The first episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will intertwine Galadriel and Halbrand’s fates forever on the thrashing waves of the Sundering Seas. Halbrand, a Human from the Southlands, is a new character created for the show. He meets the young Galadriel (who is thousands of years from being the Elven queen fans know her as in the Lord of the Rings books and movies) at a fateful point in his life, and the encounter alters the course of it.
Halbrand is played by Charlie Vickers, who along with Dylan Smith, Markella Kavenaugh, Sophia Nomvete, and Tyroe Muhafidin, spoke with Emily Aslanian at the TV Insider at TV Guide Magazine studio, sponsored by Hollywood unBranded at San Diego Comic-Con 2022. In the video interview, above, Vickers shed some light on the importance of Halbrand and Galadriel’s (Morfydd Clark) chance encounter in the series premiere.
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“When they first meet, it’s kind of a stand-offish situation they find themselves in. What they are to each other in that moment is a means of survival,” Vickers said. “Hal is at a point where he’s leaving his past behind, and what happens between him and Galadriel is interesting as the show unfolds. Without saying too much, I think she starts to illuminate things in his past and make him question his past and his future. It’s kind of like a push-and-pull dynamic between them.”
Nomvete plays Princess Disa, the first female Dwarf character to be portrayed in a J.R.R. Tolkien screen adaptation. (There were Dwarf women in The Hobbit movies, but they were background characters. Disa is the first major role depicting one.) Nomvete said being tasked with bringing Disa to life is “mind-blowing” and “amazing,” calling Disa “delightful” and “a force.”
“It is so time for us to expand the accessibility and the opportunity for Tolkien’s world to be seen in a way that it hasn’t been seen before,” she said. “To be positioned as a female Dwarf with such a prominent story to tell is just incredible, because it’s time for so many people who may not have seen themselves staring right back at them on a screen to have that chance and to have that turn. So if I can be the poster child for that revolution for this work in this franchise, then I’ll take it.”
Learn more about Harfoots, the rebellious teen Theo, and more in the full video interview, above.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Series Premiere, Friday, September 2, Prime Video