'Rings of Power' brings a female story to the forefront

Morphid Clarke stars as Galadriel, an elf warrior who wants to stop evil from returning to the fantasy world of Middle-earth in the new series The Lord of the Rings: Ring of Power. 

The series, one of the most expensive ever produced, airs on Amazon's Prime Video on Fridays, with new episodes each week based on the appendices to the original JRR Tolkien novels. Clarke said her role as Galadriel gave her the opportunity to explore stunts that showcased her character’s power behind the backdrop of a historically male-dominated society.

“Gender is not the same in Middle-earth, in that you’re playing a character who can physically bring down guys around you,” Clarke said in an interview. "It was really fun to do.”

Co-executive producer Patrick McKay said that Tolkien had “some of the greatest female characters in literature” and that Galadriel was one of the first characters the creators thought of for the new story.

“From the clues throughout the text, it was really fun to imagine what her world was like and what she might have struggled with,” McKay said.

Tristan Gravell, who plays Farazon, shares the same sentiment, stating that he thinks there is “no one on this planet worse than a woman.” He said, “To see it on screen and to see Morfydd's name and number like her is incredible."

Starring Robert Aramayo, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Sofia Nombete and Nazanin Boniadi, set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The series follows both new and veteran characters as they face the re-emergence of evil in Middle-earth and carve out a legacy that will last a lifetime.