The awe-inspiring New Zealand landscapes have become synonymous with the screen adaptations of JRR Tolkein’s Middle-earth and the adventures of hobbits, elves, and dwarves.
But for the second season of Prime Video prequel series The Rings of Power, Middle-earth moved over to old Blighty.
Locations manager Finlay Bradbury talked us through the move from New Zealand back to Tolkein’s homeland and gave us a tour of the key locations.
Taking in some of the most picturesque corners of the UK, here’s all you need to know about The Rings of Power season two filming locations.
What UK filming locations appear in The Rings of Power?
Windsor Great Park
As members of the royal family and world leaders prepared to descend upon Windsor Castle last year for Coronation events, a world of orcs, elves and epic battles came to life just a stone's throw away.
Windsor Great Park, previously used in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and World War Z, was used to create several different realms in The Rings of Power. Look out for it in the opening moments of season two, when Elrond and Galadriel race back to confront the High King and argue over what to do with the three rings they possess.
‘The stuff we did in Windsor Great Park was the scenes with Galadriel and Elrond in the first episode, racing through the landscapes. We did quite a few realms there,’ explains Finlay.
‘It was an amazing space to shoot in. It’s an ancient woodland full of 1000- year-old oaks.’ Unsurprisingly, that ancient woodland turned out to be the perfect location for the Ents, as the living tree creatures make their Rings of Power debut midway through the season.
The epic battle that closes out the season was also filmed in the park, with a 1000-strong crew and 400 extras involved. ‘All the elements you’d imagine would be in a battle sequence in a Lord of the Rings story came together for the crescendo of the season,’ says Finlay.
Virginia Water
Located at the far end of Windsor Great Park, the parkland surrounding the Virginia Water lake was originally intended as a sort of playground for the royals.
Scenes for The Rings of Power were filmed at the Cascade, a man-made waterfall reaching heights. ‘It was still open to the public at the time,’ says Finlay, ‘but we were given permission to section ourselves off while maintaining access for the public. We filmed for a day and then it was back to normal the next morning.’
High Rocks and Harrison Rocks, Kent
In the first episode, the magnificent sandstone High Rocks can be seen during Elrond and Galadriel’s chase through the woodlands.
‘We needed to find a transition from Windsor Great Park into the Elven world.’ explains Finlay. ‘High Rocks is stunning. It’s a very small area, but if people want to go and have a look at a little bit of our world, it’s just a really magical space and so different from everything else we shot.’
Popular with adventurous tourists, access to explore the rocks comes at a small fee of £6, a meagre sum to reenact scenes in the elvish kingdom of Lindon.
Nearby Harrison Rocks was also used for filming, with two production units capturing footage simultaneously across the two sites.
Frensham Common, Surrey
Surrey’s Frensham Common was used for what Finlay described as ‘interim beats between realms’ when characters make journeys across Middle-earth.
‘It’s a National Trust common land which is beautiful and again very different,’ the location manager says. ‘It’s a fantastic space and you would never imagine these sites are within 30 miles of London, they look so entirely different.’
Frensham Common has also been used as a filming location for Netflix series The Witcher, and the lakes doubled up as the river Nile for cult classic The Mummy.
Which Rings of Power scenes were filmed in Tenerife?
Production shifted to Tenerife for some scenes in season two that couldn’t match any locations in the United Kingdom.
Teide National Park, under the shadow of Mount Teide, was used for footage in the opening episodes that see The Stranger traverse the perilous landscape of Rhûn with his Harfoot companions.
Rhûn is a part of the Middle-earth map for which Tolkien provides scant detail in his writings, giving the production team behind Rings of Power a bit more flexibility with creating the vistas.
With its rocky outcrops, sand-blown hills, and volcanic plains, the location proved to be worlds apart from the touristy hotspots of Tenerife.
During this perilous journey, the trio encounter the mysterious elder, and beloved Tolkien character, Tom Bombadil. The interior of his abode was painstakingly reconstructed on a soundstage at Bray Studios in the UK, but the exterior shots were filmed on location in Tenerife.
Who is new to The Rings of Power cast in season two?
Season two brings in some new cast members to the already huge ensemble.
Rory Kinnear (Bill Tanner in the Daniel Craig James Bond movies), joins The Rings of Power as Tom Bombadil, an enigmatic and mysterious creature that is known as ‘Master of wood, water and hill’.
Ciarán Hinds (Belfast) appears as a character known simply as ‘the Dark Wizard’, with online speculation suggesting this is a younger Saruman. Hinds is no stranger to playing a wizard, having previously portrayed Aberforth Dumbledore in the Harry Potter film series.
Returning cast members include Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, Robert Aramayo as Elron and Charlie Vickers as big bad, Sauron.
When are The Rings of Power episodes released?
The second season of The Rings of Power launched on Thursday, August 29 with three episodes dropping on Prime Video that day.
Further episodes will be released weekly with the finale airing on October 3.
There’s likely to be at least three more seasons of The Rings of Power. Back in 2022, showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay said they had outlined a five-series arc, taking place over 50 hours of television.
Check out the trailer below for a taste of what’s to come in season two.
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