Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2!
As war begins brewing in Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 brings more epic action sequences to the Prime Video show, led 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’s perhaps best known for serving as Harrison Ford’s stunt double, going all the way back to Raiders of the Lost Ark, having since worked with him on the likes of Blade Runner and Patriot Games, among others.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 finds trouble brewing all across Middle-earth following Mordor’s surfacing in the Southlands and Sauron revealing himself to Galadriel. The island of Man, Númenor, begins encountering a power struggle between the Valar faithful Queen Míriel and her conniving cousin Pharazôn, the Dwarven kingdom of Khazad-dûm becomes trapped as Mount Doom’s eruption causes devastating earthquakes, and the Elven kingdom of Eregion is targeted for a siege by the Uruk.
The ensemble Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 cast sees the returns of 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 throughout Middle-earth, the latest season of the prequel to J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved novel remains as compelling and exciting as ever.
With the season nearing a close, Screen Rant interviewed Vic Armstrong to discuss The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2, continually 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 start. You guys obviously started on season 2 almost right away, but I’m curious, were there any major lessons you took from season 1, whether it’s the action or the overall direction of scenes, going into season 2’s production?
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 set the characters, you have to set the people, and then you build up, and this is 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, by the time we got to The Last Crusade, the costume fit him, everybody knew what the star was. When we did the first one, it was just a quick movie, and it was a B movie. [Chuckles] By the time 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, as well. And it’s the same with this show. We knew the last one was big, and it was growing bigger as you progressed through the episodes. So, we had to start at a decent level, and we had to still 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 into the thing enough battles, enough grandeur to make it exciting and grow and feel different from the first one. 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 pertinent points they wanted. So, I’d throw my three pennies worth in of what we could do here, what we could do there, and everything else. And that evolves a battle plan. Then, I had a big Bible, you should call it the Battle Bible, it’s a book thick as that, and they had everything, all the action in it, marked out through there. 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 Pertinent” For Armstrong
“…we wanted to make him look as a powerful leader of men and people.”
I wanted to touch on the fact that you mentioned following these characters as they 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 unit director, they really make sure to incorporate that character’s emotional journey into the action itself. I’d love to hear what was one scene in this season in which you really worked with the actor to ensure that that character’s journey was being felt through their fight sequence?
Vic Armstrong: I think Robert Aramayo, Elrond, was very pertinent in this, in the last battle and everything else. He’s a classic actor, not a horseman, not a fighter, not a bruiser. He wouldn’t come and threaten you outside a nightclub, but we wanted to make him look as a powerful leader of men and people. So he worked really, really hard on his sword, worked on his riding. He learned to ride, and you see him galloping into shots. And for me, it gives me a great sense of pride, because the other thing I like to do when I’m doing action is to get the actor in as much as possible. I’ve worked with Tom Cruise, and you take it to the complete extreme with him, and he does do it. He does the great stunts, which we rehearse tons and tons and tons beforehand, but he does it, and it pays off in spades. Tom Cruise is known for being the man on camera that you’re looking at, you’re not some faceless stuntman. So, with Robert, I wanted to see him galloping in on his horse and galloping out killing people and fighting people and looking terrific. The same with Ismael, Arondir, he’s another one and a great mate of mine. He works hard at it, and it’d be sacrilege not to see him do this, not take the benefit of this hard work. So, apart from the emotional part, which the wonderful screenwriters write into it, and the wonderful actors take and translate, you give them a nice palette to be able to translate it on and be seen in without having to wait for a stuntman to do the fight and turn around, and then I’ll pop into 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 sort of stuff, where some person that can never be hurt anyway getting smashed around, and the only time he talks is when you want him to talk. I don’t know, you feel nothing for him. With these people, you actually feel they’re real people, and they do think if somebody whacked him over the shoulder with a sword, it would cut them, so you want to get that feeling in there across, you want to keep that reality in, too, and the actors really appreciate it, and they grow with it. They’re nervous to begin with, in as much as being seen to do action that they’re not comfortable with. But when they do it enough, and you get them to come over, and I’ll say, “Now look at the video screen.” Show them a playback, see what I’m talking about, and then it gives them inspiration. So, I think that’s a very important part about doing action. There’s so much action done nowadays, from sublime to ridiculous, and it’s not about as big a bang as 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 to 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 gruesome and grubby and horrible.”
Since you mentioned Ismael, and keeping things grounded and realistic, he has that fight with the aquatic creature in the Black Forest. I’d love to hear what it was like finding the right balance with the show’s big CGI set pieces and keeping the actors grounded and making it feel real for the audience when they’re in it?
Vic Armstrong: Yeah, that was a nightmare to shoot, that sequence, because of the mud and the slime and everything else. But again, we had to use Ismael as much as we could, and he’s up for it. He’s the man to go for it, you know. The hardest part is getting people to work with him, as well, because they’re going to shine as well. So, it was just gruesome and grubby and horrible. But, like I said, you’ve got to do as much for real as you can. The audience has to feel everything, “Oh, my heavens. I couldn’t do that,” and disappearing under slime and all sorts of things. They really do a lot for their art, I must say, these actors on this show, because we put them through it. But they do 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 don’t rehearse on camera, or they’re not experimenting with people seeing them on camera when they don’t feel 100% right with a piece of action. So, it’s all those sort of things. You have to get into it, and then you gotta dial all that into your schedule and the costs. It’s a huge, multi-layered thing, shooting movies. It’s crazy.
Morfydd Clark Is “Growing Into A Woman Like Galadriel” In Season 2
“She won’t believe it, and I keep telling her this, but she is an incredible athlete.”
I’d love to also hear about Morfydd’s action this season, because we saw plenty of it in season 1, but this season feels more intense for her character, as she’s almost been empowered and really confident with the ring. What was it like boosting her up and working with her in rehearsal and in filming to shoot some of her action sequences in comparison to season 1?
Vic Armstrong: It was fabulous, because in season 1, as I say, she was growing into a woman like Galadriel. And in season 2, it starts off with that wonderful horse chase I did, where she’s chasing to try and get the ring and everything else, which we shot in Windsor Great Park, just underneath the Queen’s castle there, and right across all of Berkshire there. She’s 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, into the battle scenes and the fight scenes, she flows, she’s a wonderful athlete. She won’t believe it, and I keep telling her this, but she is an incredible athlete. She’s got great body control, great balance, got a dancer’s balance. You can turn and do things and still keep in character and deliver her lines. She’s an absolute joy to work with, and anything you want to do action-wise, she’s up to do 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 in between shots. And she’s up for everything like that, and a real team player. So, it’s wonderful to see her developing as the show’s going on, into a really great queen.
Armstrong Worked To Make Galadriel & 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, which I’ve seen in the trailer, at the very least, that we do get a fight between Galadriel and Sauron. Obviously, you can’t tell me what happens in the fight, but I would love to hear how much work went into that, given it is such an emotional plot point for both of those characters?
Vic Armstrong: Yeah, that’s worked out on the location to make it look slightly different, and feel different than everything else. And, as he says, keeping their characters alive, so one doesn’t dominate the other. He does to a certain degree, then she’ll help to domineer him. It’s just keeping that balance. It’s like music, really trying to get the right tones, and we’ve got all the right instruments there, but it’s getting the right ones to play the right tune at the right moments. It’s a lot of rehearsal for these guys, because they’re shooting 8–10 hours a day, nearly 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 away and do their rehearsal time and have them commit to it 100% in rehearsal time. You’ve got to concentrate, otherwise you do get your fingers bashed, or hit somebody over the head. It’s a lot of intense work for them, and they do earn their crust, I must say. I’m good at the action and everything else, but they do something which I could never do, and that’s act, and they’re so good at it, it’s wonderful.
Now, Charlie didn’t have too much action, I feel like, in season 1 in comparison 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 somebody to put their hand up, he’s the first one up. We put him on a horse, and he just wanted to gallop from day 1, and now, he’s wonderful. He’ll buckle down, and he’s got a great sense of humor as well, which is lovely. He’s a lot like Harrison, in a lot of respects, like that. He’s got a twinkle in his eye, and is just a great character. He’ll work with you and do whatever you want, and throw his own ideas in. Some may be silly, some may be great. He’s just one of those people that’s a joy to actually train and work with and then shoot.
Armstrong Doesn’t Know Of Rings Of Power Season 3’s Plans (But Is Ready)
“It’d be later in the year, obviously, because they’re monumental things to get wound up and moving…”
I see I’m coming close to time, so I did also want to ask, when this show was first ordered, there were plans for five seasons. Have you, JD and Patrick talked about what the schedule might look like for when Rings of Power season 3 can get rolling?
Vic Armstrong: I don’t know. I’m in Ireland, actually, shooting with Tim Burton on Wednesday, the Addams Family thing. But I’d like it to start as soon as I finish this. I love it, but I don’t know. It’d be later in the year, obviously, because they’re monumental things to get wound up and moving, and getting the right scripts, and everybody agreeing on everything. Because how they write the scripts, I have no idea, because they’re so complicated and integrated, it’s phenomenal. So, I think it’s a lot of groundwork to be done first, but I’m hoping early next year, we’ll all start looking to put our season 3 jackets on.
So, looking at season 3, is there any one character who maybe hasn’t gotten in on a lot of the action so far that you would love to get to work with on that front?
Vic Armstrong: I think it’d be fun to do some more with the Dwarves. They were great, it would be quite fun to do something with them, because they’re great characters, every single one of them. So maybe, in that respect, I don’t know, but everybody’s so — everybody being Patrick and JD — in tune with the Tolkien storyline, where it has to go to. I feel totally inadequate even discussing it, because they’re so educated with it.
Armstrong Is Also Approaching Wednesday Season 2 With The Mindset Of Raising The Bar
“We’re great. We’re two-thirds of the way through, and having a great time.”
Since you mentioned Wednesday, I did also want to ask, how is filming going on that? How far along are you on season 2?
Vic Armstrong: We’re great. We’re two-thirds of the way through, and having a great time. It’s terrific. It’s fabulous to work with Tim, he’s an amazing character, and I’m thrilled to see Beetlejuice looks like it’s maybe going over $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 going into Wednesday season 2, as far as making any major changes or just shifting the vision a little 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 pretty high. Then, we had to come in and still leave ourselves somewhere to go to with the bar with this one. So, we realized on the last one, you cannot rehearse enough on all these 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 make them up, and they’re on the set for three or four hours. They can’t work too long, because of contact lenses in, and they have to be recycled out for more orcs, and so on and so forth. So, lots of 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 that, we realize, the better. People are much more comfortable in their character if it’s an action character, but that’s about all. I think we were growing into a pretty normal thing. Now, we all know what we’re doing, the clothes fit, as it were, and we’re all feeling comfortable. We know it’s a big challenge each time, but everybody feels totally up for it. Nobody feels overwhelmed or anything. And it’s big screen, I compare some of the battles to David Lean, Kurosawa, John Ford. I like big screen, and I like the big mass stuff, and then cutting into it. I’ve done lots over the years, from The Four Feathers, which had nearly 2000 people in a battle there, and then back to the ’70s, before you were born [chuckles], Young Winston we had 300 horses, which is a lot of horses. So, it’s very exciting for this to actually get back to that standard 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 peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Building on Season One’s epic scope and ambition, 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 that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.
Check out our previous and upcoming Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 interviews with:
New episodes of
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
season 2 air Thursdays on Prime Video.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
