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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has plenty of logistical challenges to overcome, and fortunately, its cast seems to have a pretty good understanding of what’s expected of them. However, not every actor is capable, and during production on the show’s third season, one particularly troublesome performer managed to cause enough problems that the creative team had to rethink its plans.
Speaking exclusively with Maggie Lovitt for Collider Behind the Scenes, co-showrunner Patrick McKay and director Charlotte Brändström revealed that a dog introduced in Season 3 was originally supposed to have a much larger role, but to be blunt, he was not a very good boy. McKay told Collider:
“We had this idea that Arondir had a dog, and there’s this scene — I actually really love this scene. I love the way you put it together — where Galadriel returns home from the battle, and everyone else has a partner or a child waiting for them. Even Arondir has the dog, and she has no one. I find it very touching, and I love Morfydd’s performance. But the idea that this dog would be in many scenes and be a source of humor and interact with the Orc, and I think we even had an idea of bringing the dog back later in the season. No, that dog was an absolute nightmare.”
Brändström admitted that the animal certainly looked the part, but getting it to behave long enough to film anything was another matter entirely. She explained, “He looked great. He looked how we wanted, but we managed to get him to eat the bone at some point. It was very hard to keep him still. It was very hard to keep him still long enough to say, ‘Camera, start rolling.'” McKay then revealed just how much unusable footage the production accumulated while attempting to work with the animal. “There’s a hard drive filled with, like, bum takes and the dog whimpering and yelling and barking and going after the Orc. I mean, it was a nightmare,” McKay laughed. “So we ended up with less dog. However, I think that a little bit of dog goes a long way.“
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‘The Rings of Power’ Season 3 Brings Rivendell to Life
While the dog’s intended recurring storyline was scaled back, its introduction is part of a much larger effort to make Middle-earth feel more tangible in Season 3. The new episodes introduce Rivendell, the famous Elven sanctuary that audiences will recognize from Peter Jackson‘s The Lord of the Rings movies. McKay told Collider:
“We really like building things. We really want these fantastical worlds to feel real and tangible and immersive. You know, one example I think of in the first episode is we introduce Rivendell, right? And I think the move that you and Alex came up with is starting in a virtual world and then entering into a physical set all in one shot. We do that a lot because one makes the other feel more real, right? And I think we’re constantly looking for something photographic to ground it in.”
Brändström agreed, emphasizing the importance of giving the actors something real to interact with, even when their surroundings will eventually be expanded digitally. “For the actors, it’s important to feel grounded. They need to touch stuff. They need to feel the world around them,” she explained. “They don’t really care about whether we extend it then and add some mountains in the background, because they don’t look at that. But they need to have something to be grounded, to touch, to feel. I mean, we even brought in horses on the stages and had a road that they could come up.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3 is streaming on Prime Video. Stay tuned to Collider for all the latest news and updates on the biggest and best movies and shows heading to your favorite streaming platforms soon. You can watch the Rings of Power episode of Collider Behind the Scenes above.
- Release Date
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September 1, 2022
- Network
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Amazon Prime Video
- Showrunner
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John D. Payne, Patrick McKay
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