How The Rings Of Power’s Harfoots Were Realised On Screen
As soon as the Harfoots appear on screen in The Rings of Power, you recognise that they’re Hobbits… sort of. There’s something different about them, a creepiness, a little edge. During the opening episode you learn that they, too, love their food, protect one another, and (for the most part) warn against adventure of any kind. But then that eerie edge returns, as the Harfoots hint at something darker, as if village elder Sadoc (Sir Lenny Henry) had divined it from the stars himself.
“Their entire existence is defined by their suffering,” explains Dylan Smith, who plays Largo Brandyfoot. “Staying in hiding and staying moving, because they never want to go through what they went through in the last great war. [It’s] the idea that you see that slightly rougher edge, and there's a ghost that chases them as they move, but they're still trying to keep that beautiful spirit, that heart that we see later in the Hobbits.”
Related: The Rings Of Power’s Morfydd Clark And Charlie Vickers On Learning Elvish And Playing LotR Video Games
While Shire-Hobbits as we know them from The Lord of the Rings try to avoid big folk, Harfoots take that to the extreme. They're a nomadic people, and every one of their tents, carts, and of course, themselves can be camouflaged in an instant. It’s hugely fun to watch, and strangely reminiscent of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’ Merry Men. However, among the mossy canvases and carefully hidden homes, there’s a level of detail that can’t be entirely taken in upon first viewing.
“They're very much their own thing,” explains Megan Richards, who plays a young Harfoot called Poppy Proudfellow. “And that was how it was pitched to us as well, in the meetings that we had with JD and Patrick [the showrunners,
Read more on thegamer.com
