With his father now in power, Kemen is quickly becoming very power hungry The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2. Introduced in Season 1 of the Prime Video prequel to JRR Tolkien’s novel, Kemen is the son of Trystan Gravelle’s Pharazôn, the key advisor to Númenor’s Queen MÃriel. Raised in a life of luxury and privilege, Kemen is often a troublesome thorn in both his father’s and other Númenórian’s sides, as he often gets away with his actions.
in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power In season 2, Kemen’s ambitions grow well beyond his reach after he and Pharazôn rule over Númenor during MÃriel’s travels to the Southlands, after getting a taste of the royalty life. After his father successfully took the throne from his cousin, Kemen attempts to ally himself with his father by carrying out his various changes to the Isle of Man, including disbanding the Sea Guard led by Lloyd Owen’s Elendil. This, in turn, leads to deadly consequences, including the murder of Valandil.
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The ensemble Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 cast sees the return of Leon Wadham as Kemen, Ema Horvath as Eärien, Maxim Baldry as Isildur, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson as MÃriel, as well as Galadriel’s Morfydd Clark, Sauron’s Charlie Vickers, Robert Aramayo’s Elrond and The Strangers’ Daniel Weyman. Among many others. While the world of Man may not get as big of a focus as Galadriel’s hunt for Sauron or Celebrimbor’s forging of the titular rings, it’s still just as impressive and gripping in season 2.
As the new season of the show continues, Screen Rant Interviewed Leon Wadham to discuss The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, Kemen’s dangerous ambitions and how they grow wildly out of control, his difficult relationship with his father, Pharazôn, and what he feels his character should not be given a ring of power.
Wadham feels the growing power struggle of Númenor is “Inevitably”
“People were really fighting for what they believed in”
Screen Rating: The rings of power Season 2 was even more incredible than season 1, which I didn’t think was possible, but here we are, and I’m saying it. I love what we’re seeing in Númenor this season, as Pharazôn starts to take power, MÃriel is still trying to figure out who she is in the new world, and Kemen gets a little power hungry this season. What was your first reaction when you saw the scripts for season 2?
Leon Wadham: I was thrilled by them. You really feel that Sauron’s return has cast this kind of shadow across the land, and everyone has been stirred up in some way by it. It feels like everyone has been plunged into some form of darkness, and they’re all kind of scrambling to find their way to the light. And what was happening in Númenor was, I guess, inevitable, but it really felt like it was high stakes that this kind of underlying power struggle wasn’t underlying anymore. People were really fighting for what they believed the future of the island should be, and it was exciting to be right in the heat of that.
Some people’s ambitions stem from “Living a charming life”
“… He got a taste of how much more is available…”
Now I feel like so many people in N̼menor are really ambitious. They are not necessarily evil Рsome of them are a little more than others Рwhat do you think it is that turns Kamen a little more to the dark side of morality once he gets that power?
Leon Wadham: So my read on Cammen in season 1 is that he knew how well he had it. He knew that he was living a charmed life, and he had a feeling that if he just kept doing what he was doing, doing what he was told, that eventually he would be given more responsibility, he would be given more respect, that This will go his way. However, I think between seasons with Pharazôn kind of running things while Miriel was in the Southlands, he got a taste of how much more was available. And given how terrible the exhibition to the Southlands was, it is now clear as day to him that there needs to be a change. That we cannot stop walking down the path of the faithful. We have to start empowering the king’s people. It feels like we can’t wait a second longer.
So, there is impatience, but now that he has seen what is there, I think the hunger that you are talking about, that ambition, has also intensified. Last season, he made these wild swings and there were no real consequences. So, he went from a man who was like, “I just do what I’m told, and one day it will pay off,” to a man who realized that he could afford to take risks, he could afford to Take big swings, and the odds are that he will get away with it. So, I think we see, in season 2, someone who is pushing the box out.
come”Their admirers“Forazon (though”Don’t feel like it’s coming back his way“)
Wadham also feels that this is part of Kemen’s turn to the dark side of ambition.
I would like to hear about Kemen and Farazon’s relationship this season, especially compared to season 1. Because I was talking to Tristan, and he said his read on their relationship is that Farazon doesn’t necessarily give Kemen all the love and Respect what he wants, and that’s why Kimin goes the way he is. What are your thoughts on their relationship, and does Kemen feel that appreciation and respect from his father?
Leon Wadham: I think Kemen greatly admires his father, has massive respect for his father, and doesn’t feel it’s coming back his way. I think he thought if he just stuck in there and proved himself, eventually he would earn it. But it was not forthcoming. And again, part of taking big swings is, “Well, what would it take?” I mean, the first scene in the episode, to me, on the page, I was like, “Oh, this is another test. Farazon wouldn’t say these things, what is he trying to get at here?” I feel like this is par for the course with this relationship. Everything is a game within a game, within a game. And Kemen is always trying to keep up to prove that he is capable. As far as why he’s dark, I think it’s a combination of factors. But certainly, if the relationship was warmer, if his father was more, I guess, open or generous about – well, where do we start? – It might have turned out differently for this man.
Wadham has a special past with Wallandil’s Alex Tarrant
“I’m heartbroken that these are the last scenes we’ll be doing together on this show”
Looking at this week’s episode, Kamen is dealt one of the most devastating blows to his character yet, in which he kills Valandil. I’d love to hear about the filming of that sequence, because it’s very physical between you and your co-star.
Leon Wadham: Yeah, it was great. So I went to drama school with Alex [Tarrant]. I think he was a year below me, and in the 10-plus years since graduation, we’ve never done a scene together. We have been in the same projects now and then, back in New Zealand, and now here. But for some reason, we’ve never been able to play a scene until this season of Rings of Power. And I’m devastated that these are the last scenes we’ll be doing together on this show. [Chuckles] But they were so much fun to do.
He’s such a great actor and such a great guy, so it added another layer, another dimension. It really felt like we were getting to do something that had been in the works for a long time. But the scene was shot over, I think, three days. Obviously, there’s an actual pool in the sanctuary, there’s sort of this massive water feature in the middle of it, and there’s concrete everywhere. So, trying to figure out how we were going to do it safely was a problem I’m glad I didn’t have to solve. There were so many other people trying to figure out how this would work.
It was open flame, there were incredible stunt performers who did things I absolutely couldn’t do. My double is Tom Cotton, the New Zealander. And the moments where it clicks from me in Tom and Co. – again, thank God it’s not on me. [Chuckles] You would feel that. But I don’t think I’d done anything like that on the show before. I haven’t really seen how many people come to the party to pull something like this. So, it was an exciting experience.
I would also like to turn to the psychology of the sequence, because I also spoke with Emma, ​​and she feels that this can be a kind of wake-up call for her character about what alliances she sits with. For anyone, though, do you think this will be a wake-up call that perhaps he’s going down the darker path we’ve discussed? Or do you think that it will strengthen it in his opinion of, “Well, I just did it myself, so why can’t I do more“?
Leon Wadham: I think it depends on how it’s received. I don’t think he goes to the temple to kill anyone. I think this is a show of force that is meant to be purely to make an impression. We saw him earlier this season try and, I guess, indicate or call for a respect he would like to be shown, and that didn’t happen. So, he went, “I will make a huge impression and that will put an end to the question.” And that’s not how it plays out. But I don’t think he ever intended it to be anything more than a show of force. The sword is not meant to come out of its sheath. It’s just the result of things that are completely out of his control. So, I think the question going forward is, “Will there be consequences and what will he learn as a result of how this is or is not handled by the people around him?” Because if he is rewarded for it, yes, what would he change?
Who would receive a ring of power”Be a disaster”
“… it’s going so bad…”
I see I have time for one more question so I wanted to ask real quick. This season was also about building the rings of power for the dwarves, as well as the grappling over whether to build them for humans. What do you think anyone would do if he got one? Would he change or get worse if he got his hands on one of these rings?
Leon Wadham: I feel that things are going so bad, don’t give a damn. This will be a disaster. Celebrimbor says earlier this season, when the idea of ​​giving rings to men was even raised by Sauron, that it would be a terrible idea. And I think that when I see what is happening in Númenor this season, there is no doubt what he means. If we are already in this shape without them, where will we be when they come?
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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