Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2!When war breaks out in Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 brings more epic action sequences to the Prime Video show, hosted by Vic Armstrong. Armstrong holds the Guinness World Record as the world’s most prolific stuntman, having begun his career in the late 60s and being part of everything from the James Bond Franchise to the stunt coordinator on Christopher Reeve’s Superman Movies. He is perhaps best known for serving as Harrison Ford’s stunt double, going all the way back to Raiders of the Lost ArkHaving since worked with him on the likes of Blade Runner And Patriot Gamesamong others.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 finds conflict brewing across Middle-earth after Mordor’s surfacing in the Southlands and Sauron revealing himself to Galadriel. The Isle of Man, Númenor, begins to experience a power struggle between the Valar loyal queen Míriel and her conniving cousin Pharazôn, the dwarven kingdom of Khazad-dûm is trapped as the eruption of Mount Doom causes devastating earthquakes, and the elven kingdom of Eregion was targeted for a siege by the Uruk.
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The ensemble Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power The season 2 cast returns from Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, Charlie Vickers as Sauron/Annatar/Halbrand, Robert Aramayo as Elrond, Daniel Weyman as the Stranger, Markella Kavenagh as Nori, Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Míriel, Trystran Gravelle as Pharazôn, Among many others. Delivering grander action sequences as Sauron’s evil begins to take root across Middle-earth, the final season of the prequel to JRR Tolkien’s beloved novel remains as compelling and exciting as ever.
A few weeks before the season’s end, Screen Rant Interviewed Vic Armstrong to discuss The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, constantly raising the show’s bar for action, training the cast for the action sequences, finding a balance between practical effects and CGI, and a progress update on Wednesday Season 2’s filming.
Armstrong developed a “Battle Bible“For Rings of power Season 2’s growth
“We knew what the scale was, and we knew what the achievement had to be…”
Screen Rant: You’ve been with the show since the beginning. You guys obviously started on Season 2 almost immediately, but I’m curious, are there any major lessons you took from Season 1, whether it’s the action or the overall direction of scenes, into the production of Season 2? ?
Vic Armstrong: I think it’s more of an understanding of what you’re trying to achieve when you start a show with Superman, or anything else. You have to put the characters, you have to put the people, and then you build yourself, and that’s actually doing it all the way through. But I feel after season 1, we had the characters, we knew the style, we knew how they were performing and where they were going, to a certain degree. Even referring to Indiana Jones, when we got to the last crusade, the costume suited him, everyone knew who the star was. When we did the first one, it was just a quick movie, and it was a B movie. [Chuckles] When we did the third one, we knew where we were going. We knew what the scale was, and we knew what the achievement had to be, too. And it’s the same with this show. We knew the last one was big, and it’s growing bigger as you progress through the episodes. So, we have to start at a decent level, and we have to finish at an even higher level. You keep setting the bar higher. So, it was a question of doing that, keeping the characters in their personalities, but at the same time, writing in the thing enough battles, enough grandeur to make it exciting and grow and feel different from the first. Working with Patrick and JD Payne, we could meet before we started shooting, we’d talk, and I’d read their scripts, and they’d tell me what the battle was, and the relevant shows they wanted. So, I would throw in my three pennies worth of what we could do here, what we could do there, and everything else. And that evolves a battle plan. At that time, I had a big Bible, it should be called the Kampf Bible, it is a thick book, and they had everything. The actions in it, there excelled. And it’s just a case of planning it all. But we knew we had to get bigger and better and make it a bigger screen.
Elrond’s transformation into a warrior was “Very important“For Armstrong
“… We wanted to make him look like a strong leader of people and people.”
I wanted to touch on the fact that you mentioned after the characters grow and evolve. One thing I’ve always loved about action is when you have a good stunt coordinator like yourself and a good action camera director, they really make sure to incorporate the character’s emotional journey into the action itself. I’d love to hear what was one scene this season where you really worked with the actor to ensure that the character’s journey was felt through their action sequence?
Vic Armstrong: I think Robert Aramayo, Elrond, was very relevant in that, in the last battle and everything else. He is a classic actor, not a knight, not a fighter, not a bruiser. He wouldn’t come and threaten you outside a night club, but we wanted to make him look like a strong leader of people and people. So he worked really, really hard on his sword, worked on his riding. He learned to drive, and you can see him galloping in the shot. And for me, it gives me a great sense of pride, because the other thing I like to do when I do action is to get the actor as much as possible. I worked with Tom Cruise, and you take it to the extreme with him, and he does it. He does the big tricks that we rehearse tons and tons and tons before, but he does it, and it pays off in spades. Tom Cruise is known for being the person on camera you look at, not a faceless stuntman. So, with Robert, I wanted to see him galloping on his horse and galloping out killing people and fighting people and looking great. The same with Ishmael, Arondir, he is still one and a great friend of mine. He works hard at it, and it would be sacrilege not to see him do it, not to reap the benefits of that hard work. Apart from the emotional part, which the wonderful screenwriters write in, and the wonderful actors take and translate, they are given a beautiful palette to be able to translate it on and see themselves in without waiting for a stuntman to do it. The action and turn around, and then I’ll pop in camera and do my little. Their characters shine all the way through, and that’s, to me, really, really important, which is what you lose when you see the DC kind of stuff, where a person who could never be hurt anyway is smashed around, and The only time he talks is when you want him to talk. I don’t know, you don’t feel anything for him. With these people, you really feel that they are real people, and they think if someone hacked them over the shoulder with a sword, it would cut them, so you want to get that feeling in there, you want to keep the reality in there as well , and the actors really appreciate it, and they grow with it. They are nervous to begin with, as much as they are seen to do action that they are not comfortable with. But when they do it enough, and you get them to come over, and I will say, “Now look at the video screen.” Show them a playback, see what I’m talking about, and it gives them inspiration. So, I think that’s a very important part about taking action. There is so much action now, from the sublime to the ridiculous, and it’s not about how big a bang you can make it, or how many people you can do in it, or how you can climb up a hill. It’s all about the motivation, that action, and how realistic it feels to the audience in the storyline you’re trying to tell. And for me, that’s what it’s all about.
Episode 4’s Black Forest Scene”Was a nightmare to shoot“For Armstrong & Co.
“… It was just cruel and crude and horrible.”
Since you mention Ishmael, and keep things grounded and realistic, he has the fight with the water creature in the Black Forest. I’d love to hear what it was like finding the right balance with the big CGI set pieces of the show and keeping the actors grounded and making it feel real to the audience when they’re in it?
Vic Armstrong: Yeah, it was a nightmare to shoot, the sequence, because of the mud and the slime and everything else. But again, we have to use Ishmael as much as we can, and he is ready for it. He’s the man to go for it, you know. The hardest thing is to get people to work with him too, because they want to shine too. So, it was just cruel and rude and horrible. But, like I said, you have to do as much for real as you can. The crowd has to feel everything, “Oh heavens, I couldn’t do that”, and disappear under mud and all kinds of things. They really do a lot for their art, I have to say, the actors on this show, because we put them through it. But they get a lot of intensive training and a lot of upfront warning and rehearsal time on set, which is what it’s all about. So you’re not rehearsing on camera, or they’re not experimenting with people watching them on camera when they don’t feel 100% right with a piece of action. So, it’s all these sorts of things. You have to get into it, and then you have to dial all this into your plan and the costs. It is a huge, multi-layered thing, shooting movies. It’s crazy.
Morfid Clark is “Growing into a woman like Galadriel“In season 2
“She won’t believe it, and I keep telling her this, but she’s an incredible athlete.”
I would also love to hear about Morfydd’s fight this season as we saw a lot of it in season 1 but this season feels more intense for her character as she is almost empowered and really confident with the ring. What was it like growing up with her and working with her in rehearsals and in filming to shoot some of her action sequences compared to season 1?
Vic Armstrong: It was fabulous, because in season 1, as I say, she grew into a woman like Galadriel. And in season 2, it starts with this wonderful horse chase that I did, where she’s chasing to try to get the ring and everything else, which we shot in Windsor Great Park, right under the Queen’s castle there, and Right across all of the Berkshires there. She is great now. We taught her to ride on season 1, and she’s really confident on a horse now, and she looks very queen-like on a horse. And then, in the battle scenes and the action scenes, she flows, she’s a wonderful athlete. She won’t believe it, and I keep telling her this, but she’s an incredible athlete. She has great body control, great balance, a dancer’s balance. You can turn and do things and still stay in character and deliver her lines. She is an absolute joy to work with, and whatever you want to do, she is up to it. Training on season 1, we had her underwater, dragging her on her back with cables underwater for 15-20 minutes with a breathing apparatus between shots. And she’s up for anything like that, and a real team player. So, it’s wonderful to see her develop into a really great queen of the show.
Armstrong worked to make Galadriel and Sauron’s final fight”Feel different than anything else”
“It’s like music, really trying to get the right tones…”
I can’t wait to see what comes next from her in the finale, what I’ve seen in the trailer, at least, is that we get a fight between Galadriel and Sauron. Obviously, you can’t tell me what happens in the fight, but I’d love to hear how much work went into that, because it’s such an emotional plot point for both of these characters?
Vic Armstrong: Yeah, it was worked on the spot to make it look a little different and feel different than everything else. And, as he says, keep their characters alive, so that one does not dominate the other. He does it to a certain degree, then she will help to dominate him. It’s just keeping that balance. It’s like music, really trying to get the right tones, and we have all the right instruments there, but it’s getting the right ones to play the right tunes at the right moments. It’s a lot of rehearsal for the guys, because they shoot 8-10 hours a day, almost all the time, and she’s in a huge amount of the show, so she’s very busy. So, it’s a case of being able to drag them off and do their rehearsal time and have them commit to it 100% at rehearsal time. You have to concentrate, otherwise you get your finger, or hit someone over the head. It is a lot of deep work for them, and they deserve their crust, I must say. I’m good at acting and everything else, but they’re doing something I could never do, and that’s acting, and they’re so good at it, it’s wonderful.
Now, Charlie didn’t have too much action, I feel like, in season 1 compared to season 2. What was it like, again, collaborating with him on that side of things?
Vic Armstrong: Yeah, Charlie’s game for everything. He’s one of those guys if you tell someone to put their hand up, he’s the first one. We put him on a horse, and he just wanted to gallop from day 1, and now, he’s wonderful. He will laugh, and he also has a great sense of humor, which is lovely. He’s a lot like Harrison, in a lot of ways, that way. He has a twinkle in his eye, and is just a great character. He will work with you and do what you want, and throw in his own ideas. Some may be stupid, some may be great. He’s just one of those people who is a joy to actually train and work with and then shoot.
Armstrong is also approaching Wednesday Season 2 with the mindset of raising the bar
“We are great. We are two thirds of the way through and having a great time.”
Since you mentioned WednesdayI also wanted to ask, how did filming go on that? How far along are you on season 2?
Vic Armstrong: We’re great. We are two thirds of the way through and having a great time. It’s awesome. Tim is fabulous to work with, he’s an amazing character, and I’m thrilled to see that Beetlejuice looks like it could top $100 million. It’s a good looking film, brilliant.
So, similar to my first question with this show, what was the big lesson that was taken from season 1 Wednesday Season 2, as far as making any major changes or just shifting the vision a bit, as far as the action and direction goes?
Vic Armstrong: Everything is driven by the script, and I think they finished on a high note on the last one. The bar was quite high. Then, we have to come in and still leave somewhere to go to the bar with this one. So, we realized on the last one, you can’t rehearse enough on all the shows, because when you get down to shooting it, there’s not that much time, really, because everything else is involved. When you’re doing battles with the orcs and everything else, you get very limited time because of makeup, it takes four or five hours to do them, and they’re on set for three or four hours. They can’t work too long, because of contact lenses in, and they have to be recycled for more orcs, and so on and so forth. So, many scheduling problems. So, the more rehearsal time, a) for the characterization, and b) for the talent in the fights and in the action, and in the world movement, the more you can do it, we realize, the better. People are much more comfortable in their character if it’s an action character, but that’s about it. I think we are growing into a pretty normal thing. Now, we all know what we are doing, the clothes fit, as it were, and we all feel comfortable. We know it’s a big challenge every time, but everyone feels completely for it. No one feels trapped or anything. And it’s a big screen, I compare some of the battles to David Lean, Kurosawa, John Ford. I like big screen, and I like the big crowd stuff, and then cutting into it. I’ve done a lot over the years, from the Four Feathers, where there were nearly 2,000 people in a battle, and then back to the 70s, before you were born. [chuckles]Young Winston We have 300 horses, which is a lot of horses. So, it’s very exciting for this to get back to the norm of real monster charges and battles and Black Brigade business.
About The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2
In Season Two of The Rings of Power, Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the nations of Middle-earth to his Evil will. Building on the epic scope and ambition of Season One, the new season plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world increasingly on the brink of Disaster. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and harefoots… As friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to crumble, the forces of good will fight ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.
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Source: Screen Rant Plus