The Rings of Power cast talk Tolkien’s legacy, fan theories, and more
Benjamin Walker is a self-proclaimed Tolkien nerd. "One of the joys of this job is they pay us to read Tolkien," the actor, who plays Elf king Gil-Galad in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, jokes as he sits down for our round table chat at New York City Comic-Con. His love of the books isn't unique amongst the cast – during our discussions, nearly every one of the actors in attendance admits to a certain level of Tolkien fandom. That love for the source material was something they had to reckon with: do you bring established lore to your characterization of these storied beings, or go in blind in an attempt to imbue a character with more depth?
It's a question that adds even more weight and importance to each of their roles. And though Walker and his co-stars are tight-lipped about the future of the series, chatting with them offers a fantastic peek into how they are handling such a daunting literary legacy.
The Rings of Power occupies a unique space. It's not a one-to-one adaptation of an existing piece of literature, nor is it entirely going off on its own creative tangents. The series is adapted from the appendices to the Lord of the Rings, rather than a remake of the main trilogy or The Hobbit or The Silmarillion (which Amazon does not own the rights to). As a result, showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay have large amounts of creative freedom, but also have an important legacy (and dedicated fan base) to reckon with.
And with so much of the series shrouded in mystery (no one on the cast knows who the hell Sauron is, either), there's an endless feed of theories and questions after every new episode. "I love how many people have got really firm ideas from Tolkien, they've gone back to Tolkien, they've
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