, very flexible mast. The mast’s lack of sturdiness adds authenticity, which this set has in abundance. But determining the exact amount of slack to use on the ropes is frustrating and time consuming. Ultimately it’s worth it, but only when you’re done.

The shark speaks for itself. It’s moderately difficult to snap together, as some portions are easy while others are not. It looks great on its own, but also easily separates so you can put most of its body on the base where it chases down the Orca. The best thing about the set’s shark is its size relative to the Orca. They’re almost equal in length, which wonderfully recaptures the moment in the movie when it swims right by and Quint assesses its size at 25-feet and “three tons of him.”

On that iconic ship, you’ll also find three of the best LEGO minifigs ever. Those legendary characters also contain an amazing little joke. Brody and Hooper’s heads give you two options, a happy side and a serious side. Quint, fittingly, only has a serious side. It’s perfection.

But describing what’s in this set and how challenging it is to build is like describing Jaws as a movie about the ocean. It doesn’t capture what’s really important. I’m not kidding about watching Jaws every summer. It’s a perfect movie and I never get sick of it. Actually constructing the Orca and seeing it come to life in my hands was genuinely thrilling. I was geeking out the more it came together. And ever time I added a new portion of detail, I was thinking about specific scenes from the film. I could hear the dialogue. It was a tactile experience that conjured up vivid memories of a thing I love.

At around 8-9 hours of build time, this 1,497-piece collectible isn’t a huge undertaking. The set’s time commitment doesn’t reflect its $149.99 price tag, though. If you also love Jaws, when you’re done you’ll have something that is definitely worth the price. Especially if you plan on making sure you have it right by your side when you watch Jaws every summer. And I promise I will not be missing out on rewatching it when the weather turns warm next year. That is, unless LEGO makes a second Jaws set.

I hope there is another one… just so long as LEGO doesn’t base it on Jaws 2. Not watching the sequels is another summer tradition of mine.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on  Twitter and  Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was a lot more heartfelt than the original film, and for a brief moment it seemed as though Tim Burton’s long-awaited sequel was going to end on an especially sentimental note. Only, Lydia and Astrid’s bonding took a dark twist. The movie’s last scene turned out to be an upsetting dream featuring the Ghost with the Most. What was really going on during that bizarre final sequence? It’s a straightforward question without a straightforward answer, because it depends on whether or not Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is getting a sequel.

Astrid saved her mother by pointing out Beetlejuice violated his wedding contract with Lydia. Having avoided matrimony with him yet again, Lydia then sent the bioexorcist back to the afterlife. And with a sandworm busy digesting Rory, she didn’t have to marry anyone. Yet that didn’t stop us from seeing a Deetz wedding. The film concluded with Lydia ending her TV show, Ghost House, so she could travel the world with her daughter. Astrid had planned to see some of the spookiest places on Earth with her dad before he passed away. Instead she was going to see them with her mom, further strengthening their newfound connection.

Their vacation took them to Dracula’s castle in Romania. There, Astrid eyed a handsome young man whom we then saw her marry in what appeared to be a fast-moving relationship. That was quickly followed by Astrid giving birth inside a very large, slightly unsettling white hospital room with a suspiciously enormous viewing area. From there Lydia watched the painful, unnatural birth of her first grandchild. The child turned out to be the creepy baby Beetlejuice from earlier. (It had popped out of Lydia’s stomach during her “therapy” session with Beetlejuice, the one who conjured the monstrosity.) The sinister newborn crawled the walls before ultimately ending up in his smiling mama’s lap.

Lydia then woke up in bed, revealing it had all been a bad, strange dream. Beetlejuice was not the father to Astrid’s baby. In fact, Astrid had likely never been pregnant at all. (Probably not even married, either, considering how fast that all happened.) Only, Lydia’s nightmare wasn’t actually over just yet. Beetlejuice then woke up next to her and asked if she was okay. A terrified Lydia—who’d lost her dad, stepmom, and fiancee during the film—then woke up for real to an empty bed.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s final scene went from sweet to scary to sad, but it was consistently weird the whole time. On its own, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Ending on such a dour note didn’t fit thematically or tonally with the movie, which was far more upbeat and positive. Why show Lydia all alone and being terrorized by her long tormenter when she’d just overcome so much and reconnected with her daughter? The first film was far more sinister and ended with an iconic musical number celebration. This type of ending would make way more sense in that movie, instead.

That final dream sequence only makes sense if it set up a third Beetlejuice film. Except there are currently no plans for a third movie, and it might never happen.

The movie opened with Lydia suddenly seeing Beetlejuice again after decades free from him. He was suddenly haunting her waking hours. When she returned to Winter River for her dad’s funeral Beetlejuice re-entered her life. He’d spent all those years pining after her, and in some ways his love for Lydia made him a better person ghost. He got a real job and seemed to mellow a lot. But that didn’t stop him from coercing Lydia into marrying him when the opportunity arose. Rather than help save Astrid out of the goodness of his dead heart, he exploited Lydia’s vulnerability for his own gain.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s ending doesn’t work as a conclusion to itself, but it serves as a perfect bridge to a third and final film. It shows Lydia is not free of her spectral foe yet. Loopholes and voided contracts aren’t enough to rid her of him. He still has all eternity to figure out how to get her to say “I do.” If Lydia wants to be truly free of her Beetlejuice nightmare she’ll need to do something more than just send him back to the afterlife. That clearly didn’t work this time anymore than it did the first time. He still wants to marry Lydia and always will.

Ending your film with a scene that doesn’t really fit your movie unless it’s part of a larger story feels like a cop out at worst. But Beetlejuice Beetlejuice can make the case its ending was merely another example of the afterlife being “random,” and that it stayed true to its weird vibes and nature. But it’s hard to not think about the business side of that sequence when we’re watching a big budget Hollywood movie. And that’s almost impossible after seeing the reaction to the film.

Tim Burton’s sequel is setting box office records. We’d now be shocked if the studio doesn’t make a third and final film with Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder. Warner Bros. (and Burton himself) obviously wanted to leave the possibility open, and without waiting 36 years to do so this time.

None of that should really surprise anyone. After two films we all know if you want to get rid of that iconic bioexorcist you need to say Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

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The Rings of Power‘s second season is already teasing the Stranger’s true identity. Considering Daniel Weyman’s tall, unkempt magical mystery man wanders around in rags with halflings after arriving on Middle-earth in a literal ring of fire, there’s plenty of reason to think he’s Gandalf. But he’s no longer the the show’s only Istar. Ciarán Hinds has joined the series as a powerful dark wizard. That intimidating cult leader already feels threatened by the Stranger’s presence. And combined with his appearance, loyal acolytes, hunt for Sauron, and his outpost in the East, The Rings of Power might now feature another legendary wizard from The Lord of the Rings. Hinds might really be playing Saruman.

Like much of J.R.R. Tolkien’s lore, the history of Istari during the Second Age is a muddled mess of conflicting tales, timelines, and monikers. In some accounts he wrote the Valar sent Istari to Middle-earth to undermine Sauron’s grip on the east and south. But who the Valar sent exactly and when, if at all, changed over time like so many of Tolkien’s other stories. The result is that the canonical history of wizards during this era is debatable at best.

Like with other questionable/unofficial lore, that ambiguity means The Rings of Power can pick and choose which Tolkienian elements it wants to adapt. And that means it’s possible Saruman was already living on Middle-earth during the Second Age. The Prime Video series has already given us lots of evidence he was.

Hinds—a great actor who can match the intensity and onscreen presence of the late Christoper Lee— is playing a powerful dark wizard weary of another Istar. (One who might very well be his uncorrupted counterpart Gandalf.) The dark wizard’s two-toned beard and staff that looks like the Eye of Sauron are also remarkably reminiscent of Lee’s character in Peter Jackson’s iconic films.

Just like with the future Saruman, Hinds dark wizard also has loyal followers willing to do terrible things on his behalf. He also seems obsessed with control and suppressing the abilities of another Istar he sees as a challenge to his position. The Rings of Power‘s dark wizard does not want the Stranger to remember who he is or how powerful he is.

Hinds’ evil Istar also calls Rhûn in the east home. That’s where evil will soon rise during the Second Age, and Saruman’s legacy is defined by his embrace of darkness which he personally spread into the west. And the Istar’s mystics spent season one looking for the Stranger because they believed he might be Sauron. In season two’s fourth episode Tom Bombadil also said the Dark Wizard seeks power but can only get it with the help of an even stronger ally. In the Third Age Saruman will first serve Sauron as a follower. He will then secretly try to usurp the Dark Lord as ruler of Middle-earth. Saruman’s ultimate second fall is directly connected with the Dark Lord’s growing power.

The parallels between Saruman during the Third Age and Hinds’ incredibly powerful Istar of the Second are obvious and bountiful. That doesn’t mean he’s definitely Saruman, however. Morgoth’s lingering evil, combined with Sauron’s darkness, could have corrupted any wizard present on Middle-earth during the Second Age. Hinds could be playing one of the blue wizards Tolkien said wandered the lands at this time. Or he might be another Istar entirely the show is introducing.

But if the Stranger proves to be the wizard we think he is, it seems very likely Hinds will, too. In the Third Age the Valar sent Saruman to Middle-earth ahead of Gandalf. Ultimately good defeated evil because they did. The Rings of Power might show the Valar did so because they knew it would work for a second time.

This post originally published on August 29, 2024.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who prefers the color grey over white. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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The Harfoots are no longer The Rings of Power‘s only little folk. In season two’s fourth episode Poppy and Nori came across the Stoors, one of the three tribes that will one day be known in Middle-earth as Hobbits. Who are these halflings? What will become of them? And what did the show reveal about their connection to the Harfoots? Here’s everything you need to know about the Stoors in The Rings of Power.

The Stoors, along with the Harfoots and Fallohides, are one of three tribes of Hobbits during Middle-earth’s Third Age. They’re both taller and stouter to their halfling counterparts, the closest of all Hobbits in appearance to men. Stoors are also the only breed of the three that can grow beards.

Despite the location of their village on The Rings of Power, the Stoors are also known for their affinity for living on flatland or near rivers which they sail on and fish from. Unlike other Hobbits, Stoors do not fear water. (That is not a minor detail in their story…)

The Stoors were also the last of the three tribes of little folk to make their way to the Shire during the Third Age. However, some stayed behind in the Anduin Vale while others lived apart from the Shire. Their late, very different path to their iconic races land resulted in them speaking their own dialect separate from other Hobbits. It also contributed to them being far friendlier with the race of men than their halfling counterparts.

Little is known about where Hobbits, the last of the five free people of Middle-earth, came from. They were discovered after already existing for unknown generations. Whatever connection they had with men was lost to time.

The Rings of Power leaned into that aspect of Hobbit history when Nori and Poppy encountered a Stoor named Merimac in the desert of Rhûn. They called him a Harfoot, but he didn’t know what that was. Instead he called himself a Stoor.

Unlike the Harfoots, a clan of wanderers who constantly move to new temporary homes, the Stoors live in a secret village in the ground. There they grow fruit and vegetables, teach their young, and have a dwell-leader known as The Gund. (Just don’t call her that.) They must steal water, though, which might explain why they will become so fond of it one day. Unfortunately, it will also lead the most infamous Stoor of all-time to find the One Ring while fishing with his friend. The Stoor love of water is why Smeagol will turn into Gollum.

Nori learned the Harfoots were once Stoors themselves. Her and dwell-leader Gundabale Earthhauler realized they had an old, forgotten bond. The Harfoots are led by a trail-finer who guides them in their perilous journeys. Nori and Poppy’s was Sadoc Burrows who appeared in the show’s first season. The name Burrows caught Gundable’s attention and ultimately led her to protect Nori and Poppy rather than banishing them to the desert.

The Gund told a story about a Stoor from “ancient days” who “wasn’t like the rest of us.” He dreamed of a place “with endless streams of cold water and rolling hills so soft a family could dig a hole and live in it in less than a month.” That Stoor, named Rorimas Burrows, left with “a caravan of followers” to find that place he called the Sûzat, which we know as The Shire.

He never found it. Nor did he return to the Stoors he left behind. Instead they kept walking and became Harfoots, as each tribe of little folk forgot about the other. The only connection between them that remained was the name Burrows and Poppy’s wandering song that remembers the dream of Rorimas.

We know someday both clans, along with the Fallohides we have yet to meet on The Rings of Power, will find the Sûzat. Will Nori and Poppy lead them to The Shire? Will The Stranger? Someone else? Before we get answers the halflings of Middle-earth wil have to wander through the nightmare that is coming to the Second Age.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist and huge advocate of Second Breakfast. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post THE RINGS OF POWER’s New Hobbit Tribe the Stoors and Their Harfoot Connection, Explained appeared first on Nerdist.

The Rings of Power‘s seventh episode, “The Eye,” marked the return of the show’s mysterious mystics. The three white-cloaked figures are seeking the Stranger. But who exactly are those evil figures, and what do the three witches in their white cloaks want with the meteorite man on The Rings of Power? The answer to those questions should tell us if Nori’s big friend is truly good or about to put all of Middle-earth in peril.

Who Are The Rings of Power‘s White Cloak Characters?

The three figures who first appeared at the site of the Stranger’s meteorite crash are known as The Ascetic (Kali Kopae), The Nomad (Edith Poor), and The Dweller (Bridie Sisson), the group’s apparent leader. Prime Video refers to them as “mystics,” and their attire certainly contributes to a religious ethos. The figures also seem like they could easily be seen as witches on The Rings of Power. In fact, in an interview, Patrick McKay, one of the showrunners on The Rings of Power, likens the White Cloaks to MacBeth’s trio of witches. He notes, “We’re…thinking about Macbeth, and we’re thinking about the old crones and the three witches and just trying to come up with something strange and weird.”

Thanks to one of the show’s executive producers, we also know where they hail from. Lindsey Weber told Time that The Dweller comes “from far to the east,” specifically the lands of Rhûn, a place seeped in J.R.R. Tolkien’s darkest lore.

What Do We Know About The Rings of Power‘s Three White-Cloaked Witches?

The White Cloaks—silent, ethereal figures—only appeared after the Stranger arrived. Some, like Waldreg, took the meteorite as a sign Sauron himself has returned. The mystics’ items connect them to both figures. They carry a shield bearing the exact same constellation the Stranger is seeking. (In Middle-earth constellations can serve as omens of coming evil.) They also possess a staff that looks remarkably like the Eye of Sauron from Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

The Rings of Power‘s three white-cloaked witches also managed to track the Stranger’s movements across Middle-earth. After they found his crash site, the Dweller touched the dirt where the Stranger had been. Ultimately that brought them to the tree the Stranger healed at the Harfoots new home. Once the Dweller touched it, the cult knew exactly which direction the bearded man had headed, and Nori’s attempts to lead them astray proved disastrous.

It also seems clear very early into their appearances that the cult of white cloaks is evil. The Stranger used magic to heal the Harfoots’ new land. The Dweller used dark magic to burn the Harfoots carts, leaving the group with little food or refuge.

In The Rings of Power season two, we see more white cloak witches, although we haven’t yet received many answers about their origins or aims. All we know is that they appear to serve the dark wizard in Rhûn. In season two, we get to see more of their magic at work. They seem to deal in magic the involves blood and moths. They are even powerful enough, along with the dark wizard to resurrect one of their fallen coven members, The Dweller.

Are the Cult Members Human Skin-Changers?

Large wolves have been stalking the Harfoots since The Rings of Power‘s first episode. And in episode seven Poppy saw another giant wolf paw print in the mud, not far from where the White Cloaks stood. Then, when Nori confronted the group in a later episode of The Rings of Power, the witches vanished into thin air only to suddenly appear behind her. All of which raises the possibility they are skin-changers, like Beorn from The Hobbit.

Considering Sauron himself is a shape-shifter, it’s possible his most zealous followers would also possess a similar type of ability. Especially ones that are also sorcerers like the White Cloaks seem to be. Not only was The Dweller immune to fire, she blew on the embers in her hand, causing the Harfoots carriages to go up in flames. She is a dangerous fire of immense power. In the finale of The Rings of Power, the white-cloaked cult of Sauron was also able to change their shapes into those of Nori and the Stranger, further highlighting their immense and evil powers.

Sauron also has deep and lasting connections with wolves. The first werewolf was bred from a wolf Morgoth filled it with an evil spirit. Sauron was then the beast’s master, as he was for all other werewolves who followed. One of his werewolves killed Galadriel’s brother Finrod. And, on at least one occasion, Sauron himself transformed into a werewolf. And they will still serve him into the Third Age, long after The Rings of Power.

There doesn’t seem to be too much evidence for this theory after The Rings of Power season one, but we can’t entirely rule it out either.

Are the Cult Members Maiar?

But while the race of men can be both skin-changers and sorcerers of dark magic, it is possible the White Cloaks are also members of the Maiar like Sauron and Middle-earth’s wizards. Those spirit servants of the Valar are incredibly powerful, and one was Sauron’s loyal vampire servant during the First Age. And The Dweller’s ability to control fire is similar to the Stranger’s own ability.

This theory remains on the table as we head into The Rings of Power season two.

Are The Rings of Power‘s White Cloaks Priests?

The Rings of Power is an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Second Age. The show is condensing the timeline by thousands of years and adding its own lore to Middle-earth, so we don’t know what future changes the series will make. But we know in Tolkien’s official history Sauron helps bring about the demise of Númenor by convincing many on the island to worship Morgoth rather than the Valar. And Sauron himself served as the head priest of the cult of Morgoth.

The author also had plans for a story set during Middle-earth’s Fourth Age that would have included The New Shadow Cult, a group of men who worshipped the first Dark Lord.

It’s possible The Rings of Power is pulling from both of these groups to introduce a religious sect that faithfully awaited the return of Sauron, successor to Morgoth.

But whether human or Maiar, priest or soldier, where the White Cloaks come from tells us what role they will play going forward.

Rhûn and the Easterling Men Loyal to Morgoth and Sauron

The Southlands were not the only place where men swore fealty to Morgoth. The Dark Lord’s most loyal men, the Easterlings, came from Rhûn in the east. The Easterlings will still serve Sauron during the Third Age. They will stand against Aragorn when he comes to the Gates of Mordor.

The white-cloaked witches also come from Rhûn, which they seemed to leave only after seeing the Stranger’s meteor crash on Middle-earth. All of which raises the most important question of all: is the white-cloaked cult looking for the Stranger because he is Sauron or because the Stranger is a threat to their master?

Why Are the White Cloaks Looking for the Stranger?

Sauron is coming. He will soon forge all the rings of power and unleash war during Middle-earth’s Second Age. But who is Sauron, and where is he now? It’s maybe the single biggest question on The Rings of Power. In its finals, The Rings of Power revealed to us that Sauron is, in fact, Halbrand. But he wasn’t the only candidate throughout the show. Not when a powerful man arrived in a meteor. And it seemed the cult of witches believed the Stranger to be Sauron, revealing why the White Cloaks searched for him for so long.

But the Stranger—who Nori believes is “good”—proves to be something else, the hooded, white coat cult calls him an Istar or wizard in The Rings of Power‘s finale. And whether he is the Maia Gandalf himself or a different wizard, he’s the single biggest threat to Sauron in all of Middle-earth. The mystics refer to him as “the other,” tying him to Sauron. The Stranger, after all, sought the same constellation as the mystics held. And he had many of the same powers they expected to find, had he been Sauron. In Tolkien’s lore, of course, the Istari come to Middle-earth to aid in the fight against Sauron. But it’s possible the two may yet have a deeper connection.

Is The White-Cloaked Cult of Witches Dead on The Rings of Power?

Once the cult of witches recognizes The Stranger on The Rings of Power, they seem to confirm that the arrival of the Istar is tied to the coming of their own master. Their miscalculation costs them, however. As the Stranger remembers himself and his powers, he annihilates them. But not before they confirm that the true meaning of the Stranger’s constellation. The arrangement of stars, known as the Hermit’s Hat, can only be seen from Rhûn, where the stars are strange. Although it seemed like the white-cloaked cult was dead on The Rings of Power, The Rings of Power reveals perhaps not as dead as we thought.

Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay hinted at this in an interview after season one. When asked about the fate of The Rings of Power‘s witches, Payne offers:

There are glimpses into the unseen world where the true form of something is revealed. You’re seeing what is underneath the form that they’ve been presenting. Were they defeated, or were they just temporarily vanquished? I think that’s a story point that people can be thinking about.

Meanwhile, McKay says:

The visual storytelling hopefully suggests that these witches are lesser conjurers than one of the wizards would be, and are bested here, but they escape in another form. Their true appearance in the world of the unseen is hideous and horrible and some kind of magic is making them beautiful… Maybe there’s a slightly different kind of magic and we can peel back the layers in future seasons. 

For now, The Dweller has been resurrected by her fellow witches, although The Ascetic and The Nomad are still missing. In addition, we meet a whole slew of other witch-cloaked witches in Rhûn.

The Impact of the White Cloak Witches

Sauron’s White Cloaks set the Stranger and Nori off on a new path, though. The pair make for Rhûn as they seek to understand his wizard powers and origins. And now the wizard even has a staff, although he’s still look for his true one. Ultimately, The Rings of Power doesn’t offer too many specific answers about the cult of the Dark Wizard and/or Sauron. But it seems very possible that these mystics, their hoods, and their witchy white cloaks could play a huge role in the fate of Middle-earth. After all, where magic and evil is concerned, anything is possible.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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One of the most enduring, saddest mysteries of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy is the fate of the Entwives. During their travels together Treebeard told Merry and Pip that Ents, an ancient Middle-earth race of sentient tree people, “lost” the Ent women long ago. Tolkien never revealed what happened to the Entwives in The Lord of the Rings, but The Rings of Power, set during Middle-earth’s Second Age, long before Treebeard met those Hobbits, has shown us exactly what the world lost when they vanished. Season two’s fourth episode introduced one of the Entwives to The Lord of the Rings audiences everywhere, a beautiful and loving creature named Winterbloom.

Season two’s third episode saw Theo and others getting easily manhandled by unseen figures. The Rings of Power‘s next episode confirmed it was the large, powerful Ents who’d grabbed them. But unlike the era of Middle-earth fans know from The Lord of the Rings, the Entwives were still living with their male counterparts during the time of The Rings of Power. The show introduced the Ent couple of Winterbloom (voiced by Olivia Williams) and Snaggleroot (Jim Broadbent).

Though already many thousands of years old by this time, Ents of the Second Age are also thousands of years younger than the ones Merry and Pip will one day meet. No surprise then that on The Rings of Power, Ents move faster and with more agility. They’re maybe even more powerful. Ents are so strong that Morgoth created trolls in response to them. But trolls were never as strong as the tree folk. The Ents of the Second Age were also still just as protective of their barked brethren as ever. None more so than Winterbloom, who fully captures the nature of the Entwives imbued in them by their creator, Yavanna.

In The Lord of the Rings‘ lore, the Valar Yavanna, responsible for all growing things in the world, asked for the Ents to be created in response to her husband creating dwarves. She wanted her tree folk to serve as “shepherds” who would protect the trees from dwarves’ axes. The Ent men tended to the larger trees. The Entwives, more beautiful than their male counterparts, looked after smaller living things.

On The Rings of Power, Winterbloom showed exactly why Yavanna created the Ents. The Entwife fiercely protected her fellow living creatures, many of which came birthed. She was not simply acting as a guard; this Entwife mourned for every living thing the orcs had destroyed. Winterbloom loved those trees, plants, and flowers deeply. The passion, vigilance, and care she felt for them made it easy to see why Treebeard will one day speak so sadly of losing the Entwives. Yet it was the tree folks’ past that ultimately mattered on the Prime Video Series.

While always sentient, Ents only learned to speak thanks to the elves. The Ents never forgot that bond, and it might have saved Arondir and his cohorts on The Rings of Power. While Winterbloom said it would take an age to earn forgiveness for any trees elves had felled, she began that process immediately when Arondir promised elves would protect those woods forever. Unlike orcs or even men, Winterbloom had reason to trust Arondir.

It was a beautiful scene, one that both leaned into Tolkien’s lore and captured the spirit of Middle-earth. But it was an inherently sad one, too. Entwives have always been defined by their absence in Middle-earth. They will leave the Ents towards the end of the Second Age to start a new garden, we may even see it happen on The Rings of Power. No one will ever see them again after that. (Possibly because Sauron will kill them all.) That will ultimately doom the race of Ents entirely. No Entwives mean no new Entings. But even before the day comes when the final Ent takes his final giant step, The Rings of Power shows Middle-earth lost something special when it lost the Entwives. In a world so often overrun with darkness and death, they were loving shepherds of life.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist and definitely an Entwife guy. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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The Rings of Power has done something Peter Jackson didn’t with his The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies. The Prime Video show has brought a live-action Tom Bombadil to Middle-earth. Who is this strange jolly fellow full of magic and mystery? Why are some fans excited to see him while others might not be? And what role does he seem set to play on The Rings of Power? Here’s everything we know about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power‘s Tom Bombadil—along with everything we don’t—and what his arrival means for The Stranger during the Second Age.

What The Lord of the Rings Book Does Tom Bombadil Appear In?

The magical, mysterious Tom Bombadil appears in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Frodo and his Hobbit friends accidentally come across the rotund, gregarious figure near Tom Bombadil’s home deep in the Old Forest near the Withywindle tributary valley. Tom Bombadil actually ends up saving Merry and Pippin from a particularly hungry tree, Old Man Willow, who pulls them into its depths. We see an echo of this in The Rings of Power‘s introduction of Tom Bombadil as well.

The area around his small dwelling is under Tom’s domain, and the tired Hobbits spend a couple of days feasting under his roof before leaving. But it’s not long before Frodo must call on Tom, using a special song Bombadil taught him, to rescue the halflings from Barrow-wights. (Those terrifying creatures made their The Rings of Power debut in the same episode Tom did.)

Tom Bombadil, who has a fondness for singing silly songs, sports long hair, and a long beard. He wears a blue jacket, blue feathered hat, and yellow boots. He’s taller than a Hobbit but shorter than a man. Tom Bombadil is also the very, very old, the “eldest” living creature in the world. Tom says he “remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn,” as he predates them.

While he is usually merry, he’s also capable of being serious when the moment calls for it. However, Tom Bombadil showed no interest in the matters of the rest of the world, so while he did not support Sauron during the Third Age, he also did not join in the second war against the Dark Lord.

What Kind of Creature is Tom Bombadil? How Powerful is Tom Bombadil?

No one knows exactly what The Lord of the Rings‘ Tom Bombadil really is. He’s arguably the greatest mystery of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic tale. His age suggests he might be one of the Ainur, but that’s only one theory. What we do know is that he’s magical and powerful. He also has dominion over nature, which he can commune with. Those abilities are why some think Tom Bombadil is the physical manifestation of the natural world itself. Tom also uses his songs, some of which he sung quietly to himself on The Rings of Power, to control the Barrow-wights and other creatures.

The true depth of his abilities was best exemplified when Frodo willingly handed over the One Ring to him.

Did Tom Bombadil Hold the One Ring?

Frodo was reluctant to give anyone the One Ring, yet freely gave it over to Tom Bombadil without thought when asked in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Unlike everyone else on Middle-earth the One Ring had no power over Tom. He didn’t disappear when he wore it. He was also able to see the otherwise invisible Frodo when he did.

Soon after Elrond, who’d met Bombadil long ago, suggested Tom as an option to carry the One Ring to Mordor. But Gandalf said the jolly fellow’s disinterest would make it likely Tom Bombadil would simply throw the ring away and forget about it.

Why Didn’t Tom Bombadil Appear in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies?

Tom Bombadil plays a very minor role in the plot of The Fellowship of the Ring, something Tolkien himself admitted. The author said he included Bombadil because the character represented something “important” he did not specify. With so much story to tell onscreen Peter Jackson decided to leave Tom Bombadil out of The Lord of the Rings trilogy entirely. (Though he did give the Ents some of Tom’s book dialogue in his The Two Towers adaptation.) Tom Bombadil has appeared in some other live-action adaptations as well as other media, like Magic: The Gathering.

Until recently, Tom Bombadil’s depiction in a new out-of-print TCG called The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game was the most canonical rendition of the being we had. The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game was released in 2001 and was based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy by Peter Jackson. Even though that movie series did not include Tom Bombadil as we just mentioned, The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game still featured the character in a card.

Bombadil’s exclusion from Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films disappointed many ardent fans of the character, but not everyone disagreed with his omission. Some readers find Tom Bombadil, with his penchant for communicating via absurd songs while doing silly dances, a divisive figure. The Rings of Power co-showrunner J.D. Payne told Nerdist “one of the challenges” in bringing the character to live-action “is that Tom Bombadil sort of defies drama by his very nature.”

That didn’t stop the Prime Video series from introducing him to their story, where he doesn’t feel out of place at all.

What is Tom Bombadil Doing on The Rings of Power?

The Stranger didn’t realize his star map was bringing him to another magical, powerful being who seemingly exists outside of time, but he was always meant to find Tom. The slightly more muted version of Tom Bombadil will need to see if The Stranger is worthy of his capabilities, which he will need to stop the mysterious Dark Wizard and Sauron from teaming up and engulfing Middle-earth in flames.

Tom Bombadil is not living in his normal home in the Old Forest in The Rings of Power, though. He is currently residing to the west in Rhûn, where he came to personally see its change from a lush green land into a harsh desert.

Tom Bombadil and Goldberry in The Rings of Power

He did not arrive in Rhûn alone though. The woman’s voice The Stranger heard was Tom’s wife Goldberry. She’s a river-spirit, which is why The Stranger did not see her. Goldberry chose not to reveal her human-form to him at this time and we don’t know if we’ll see it at all on The Rings of Power. Outside of Tom’s cottage The Stranger also had an unfortunate encounter with a grumpy tree. Tom called that tree Old Man Ironwood, but it seemed remarkably similar to Old Man Willow from Tolkien’s novel. That equally cantankerous tree was the one who made the Hobbits fall asleep in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which led to them meeting Tom Bombadil in the first place.

Tom Bombadil did not go on to fight Sauron in the Third Age. But that war takes place thousands of years after The Rings of Power. The show is introducing Tom during the Second Age before the Dark Lord even forged his One Ring to rule them all. The pleasant Tom Bombadil might be more subdued because he knows he has an important job to do on The Rings of Power. Istar are relatively new to Middle-earth, and The Stranger needs someone powerful and magical like him to guide him in his quest to understand who he is and what he can. By the Third Age, Gandalf (who The Stranger might actually be) will be well-versed in fighting Dark Lords and not need Tom Bombadil’s help.

Who Is Playing Tom Bombadil on The Rings of Power?

Rory Kinnear (Men, The Imitation Game, Penny Dreadful) plays Tom Bombadil on The Rings of Power. Star Daniel Weyman told us what it was like filming with such a legendary character of Middle-earth.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who is pro Tom Bombadil. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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In July George R.R. Martin told fans he would soon share his thoughts on “everything that’s gone wrong” with House of the Dragon. That tantalizing tease suggested he was ready to spill a whole lot of Moon tea. Well, he sure was. The author did more than just discuss his issues with the adaptation’s divisive second season. Martin spit fire and blood about his concerns in an already deleted blog post where he explained why he’s worried about what showrunner Ryan Condal has planned for the series’ final two seasons, in a screed that was the literary equivalent of the Night King bringing down the Wall.

In a quickly deleted post titled “Beware the Butterflies” at his Not a Blog, Martin opened up talking about the split reaction to House of the Dragon‘s “Blood and Cheese” sequence from season two’s first episode. Some readers thought the show’s version came up far short of the more emotionally wrenching one found in Martin’s Fire & Blood. (I wrote the series “botched” the sequence entirely.) Martin was far kinder in his assessment, which included a lot of praise for the series’ take, even though he agrees book readers are right “the scene in the book is stronger.”

Martin also wrote about how Ryan Condal explained the practical reasons behind these changes, along with how the show would later introduce a missing character cut from that vital scene.

The author’s analysis of House of the Dragon‘s “Blood and Cheese” comes across as tough but fair. Martin has real, well-founded criticism, but understands why certain changes were made. His assessment reads as wholly diplomatic.

“Diplomatic” does not describe the rest of what he wrote. At best it read as highly critical. At worst it came across as downright antagonistic and angry.

Martin explained he only briefly argued about the changes to “Blood and Cheese” because Condal shared his plan to introduce a missing character later. In Fire & Blood Aegon and Helaena have a third child, a younger son named Maelor. His presence (or lack thereof) greatly alters the nightmarish sequence for everyone involved. That’s also true of Maelor’s future role in the story.

While not a major character himself, two-year-old Maelor is a major impetus for important future events. Except Condal apparently later changed his mind and decided to never introduce Maelor to the show. That has clearly (CLEARLY) displeased Martin.

In his post he went into a spoiler-heavy explanation of the massive “Butterfly Effect” the “Missing Maelor” will cause going forward. (If you haven’t read Fire & Blood and don’t want anything from House of the Dragon spoiled we’re going to keep them to a bare minimum here. Martin’s post does not, so tread lightly if you seek out a copy.)

Martin made no attempt to hide his frustration—if not downright anger and disappointment—with Condal, the show, and even HBO whose budget limits he insinuated are causing problems. Here are some of the standout lines from his post (emphasis our own):

• …Could maybe make Maelor a newborn instead of a two year old, but that would scramble up the timeline, which is a bit of a mess already. I have no idea what Ryan has planned — if indeed he has planned anything…
• From what I know, that seems to be what Ryan is doing here. It’s simplest, yes, and may make sense in terms of budgets and shooting schedules. But simpler is not better.
• In Ryan’s outline for season 3, (character) still kills (themself)… for no particular reason. There is no fresh horror, no triggering event to overwhelm…
• What will we offer the fans instead, once we’ve killed these butterflies? I have no idea. I do not recall that Ryan and I ever discussed this, back when he first told me they were pushing back on Aegon’s second son. Maelor himself is not essential… but if losing him means we also lose (multiple major moments) well… that’s a considerable loss.

Forget coming in hot. Martin came in on Balerion the Black Dread. And that was true before his final line went full scorched Westeros. He delivered a preemptive shot across the bow at Ryan Condal and House of the Dragon.

• And there are larger and more toxic butterflies to come, if HOUSE OF THE DRAGON goes ahead with some of the changes being contemplated for seasons 3 and 4…

…Yeah. Yeah.

That’s as subtle as Bronn and as diplomatic as a Dothraki. This was George R.R. Martin making clear he thinks House of the Dragon is heading to the same fate as Game of Thrones, which completely fell apart during its panned final two seasons.

How much of this post is a result of Martin’s frustration with the prequel itself versus how much is this a response to Game of Thrones‘ ending? Only he knows that. But he has previously talked about how he wasn’t as involved with the original show’s latter seasons. And since it seems he’s been unable to prevent fundamental changes he feels strongly about during House of the Dragon‘s first two, this might be the only way he thought he could help the series course correct before it’s too late.

Will it work? Or will this deleted post backfire on him? Will it ostracize him from HBO, Condal, and the show even more? And if it does, will it hurt other spinoffs, including the currently in-production A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms?

Well, very quickly, HBO issued a statement defending Condal and his choices for House of the Dragon. Later, Condal himself appeared on House of the Dragon‘s official podcast, From Book to Screen, sticking to his adaptorial guns.

“I stand behind the adaptation of how the plot unfolded,” Condal said. “I have talked about this quite a bit, but I will just say it in plain text: the children that we had in the story were simply too young to be able to construct that narrative exactly as laid out in the book. Period. I have lots of experience working with very young performers. To ask two four-year olds to play through that level of drama, it’s just not a realistic expectation.”

He continued: “There’s also a practical element around the things that you can expose young children to on a film set. Yes, you can do clever cutaways, and dummies, and all those things. We wanted this to be a very visceral, subjective experience, not something that was very cut-y, and with closeups. And when you start actually breaking apart what happens in that room, and the things that are said, and the things that are done, it became such a challenge to think about and mount that we started looking for—what are the base elements of this story, that Daemon and Rhaenyra send assassins into the Red Keep, and as a result the king’s child and heir [is] murdered—and how do we dramatize that in a way that’s exciting, and visceral, and horrifying, and do it in the best way possible?”

Martin didn’t feel he was being heard in private so he aired a whole lot of dirty laundry out in public. We’re not sure Meslidandre herself could divine in her flames what that will lead to.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who agrees entirely with George R.R. Martin on this matter. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

Originally published September 4, 2024

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is not going to “ruin” anyone’s childhood. It’s just not going to make anyone’s either. Tim Burton’s decades-in-the-making sequel is a mixed bag. It has some inspired moments and fantastic performances. But it also has way too many characters, more plot than it knows what to do with, and pacing issues. The result is an entertaining mess that ultimately leans more “entertaining” than “mess” because, even though it has a sentimental side that is oddly out of place, it’s still fundamentally a Beetlejuice movie.

If you love seeing dead people stuck in an eternal state of discomfort, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice delivers the goods. The very present, much-visited afterlife is full of recently deceased who met their end in increasingly hilarious ways. It’s packed with wonderfully “random” aspects that make it a wildly interesting place to revisit. And while it’s full of Easter eggs and nods to its predecessor, they rarely feel forced or corny.

It’s also where you’ll find a character we were led to believe would not be in the film at all. Well, they’re sort of in the movie. What do I mean? Sorry to be so cryptic, but it could be any number of original characters, so I won’t spoil who. I’ll only say their “inclusion” greatly surprised me and how the film uses them is going to lead to a lot of “discourse.”

As for the characters we knew we were returning, two do more than standout. They carry the movie. The first is Michael Keaton. He slips back into his bio-exorcist pinstripes so seamlessly it’s like he never took them off. If, like me, you hold the original film sacred, he’s everything you want from the Ghost with the Most. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice doesn’t overuse him, nor does it misuse him. He is a little different, though. He’s a lot less sinister, but that totally works because the movie shows how his previous encounter with Lydia changed him. It’s one of the film’s smartest evolutions.

The other is Catherine O’Hara’s Delia Deetz, the other original star who steals every single scene she’s in. Every single one. With age—and success—Delia has morphed into her best self, but that doesn’t mean she’s any less absurd or hilarious. The movie never suffers from any real dead spots because O’Hara is always around to keep you laughing.

Newcomer Jenna Ortega doesn’t get as many chances to be funny as her counterparts, but she’s excellent as Lydia’s skeptic daughter Astrid. She’s still mourning her dad’s death, and in a movie full of (maybe too much) ridiculousness, she adds a grounding element that helps it keep a good balance. Astrid’s story is also responsible for adding two things that are big parts of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice even though they were, at most, minor elements of the original film. This sequel has real heart and sentimentality.

How you feel about that will very much influence how much you like or dislike the movie. It didn’t really work for me, for the same reason it hasn’t in the new Ghostbusters movies, another ’80s franchise whose modern entries have also leaned into pulling in your heartstrings. The good news is Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s sentimentality isn’t nearly as cloying or annoying as Ghostbusters. That’s likely that because unlike its spectral counterpart, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice never forgets that it is a comedy first and foremost.

What it does forget is pacing and how to develop plots, both main and sub. The movie’s story feels rushed, as does its actual pacing. There’s too much going on and everything happens way too quickly. That’s all a byproduct of way, way, way too much plot. Whereas the original film is more about experiencing a fascinating world with a story loosely holding it together, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice puts its plot front and center. Then it adds even more plot to the wings until it overflows out the windows.

The main plot is essentially squeezed into the last hour of the movie. Meanwhile its B-plots are so underdeveloped, they’re more like D-plots. Two characters, Willem Defoe’s Wolf Jackson and Monica Bellucci’s Delores, add almost nothing to the film. In fact, each could be cut entirely without issue. That would actually make it a stronger movie because it would feel more focused. There are simply too many characters without enough time to do anything with them. Belluci’s Dolores especially feels like they forgot to include 75% of her scenes, which makes no sense considering she’s billed as the primary antagonist.

Two characters the movie doesn’t forget about are Justin Theroux’s Rory and Winona Ryder’s Lydia. Rory is annoying and sleazy, but as much as I love Theroux, he’s essentially too good in the part because I found Rory really annoying in a bad way. (Whereas I think the original film’s Otho is annoying in a good way.)

As for Ryder, her Lydia has undergone the worst evolution of the original cast. Burton made his most interesting, complex character…well…boring. At one point another character actually asks Lydia to rediscover that “annoying goth” teenage girl she’d once been, and in that moment it feels like everything she’s done so far is prelude to who she’ll become now. Only she never does. She never comes close to offering up anything as dynamic or layered as teenage Lydia.

It’s very frustrating, in large part because Lydia’s current life is incredibly interesting! The movie simply fails to fully explore why, saddling Ryder with an underwritten part.

Like I said, it’s a mixed bag. But not all mixed bags are equal, and I walked out of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice happier with the good parts than I was upset by the bad ones. The good aspects—notably the afterlife sequences, humor, Beetlejuice, and Delia—are really freaking good. The bad aspects—too much plot, too many characters, a weird sentimentality, poor pacing—aren’t bad enough to make toruin the film. They’re just bad enough to keep it from being really good.

The result is that, unlike its still perfect namesake, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is okay okay.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ⭐ (3.5 of 5)

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who gladly shares a name with Michael Keaton. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Mankind has always looked to the cosmos and wondered what was out there. Yet most of us will never know what it’s like to travel to outer space. That doesn’t mean we can’t al know what it smells like up there, though. Eau de Space, a secret scent created by NASA as part of its space program, is now available for anyone to buy.

After a successful Kickstarter campaign four years ago, even non-backers can now make themself smell like outer space. Eau de Space is based on a decades old fragrance NASA developed to train astronauts. The space agency wanted to make sure it prepared its astronauts for everything and anything they’d encounter once they left Earth. That included the smell they’d encounter.

So what does space smell like? Those who actually experienced the real thing described space as a lingering “pungent aroma” made up of “gun powder, rum, fruit, seared steak, or a BBQ.” Some also compared its scent to “burnt cookies.”  

….Great. Those are definitely things we want to smell like. Everyone loves burnt cookies, the literal manifestation of disappointment and failure.

If curiosity is still going to get the better of you, though, and you want to smell like an astronaut that just came back in from a space walk, you can for $49.99. That’s what it costs to order a 100 ml bottle of Eau de Space. Fortunately its packaging is a lot more pleasant. The sleek custom bottle also comes with an “atomizer.” But why stop there? For the same price you can also opt for a 100ml bottle that will let you smell like the Moon. Eau de Luna is based on the smell Apollo astronauts described after visiting our lunar neighbor. They said it had “a unique smell, that’s hard to describe…like spent gunpowder.”

….Even better. No, really. These smells are fun to experience once, but knowing that’s what space smells like softens the blow of knowing we’ll probably never get to travel there ourselves.

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Darkness has its Lord in Sauron, but the elves have a High King of their own. He will lead them in the fight for Middle-earth’s soul. How will Gil-galad do that in season two on The Rings of Power after barely averting disaster in season one? Nerdist spoke to star Benjamin Walker ahead of the show’s second season at Prime Video about just that. We also asked about his wide-ranging career, how it prepared him to play one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s most famous leaders, the High King’s reaction to peace giving way to war, and more. 

Nerdist: Before we get to The Rings of Power season two, I want to go back because I have been fascinated by your career for a long time. It’s not even that you’ve worked with some really famous and talented actors and directors. It’s that you’ve played an incredibly wide range of parts across very different genres. Do you actively seek out such different parts? Or is that just sort of how things have fallen for you?

Benjamin Walker: There’s an element to every actor’s career that’s just dumb luck. But I am pretty picky. I kind of live by…I like to collect directors, just in my mind. I want to know how they do what they do and have the opportunity to. Because every time you work with a different director, it’s like a different vocabulary. It’s a different workflow. I really like jumping in between different ways of working. I kind of live by, “What am I going to learn? Is this going to make me better?”

For example, I just did a show in the West End with the director Ivo van Hove. He’s this Dutch avant-garde theater director where you make a film of play you’re doing. While you do the play that video is live projected behind you. And the narrative is often disjointed and confusing on purpose, but it illuminates something unique about the story you’re trying to tell because the audience kind of has to play catch up the entire time. That to me, doing something different every time, is important. It keeps the job fresh. It keeps your tools sharp. And it’s one of the biggest joys I find doing the job, being a collaborator with people you haven’t collaborated with.

The things I’m about to bring up, I bring up specifically because I like them and I especially like you in them. Just want you to know-

Walker: :laughs: Disclaimer, alert.

Well I just want to make sure, because I imagine a lot of people first remember you from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Walker: Sure.

But then you followed that up with an HBO movie about the Supreme Court (Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight) and a Ron Howard film about a famous shipwreck (In the Heart of the Sea). Now you’re a famous Elf King on a Lord of the Ring series. How does playing Gil-galad compare to the many other types of roles you’ve had?

Walker: Oooh. I mean, certainly in terms of the scale, you talk about collaboration, the army of artists and craftspeople that are there to work with you and also support you, that’s been profound on this. That the size and scale of the show, by necessity, if you’re going to do Tolkien, that’s kind of the bare minimum of what it takes.

But, in some ways, now that I’m saying it, it feels a bit…for example, in the Ron Howard film, there were a few days where you’re exhausted, emaciated, and you’re just kind of stuck in a dinghy out in the ocean while (cinematographer) Anthony Dod Mantle has this handheld camera. And it’s like you’re doing almost a Guerrilla independent college film. Or it’s just some guys that have gotten together and they’re going to try and make this little story on this. That was an epic film, but in those moments, it feels very Guerrilla in that way.

We still have those moments on The Rings of Power. You walk into this massive sound stage where they’ve built the forest of Lindon, and you’ve got your ears glued on and you’re wearing a crown, and every leaf has been painted gold. But then you find yourself standing under a tree going, “Alright, but how do we milk every bit of magic out of this scene?” So in some ways the scale is different, the level of production is different, but if it’s good at its core, that’s what you try and do.

In addition to being wise and noble, the elves of Middle-earth are also smug. (Walker agrees) I believe that description definitely applies to Gil-galad. What’s the key to finding the balance between likable yet arrogant with the High King?

Walker: Oh that’s a great question. I think it comes from experience. His perceived smugness, especially in the second season, you’re going to start to see unravel a little bit because it’s one thing to have the experience to know the right move to make because you’ve done it before. But then inversely, when you have had that much experience, what’s the thing that makes you go, “I’ve never seen this before?”

So it’s important to lay in the foundation of the King that he has his hands on the wheel of peace time. But what does he become when peace time starts to slip away? In some ways, the first season is just laying the foundation for where we’re going throughout the course of the remaining seasons.

It’s like you anticipated my next question because in season one, he’s problem solving a desperate situation. But in season two, he’s confronted with the possibility that the cure could be worse than the disease. How does he deal with that and what’s the real driving factor behind his response to Sauron’s potential manipulation?

Walker: For the elves, it’s about the relationships among themselves and among the peoples and species of Middle-earth. You talk about smugness unraveling, with Elrond, for example, they have this great relationship, this kind of mentorship they have fostered. But you look at his relationship with Elrond and what does it mean for him to know that the person you’re mentoring is going to make a mistake. Is going to defy you. It’s almost like a parent-child relationship. A loving parent has to, at some point, let their child make a mistake. “Alright, you climbed up that tree. Now how are you going to get down?”

If every time they need to get out of the tree, you go pull ’em out, they don’t know how to climb trees. You’ve deprived them of that. And I think that’s something that Gil-galad does well, actually, but is also frustrating and costly.

I was going to ask you about your relationship with the other Elf leaders. There’s also Galadriel, Celebrimbor, Círdan. All of them look up to the High King, but they also answer to him. You talked about Elrond, but how would you define your relationship with the rest of them?

Walker: Galadriel and I have a fraught relationship to be sure. On paper, other than the hierarchy that the elves really respect, on paper we are equals. And for those that really know the book, technically she’s older than I am. So that is a recipe for disaster. But they also admire each other in that she often pushes the King and he often needs to pull her back. They need each other in order to be a successful people.

And Celebrimbor, he does something that no other creature has ever done, which is to harness the power of his smithing artistry. He, in some ways, is the pivotal character in all of Tolkien. If he were terrible at making rings, you wouldn’t have much of a story. And there’s a level of respect there that they share, but also they’re playing with technology that nobody fully understands. It’s a bit “Oppenheimer” of Tolkien. That moment of, “I think we can do this. Should we?” And they don’t fully understand what they’re doing.

What’s great about all the High Elves is that they’re in, some ways, the most capable characters in Middle-earth, but also the most fallible. That’s a testament to Tolkien, and, I hope, to what we’re doing with the show.

We know the High King’s fate in this story. Does any part of you keep that in mind so you can sort of reverse engineer how he gets to that point? Or do you simply try to stay centered on exactly where he is at this in the story right now,

Walker: It’s helpful for you as the actor to know. A production of Macbeth where Macbeth knows he’s going to die is not a good production. He has to have hope. But that’s also unique about the Elves in general. How do they live this long? Survive such death and destruction and boredom and misery, but still have hope? That’s unique and part of the fun to know the end of the story and then forget it. And in the pursuit of that hope you help the audience forget it.

What have you learned about Gil-galad after two seasons that has surprised you?

Walker: About how him losing his cool manifests itself. The elves don’t really lose their cool, but if there’s ever a time to lose your cool, it’s when evil has resurfaced and you’ve told all of your lieutenants the right thing to do and they didn’t do it. Part of the fun of Gil-galad is, like we said earlier, this kind of smug peace time consigliere. But what does it look like when he casts off his robes and goes, “Okay, all you guys to your rooms, I’m pulling this car over.” That’s part of the fun. What happens when they’re ready to kick some ass.

What are you most excited for fans to see this season?

Walker: If you know the books, you know it’s about to get really messy.

Also…how do I word this without getting in trouble…

In the books, the elves and music have such a deep relationship. About every two seconds they’re staring into a pool of water and singing to the Valar. It is nice that our show is accepting that and using that. And that we have such great musical team like Bear (McCreary).

The post THE RINGS OF POWER’s Benjamin Walker On High King Gil-galad’s Response to Coming War in Season 2 appeared first on Nerdist.

Few men of Middle-earth have ever left a more complicated legacy behind than Isildur. Fans of The Lord of the Rings know why. As does The Rings of Powers‘ Maxim Baldry, who plays a younger version of the character on the show. What’s it like playing such an important figure from J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendary story? How will things change for Isildur in season two of the show? And what’s it like building a meaningful human/elf relationship? We asked Baldry about all of that and more when we spoke to him ahead of the show’s return on Prime Video.

Nerdist: I’ve done so many of these interviews over the last two days I am now in my head with how to properly say the names of every character. It’s so intimidating because obviously all of you know how to say them perfectly.

Maxim Baldry: Well we’ve lived with them for a while now. I was speaking with someone today about this. We got the job five years ago, and it’s insane to think how quickly time moves. We were talking about what kind of characters we would love to be, and I think I said an elf, just to be able to see time pass in a way that stresses me out. Whereas, for (elves), they’d be able to be slightly more detached from it and see it things come and go. It’d be quite a beautiful experience.

The season opens with you believed dead and abandoned in Middle-earth, which is a pretty big change from where you were last year when you’re mostly in Númenor. What was it like playing the character under such drastically different circumstances this time?

Baldry: I loved it. Isildur lends himself to being thrown around in the mud. He’s a physical character. It’s important to have all of that, to influence and maybe make light of why he chooses to not throw the ring into the fire. That’s what all of these early seasons are about. For him, it’s very exploratory, it’s world-building, it’s understanding who he really is rather than what he does.

And fighting Shelob is just an extension of this whole season for him. It’s a story of survival. Not only is he abandoned by Númenor and left to fend for himself, he also has to survive. He’s thrown into the world of adulthood when he’s out there. He kind of entered as a boy into Middle-earth and is now learning pretty fast that he has to grow up, he has to fend for himself, he has to learn to survive.

So that is Shelob you fight in episode three?

Baldry: In episode three, it’s Shelob. It’s baby Shelob.

You touched on my next question a little bit, because every Lord of the Rings fan, whether they are book readers or moviegoers, know Isildur’s ultimate fate. With each season and episode bringing you closer and closer to that moment, does the knowledge of where he is going to end up influence your choices as a performer at all? Do you try to reverse engineer versus focusing solely on where he is in his life right now?

Baldry: My instinctive reaction was to reverse engineer and (showrunners) Patrick and J.D. sat me down and were like, “We know the end point, but let’s just play here and let’s really create who he is as a person.” I think we did a really good job with season one, because you’re thrown into this family dynamic of a broken one. They’re missing the mother. They’re all grieving in their own respective ways. And Isildur’s fractured relationship with his father never really resolves up until the last scene in episode seven where they have this touching moment and understand their mother’s influence on each other.

Thinking to the end is almost the wrong way of looking at it. Which is what I wanted to do. I’ve always been like, okay, “But he ends there, so how…?” But it’s actually about, “Let’s create this character. We know that he comes from a broken family. We know that he wants more. He’s driven and he’s ambitious.”

What’s more interesting is the ambition that he has in him. On one hand, it can make him resilient on one hand, can propel him to these new extremes of being able to survive, being able to fend off evil. But then it could be a double-edged sword later on. That ambition could also be used in ways that….and I’m just throwing things out here and speculating…but it could be when he takes the ring, it could be, “I’ve lost so much that I will do good with this. I am so ambitious and driven that I know I’ll be able to withstand this evil.”

Obviously, it ends up corrupting him. But there are so many ways to play him and all of the experiences that he has in seasons one, two, and three will shed light on who he is as a person and will actually inform the later decision that he makes.

I asked you about your choices as a performer, but personally…and maybe this is a loaded word…are you ever intimidated by who you are playing?

Baldry: Hell yeah. When I was first told, Patrick and J.D. sat me down on a Zoom call before I went to New Zealand. And they were like, “We just want to let you know who you’re playing. You’re playing Isildur. And they took off a ring. My instinctive response was, “Holy sh….”

There’s a weight of expectation because a lot of fans have an idea of who he is to them and what he represents to them. I did a lot of reading and I did a lot of digging as to who he really is, but we don’t really know that much. We know what he does, but you don’t really know who this character is, what motivates him, what his relationship looks like with Elendil.

This was all world-building that Patrick and J.D. crafted. And I’m very grateful to them because they’re very collaborative in their approach to creating these characters. They like our input. And I’ve lived with the character a lot longer than they’ve actually lived with Isildur now. So they do value my opinion. I think that’s so wonderful, to wake up at 3:00 AM when you’re in the makeup trailer and you are pinning your eyes open, and yet you know that your opinion and your voice is heard.

It’s a wonderful place to work at, because I think great things happen because of collaboration. We all put so much time and effort into it. And we truly have a love for Tolkien. So it’s a fantastic place to work and I think we do it justice. I really truly think so, because our intentions are firstly to respect the works of Tolkien that we all grew up loving. And secondly, to create a compelling story that inspires a new generation of Tolkien lovers.

Speaking of your story this season, there’s a brewing partnership between Isildur and Arondir.  What can you tell us about their relationship in season two?

Baldry: They’re unexpected. They meet in unexpected circumstance, and they have a real profound respect for one another. Elves have always been infatuated with Isildur. There’s a kinship to his elven history as a Númenorian. So when he meets Arondir in such close proximity, they just instantly gravitate towards each other. Isildur learns so much about resilience from Arondir, who has withstood so much. (Arondir) has grown and he’s kept himself together, he’s shown up for everyone in the southlands. To Theo with his grief with Bronwyn. And Isildur, with Arondir, he’s taking notes. He’s like, “Oh, I see how to do this.”

That’s a nice relationship for Isildur to have because he doesn’t really have anyone like that back home. He’s sort of been alone. And he’s learning that bond and community is very important. That’s what drives him to really reevaluate his relationship with his home.

Did you look at other human/elf partnerships in Tolkien stories to help understand how you might feel and interact with him?

Baldry: I thought of Aragon and Legolas in a weird way, because obviously Isildur and Aragon are connected. That’s quite a nice relationship, in a way, that they sort of have a respect for each other. They’re both kind of similar in the way that they’re both physical, but in very different ways. But that’s kind of the extent of my thinking of elves and human partnerships.

What did you take from that, if that’s the one that stands out to you? In what ways does it influence what we’ll see with Isildur and Arondir this year?

Baldry: What we also developed was a sort of look that we wanted to give each other, in the way that Legolas has a very strong gaze. Aragorn was a little bit more malleable, but we wanted to have a moment of stillness between all this chaos. So we’d do this thing where, whenever a situation would happen, we’d look at each other and it would just be a gentle nod. It was just a wonderful moment of appreciating one another for what they’ve done, but also reserving each other with our emotions and actually without having to speak a lot. It’s all done in looks. That’s what a lovely relationship is like between an elf and a human. It’s all done in the look rather than with actual words and dialogue.

What did you learn about Isildur this season that you didn’t know or maybe fully appreciate before you filmed it?

Baldry: His resilience. That’s what I also connected with the most. It’s the fact that he shows up, continues. He pushes forward, and it’s the undercurrent of drive and ambition that I was talking about before. That resilience is also linked with that drive and ambition, which I think is a double-edged sword to him, but one that I’m very keen to explore further on down the line because I think personally he’s hardened by season two. He is blunter and more fanatical. It won’t surprise me if he becomes more of a mercenary. More of a warrior.

This season introduces a new character, Estrid. Her motives and allegiances are not clear. Did the events of season one make Isildur more discerning and wary about strangers? Or is he still just as trusting as before?

Baldry: Estrid is an enigmatic one because she has also lost a lot of things. She’s lost her whole family. And when she opens up to Isildur about this. Something in that response allows him to connect with her over a shared loss that they both feel. So it’s almost trauma bonding, in a way. But obviously, it’s deeper and profound.

What I love about that is that it’s not superfluous love at first sight. It’s deep. It’s a Tolkienian connection in the way that Aragon falls in love with Arwen. It’s not just a facade. There’s something deeper. It’s rooted in something in the cosmos. Isildur is one of those people. He feels a kinship towards her and their relationship sort of blossoms from a shared loss. And what she will present to him is another case of him having to decide whether or not his love for her is stronger than his love for Númenor. So, season two poses him with this dilemma. Does he choose his heart or does he choose his home? Or are they inextricably linked? Should she be his wife?

There are a lot of questions. Those are the sort of questions that make Tolkien so fascinating to so many people. Because they connect with those feelings of being human. Even though you’re in a fantasy world, even though you’re escaping into this Middle-earth, they still resonate. They still pull on your heartstrings. That’s what I love about it.

It’s clear you have a reverence for Tolkien. What part of his lore are you most excited for fans to see during season two?

Baldry: It’s obviously the Akallabêth. It’s the Civil War of Númenor, it’s unrest, it’s bloodshed.

I love politics and I love when a city becomes split down the middle and there’s two factions. There’s the King’s Men, and then there’s the New World, the New Republic. And I love when those things happen. I love the repercussions of those two things. Especially because, as my character, I’m so connected to it. I’m excited to see the Civil War, the Civil Unrest in Númenor.

The post THE RINGS OF POWER’s Maxim Baldry on Isildur’s Journey in Season 2 and Beyond appeared first on Nerdist.

Hobbits have been at the very heart of Middle-earth’s greatest stories since Gandalf recruited Bilbo for a grand adventure. But while J.R.R. Tolkien’s Second Age didn’t call any race by that iconic name, the Harfoots are one of the tribes who become Hobbits. That puts star Markella Kavenagh at the heart of Prime Video’s The Rings of Power. What’s it like filling such an important role? How will the lovable, positive Nori respond to the evil shadow spreading across the world? And what’s it like going on a journey with a wizard? We asked her about all of that and more when ahead of The Rings of Power‘s second season.

Nerdist: After two seasons of lengthy productions, how sick are you of wandering around outside in rags without shoes?

Kavenagh: I love it. Love it. Could do it all day. I mean, obviously it still feels like you’re wearing shoes because the silicon is so thick. I think it’s silicon that they use. But the feet that you wear are so thick the underneath still feels like a shoe. But I love it. I love the feet, they’re great.

The relationship between Hobbits and a powerful Istar is the very heart of The Lord of the Rings. Now that we know for sure the Stranger is a wizard, do you feel any added pressure playing his Hobbit friend?

Kavenagh: :laughs: The pressure I feel is to betray Nori’s truth. As truthfully as possible and in the most believable way. I don’t really think it’s helpful to think too much about the kind of Wizard/Harfoot dynamic. Just because it’s so specific to our story and to The Rings of Power. It exists in its own kind of narrative. In that sense, I just would get too in my head and I wouldn’t be able to focus on the story we’re telling, which is what’s important for Nori and what’s important for me and portraying Nori. So that’s what I focus on the most.

How does Nori knowing the Stranger’s real identity and just how powerful he is change their relationship in season two?

Kavenagh: She’s more prepared for it now. She had season one, where obviously there was so much experimentation and so much uncertainty and unpredictability, because it was so out of his control. And then in this season, it’s really his responsibility to try and harness it and really work on why it’s so uncontrollable. So for Nori, instead of it being as fearful as she was in season one, for her it’s more curious. It’s more trying to understand where it comes from and how she can also help him navigate it. And realizing it might take something else, some time, in order for him for it to fully come to fruition in a way that works for him and that is not taken out on everyone else around him or the environment.

Does the growing darkness that is spreading over Middle-earth change Nori this year? Or does her kind of purity of heart help her stay the same Harfoot that we met in season one?

Kavenagh: I would definitely say she’s still playful and has that really joyful energy. And, hopefully, a lot of heart. The things that she’s been through towards the end of season one have definitely impacted her in season two. And she just has a little bit more maturity around it and she’s less naïve. She’s just growing. She’s evolving. So there are going to be things, or the way she approaches things, might not always be the same, but she definitely has that underlying sense of that lightness and that purity and wanting everyone and everything to be okay.

What did you learn about Nori during season two that you didn’t know, or maybe didn’t even fully appreciate, before the season?

Kavenagh: How much she underestimates herself. Sometimes she can come across as this Harfoot that’s super forthcoming and super strong-willed and loves adventure and loves being curious and loves all these new experiences and connections. But I think she also really struggles with her own self-confidence and trusting herself. So you really see, I think in this season in a way that you didn’t in the last, is thats she’s on her own a lot more now. She actually has to be with herself and figure out what she wants and what her purpose is in a larger sense. She does have Poppy, so there’s that familiarity there, but ultimately she’s also navigating a lot on her own. It does require a self-awareness that she didn’t really have to confront in the same way in season one.

Harfoots are one of the three tribes of Hobbits, a group that holds a really sacred place in pop culture at large. How do people treat you now that you’re a very important part of a beloved group?

Kavenagh: I don’t obviously look very similar to Nori in my day-to-day. So I’m fine, walk around and no one really says anything. But for people who do like it, yeah, it’s really lovely when it resonates with people, to be able to see the joy on their faces, watching the show as a whole and the series as a whole. And then I’m so glad that in some ways Nori has resonated with people.

I feel so grateful to be a part of it and a part of Tolkien’s world. In that sense, it’s been really lovely hearing that Nori has resonated with some people or that they can feel they can relate to her or have connected to her in some way. But also, I don’t really read a lot online about how it’s been received, so it is always lovely and surprising when someone voices how it’s affected them in a positive way.

I talked to your very tall screen partner and I was asking him about how much, if at all, he draws on the other famous relationships between wizards and Hobbits, and he said that he thinks that your onscreen relationship is actually rooted in your offscreen bonding. Could you talk a little bit about how you and Daniel have evolved together and built this bond?

Kavenagh: We have spent so much time together. Season one, we were there together pretty much the whole time. We were hanging out all the time. And I feel like in many instances with friendships, or people who have to portray friendships on screen, you try and meet up and create a friendship of some sort off screen. At least in my experience, it’s what I’ve attempted to do. But in this instance with Dan, it was so natural and so easy that we really did become really close friends.

I am so fortunate to be able to work with him and to be able to act opposite him and have that friendship. And we just really spent so much time together. We spent so much time together. And even in the UK as much as possible, we would talk about scenes and hang out. But creating a friendship really did. And the same with Megan Richards. It really helped us. Hopefully it reads on screen, because we really do have a lot of love for each other and a lot of respect for each other as humans. I think it always helps when you are taking from your real life into a dynamic on screen. And in this instance, I think it definitely helped us that we just happened to get along.

I’m really fascinated by the craft and how different performers create their characters. And I know you kind of touched on this a little bit, but I do want to just ask because I asked Daniel, too. Is your performance at all, either with the relationship with him, or even just in general, influenced by Peter Jackson’s movies? And I only ask because they’re so big and so iconic and so well-known, and there are onscreen parallels to what you’re doing on this show, even if Nori is completely new. Is there anything you take from them?

Kavenagh: I really love those films. And I love those actors so much and respect their performances and just think they’re really, really incredible. But in terms of whether I look to them for this, I didn’t because the story is so specific and it’s just so way before that time that the Harfoots are just in a completely different space. Headspace wise, their experiences are different, their circumstances are so different. These are people who have had to survive. They don’t even have a base. They’re moving constantly. So their personalities and their makeup internally, and the way they view the world and their perspectives are just so, so different that we really had to start from scratch in a way.

Even though Harfoots exists, Nori is not in the lore. So to be able to create a fully-fledged Harfoot that exists in her own right and with the other Harfoot, that was more focusing on what the showrunners had provided us. And obviously being so inspired and making sure that there’s respect for the lore and making sure that it’s as truthful to that as well. Then also my own backstory, and fusing all of those together. So more focusing on that and what was relevant to Nori, which was her past experiences and her present rather than everything else. They’re just so different. Their circumstances are so different.

You’re already such an important part of the show. But as we talked about, Sauron is rising, things are getting worse in Middle-earth. And they’re only going to get worse and worse as the show goes on until it ends. What do you expect for Nori in terms of how much more important she becomes in this story?

Kavenagh: That’s an interesting question. I hope for her she fulfills her purpose. I know I’ve said that a lot this interview. But in this season particularly, you find out why and what she has to do, essentially for herself and for the bigger picture. I just hope we see her fulfill that. I mean, I personally want her to meet all these other storylines, which I know…technically, who knows? But yes, I think you’ll see her fulfill that purpose. And I hope you see that happen and how Sauron rising and all of that actually affects her and the Harfoots.

I’m not asking you to spoil anything. Your showrunners told me, yes, definitively this season we will get an answer as to who the Stranger really is. So my question to you is, how do you think fans are going to respond to that revelation?

Kavenagh: Whooo knows? Like, who knows? Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you because I think it’s… people have such strong opinions, of course, about Tolkien and Tolkien’s lore. And obviously there are going to be character reveals. It’s just so difficult to say how it’s going to be received. I just…who knows.

How did you react when you found out?

Kavenagh: (laughs) This is so ambitious? I really respect this ambition, for you to try.

I’m not asking you to spoil it, just how did you respond to it?

Kavenagh: How did I react to it? I mean, I love Daniel Weyman. So I was glad he was able to know who and what he was playing.

The post THE RINGS OF POWER’s Markella Kavenagh on Nori’s Response to Season 2’s Growing Evil appeared first on Nerdist.

Celebrimbor is one of the most notorious elves in the history of Middle-earth, but you wouldn’t know that from The Rings of Power‘s first season. The ruler of Eregion and master smith was only a minor character during the show’s inaugural year. But that’s all about to change during its second. Celebrimbor is about to etch his name in infamy by making some powerful rings. What’s it like going from a bit player to one of the show’s most important? And what elements of J.R.R. Tolkien’s lore explain why this noble elf will fall prey to Sauron’s deceptions? We asked the great Charles Edwards about all of that in more when we spoke to him after seeing the first three episodes of the new season.

Nerdist: Your showrunners told me they convinced you to join the series in season one by saying you’d be really important in season two. What exactly did they tell you about your role initially and how it would grow?

Edwards: Pretty much that. They said, “Okay, here’s the deal. You are in a little bit of season one. Then season two everything kicks off,” or something like that. “Then beyond that, who knows?” So they’re quite right. That’s exactly how they sold it to me.

In season one, you’re really just there to serve the story and make some rings. There’s not a lot going on with your character. Was that frustrating or did you have faith in what was going to happen and you’d really be that important?

Edwards: No, I knew it was coming, so I was perfectly happy with that setup. I enjoyed very much the scenes with Rob Aramayo and I enjoyed establishing this character that no one had seen before. But that was all it was, an establisher. The first scene I felt his season two story kind of creep into season one was when he meets Halbrand in the forge and they’re both alone. That’s essentially what season two is for us. And that’s where the spark of season two, the flavor of season two, started to creep in for me when the two of them met.

What did you do differently to prep for season two considering it’s not only it’s a bigger role, all of a sudden it’s a much more dynamic character?

Edwards: You just go where the story takes you and react accordingly. The joy of this for us was that, amazingly, we got to shoot all our scenes in season two in order. It was Charlie Vickers and I in the forge for weeks, every day, telling the story in order chronologically, which is unheard of. It was really, hugely satisfying work for us both. We both really had a great summer doing it.

You want to set (Celebrimbor) up so that he’s ready to receive what Annatar brings, as in he’s got to be at a particular stage of vulnerability or uncertainty to be a juicy bit of prey for the predator. And he’s happy to see (Halbrand) again because he thinks he’s forged some kind of a relationship with this guy. But I believe that in season one, when they first meet, that’s when Sauron first casts whatever spell it is that he casts on Celebrimbor, in that brief scene when he suggests using the mithral. Celebrimbor is very susceptible to flattery. Then, as you’ll see as the season progresses, it becomes more and more aggressively psychological and violent. The relationship is not a healthy one.

I want to get into that a little bit more, but I want to take a step back because I’m curious how much of Tolkien’s lore did you rely on to develop the character versus how much is coming from the scripts themselves?

Edwards: Celebrimbor is obviously a very vital part of Tolkien’s world, in terms of the rings and the ring making. But very little is written about him. What there is is either contradictory, or fascinatingly elusive and juicy, saying that he was an ambitious, vain person. He was desperate to emulate the success of his grandfather. All of those are just little diamonds.

That’s all we had. Two versions said he was from a different place. And one version says he’s in love with Galadriel, which we’re not following with this show. So there was a real concoction of possibilities.

The answer to your question is that it came from, obviously, (showrunners) J.D. and Patrick, their vision of him and my version of him. They kind of combined to take Celebrimbor down this path. His vulnerability is what’s interesting to me, brought on by the vanity and feeling he’s never quite made it, even though everyone else would say he had. There’s something in him. He’s kind of having an Elvish midlife crisis. Then the storyline for season two was presented to me by J.D. and I went, “Wow, that sounds great. That’s really good.”

Like you said, there are different parts of the lore that say different things, and there’s some that says he’s not a prideful figure. He’s almost dwarf-likein his devotion to just making stuff.

Edwards: Tolkien says that too. That’s what’s so great about it. A bit of everything.

But when you see how Annatar persuades him, how much of Celebrimbor’s own downfall, and the horrors that are going to come for the next two ages of this world, come because he has pride? And how much of his story is the bad kind of pride versus the good kind of pride in his work?

Edwards: It’s all of those things. Tolkien gives us that too, in these contradictory versions. He says that about the dwarf-like obsession with craft. That’s great. I love that. And when I first got the role, I looked online because I didn’t know Celebrimbor and all the fan art images of this guy with a leather apron and a huge hammer with huge pecs. And I went, “Oooh, okay. Alright. That’s kind of Celebrimbor, is it?” But the dwarf-like obsession with craft suggests to me someone much more cerebral, much more bookish in a way. And the work he does is so detailed. It is all about filigree and delicacy. That’s the kind of direction I went with him.

Then you have a comment in one of the books which I searched for, this comment about his relationship with pride. I was jubilant when I found it. It’s just a sentence, but it’s there. I seized on that because that’s a wonderful combination. Someone who never felt like he quite achieved, someone with a chip on his shoulder. There are many, many versions that are possible within what we’ve been given. I hope I’ve done some of it justice.

You might’ve already kind of answered this, but what do you think is the biggest reason he lets Halbrand back in the first place after Galadriel already warned him not trust this guy.

Edwards: She has told him not to let him in, but he doesn’t know why. And at the point we find him at the beginning of season two, he feels ignored. He feels let down that he hasn’t heard any news how the three rings have done. He feels slightly abandoned because all the missives and letters coming from the king have been intercepted. So he’s going, “What the hell’s going on here?”

Then Halbrand turns up, and as I mentioned, there is something about Halbrand that already has his hook in Celebrimbor in season one. And when Halbrand turns up, there’s something maybe quite titillating about disobeying Galadriel because he’s pissed off with everyone. Then later in the season, he says, “No, no, it’s my kingdom. I’m going to do what the hell I want.” There’s a bit of petulance there, going, “No, I’m going to do this.” There’s a bit of that. He feels like he’s being forgotten.

Season one really establishes just how conniving and manipulative Sauron is and how easily he can get someone to trust him. But is there any part of Celebrimbor that doubts Annatar’s story? Or is he really that convincing?

Edwards: When Annatar presents himself to Celebrimbor as the messenger of the Valar at that moment, he goes, “Wow, this is extraterrestrial. This is extraordinary.” As anyone would in that situation. Later, as you’ll see, he will start to question it.

But right now what’s so interesting about it is that he does present himself in that way to Celebrimbor. Then they start to work together and they bicker like workmates do. It becomes this almost domestic relationship. They’re spending all the time in the forge, and the psychological battle that starts to occur between them is a very domestic setup, the games that start to get played between them. It’s so satisfying to play against the backdrop of this big fantasy show. It’s suddenly very insular and interesting and gripping, in a very psychological way. Later he will start to question, he will start to doubt.

We’re only discussing the first three episodes, but you’ve hinted at this a little bit. What can you tell us, without spoiling anything, that you’re really excited for fans to see with you and Sauron this year?

Edwards: The way that Celebrimbor fights back is great. There’s an episode towards the end, the way Celebrimbor starts to see what has been done to him.

You’ve clearly looked at Tolkien’s writing closely and saw how there’s both depth and freedom to craft this character. Considering we know Celebrimbor’s ultimate fate, and we know how important he is to what’s going to be two very destructive periods, is there any part of you that sort of tries to reverse engineer how he will get there? Or do you just try to stay in the present moment of his life?

Edwards: The latter. For those who aren’t aware of what might become of him, I wouldn’t want to hint at anything.

And because all this happens so fast and so intensely in our version, he’s caught at every moment. He’s just kept on the hook by Annatar, so he just has to live in the moment. But in terms of his tragedy, that is sort of self-evident later. I haven’t tried to preempt him as a tragic hero or anything like that. Hopefully he might be that anyway.

My last question is not mine. I spoke to Charlie Vickers yesterday. It’s clear he reveres you.

Edwards: Likewise.

I asked him what question should I ask you? He said I wasn’t allowed to ask him this, but he wants to know if you had a ring and it could give you some kind of power, what power would you want?

Edwards: :laughs: What would my answer to that be…

…Probably to live forever.

Really?

Edwards: Probably.

Oh, so you really are an elf. You don’t want The Gift.

Edwards: No, but with a little sub clause saying you could be reborn every, I dunno, 80 years. Not turn into a child again, but be reborn in your current form. And you don’t age, of course, you stay at about forty five. Forty maybe. But you get reborn not knowing everything that you knew when you last died, if you see what I mean?

That is such an elf answer. Thank you so much. This was really great.

Edwards: You’re very welcome.

The post THE RINGS OF POWER’s Charles Edwards on Celebrimbor’s Pride, Season 2, and Annatar appeared first on Nerdist.