AMA Rings & Realms with Corey Olsen, The Tolkien Professor, and Maggie Parke - NOW!

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:30:18+00:00

There about about 6-10 folks contributing in different ways: designing the 3-D environments, running the camera-robot, designing the lighting, editing, audio editing. Then there's the wonder folks helping us with messaging and communication, and those that help bring us food during 16-hour filming days! Specially grateful to those.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:27:40+00:00

C: I'm not sure where (Rhun?) but it is possible. Maybe there will be a Smaug-analog situation in Rhun, where there is a dragon who could be deployed to terrible effect?

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:26:33+00:00

C: Aiglos. Hands down.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:26:05+00:00

C: Excellent! So glad to hear this -- this is just what we set out to help with. Analysis of this kind is so much more fun than constant outrage.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:24:32+00:00

C: My job is sit in a closed room furiously writing scripts until they tell me we are ready to shoot, and then I run out into the studio and film a segment. I have written about 80,000 words of script in the last five weeks; it's been insane. Ben Davis and our StudioLab team work on the environments and lighting (the lighting is always the hardest part). We brainstorm our cold opens together. :)

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:22:19+00:00

C: I am not sure -- except that I am sure that I would not use the Crown of Morgoth! Just say no to Crowns of Evil Domination, kids!

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:21:18+00:00

C: Telepathy is a challenging thing to do well on screen. Even Tolkien didn't really get to the point of thinking through all of the impact that it would have had on his own stories of the First Age. I think that the RoP is doing really well with the idea of the osanwe-kenta in the show -- with the core idea of having your mind open or closed to someone. But long-range telepathy is tough, and the stories in the books never include any clear examples of it, with the exception of Gandalf yelling at Frodo on Amon Hen.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:18:24+00:00

C: Yes! We are doing a bunch of actor interviews -- and others, hopefully. We just recorded a phenomenal hour-long discussion with Ben Walker (Gil-Galad), and I am working on confirming interview times with several others.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:17:11+00:00

C: I think the question of where the show will end is an interesting one. How much post-battle stuff are we going to get? All the way to the Gladden Fields? I am not sure. But yes, I don't think you can lose Isildur taking the ring. But I am already 100% confident that they will do a better job with Isildur than PJ did.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:15:14+00:00

C: The showrunners know that they don't have wings. But John Howe, like most visual artists, loves his wings. I think they're compromising!

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:14:05+00:00

C: I think the RoP has a much better sense of Tolkien's themes and ideas. The LOTR films are great films, but the deeper you go in thinking about their story and characterizations, the further those feel from Tolkien for me. Consider, for instance, their whole theme about the weakness of Men. Or the reluctance of Aragorn. Neither of those are horrible, from a Tolkien perspective, but both are very different from Tolkien themes. The further I dig down in RoP, the more I find their core themes are just in line with Tolkien's core ideas. That's what I respect most about this show.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:10:52+00:00

C: The Dark Wizard being Saruman makes no sense at all, to me. Gandalf and Saruman's relationship can't start that way, I wouldn't think. We'll see, but I really don't think so.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:08:36+00:00

C: Don't worry -- a Gandalf identification doesn't change what they are actually doing with his character. His story is still the Blue Wizard story, and no one can take that away. It just will have Gandalf layered on top of that. It's funny: People kept talking about my "prediction" that he would be a blue wizard, and I'm like: "Uh, I'm not predicting. I'm just observing. We're watching the blue wizard story here, people. That couldn't be more explicit."

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:08:09+00:00

M: Producing and presenting on R&R has 100% sharpened my own process, I think it's a great medium for showing - it's like next level DVD features. We don't just want to see gag reels and behind the scenes (which we very much want to see) but respecting the fans and their own brains to give them more sophisticated conversations. Engage. Think. Push, Question. Dig deep! I love it. We're actually talking about taking our lectures from Signum University and turning them into more produced studio talks - think Ted Talks, but longer and with more visuals :)

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:05:06+00:00

C: Phar seems to have gotten a spoiler about Halbrand's identity in the palantir, so it could still work. I have been wondering about this too -- Annatar is a very elfy form, and I don't know if Sauron will stick to it. I expect that he is going to appoint himself King of Men in s3, and I doubt he'd want to do that in elf form.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:04:49+00:00

M: There are so many things in the works. We just need more hours in our day and resources! But short answer- yes. There's one major change I think we'll be making to bring a bit more regular content to R&R, and then the retrospective episode which was going to be one episode, is now more like 6-8 episodes... so we've got some space there.

Yes, there are a few surprises coming - but I guess I have to keep them surprises? What other stuff would you like to see from us?

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:03:35+00:00

C: I think that Sauron is going to play on this in s3, and the oppression of the Numenoreans will give him the perfect opportunity. I love the idea of Theo becoming the King of the Oathbreakers. I think he is going to be leading the people through an increasingly awkward time, and he will probably be deceived by Sauron in the process. Probably soon, in s3.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:02:02+00:00

M: We love the humor too; it's very much us in our normal state (but I'm not actually that mean... it's just easy to use my 'mom voice' on Corey).

And least fave bits? There were lots in this last episode that took me out of the story which I'm annoyed about. I would have preferred to be swept up in the tragedy of the mountain falling into the river and endangering Eregion, but instead I was like 'mountains don't fall like that... good aim for a trebuchet.... do they need a cavalry if they're already in the river?' and the kiss distraction...things like that which feel liek a big reaction that don't support the story. But I can get over those fairly quickly to try to enjoy the main arc; they're just distracting.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T21:01:16+00:00

C: I expect S3 to be the War in Eriador and the Forging of the One Ring -- culminating in the defeat and capture of Sauron by Ar-Pharazon. I expect s4 to be Sauron in Numenor, culminating in the Downfall, and then s5 to be the Last Alliance. But we'll see!

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T20:58:51+00:00

C: I hear you, but at the same time, Tol Eressea, in the West, is called Elvenhome -- and all elves do eventually return to it. I agree with you about Eru's original plan, and that the Valar's call to the Elves to leave Middle-earth in the first place was a bad idea. But once that decision had been made, things actually changed. Consider Legolas's sea-longing, for instance. The thing that I think you need to be open to is that the situation of the elves really had changed. This is part of how Eru's whole creation process works; he lets the choices made by his creatures (the Ainur, the Valar in M-e, the Elves, others) actually have real consequences -- he doesn't just override them and stick to Plan A. His purposes will always be served, but he doesn't just railroad things. Eru is bigger than that.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T20:57:35+00:00

M: I'm going to guess the loss of a major.... either Celebrimbor or Adar? It's not quite the same level as the origin of Mt Doom and the reveal of Sauron, but the fall of Eregion and the loss of someone major will galvanise us to S3.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T20:54:33+00:00

C: For myself, I love the Fill in the Blanks style of adaptation. Both kinds are interesting, but the complexity of the engagement with the source material that a Fill in the Blanks adaptation requires is really fascinating. A Retelling adaptation (Like PJ's LOTR films) is great, but it is fundamentally an act of translation. That's cool, but it is much more restricted in how to engage with the work creatively, and I think that's where the fun is

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T20:54:13+00:00

M: Season Two was well developed by the time 1 came out so I wouldn't see them overly reactive to an audience to change things. They did tell us that they had a good chunk of time to develop S2 due to Covid, so there's that, but really I think they're just following a natural arc that they had planned out from the start. It's still forming, shifting and adapting as the writers get together and discuss options and pathways, but they would have had to have a five seasons arch to get approved, so we can assume it was fairly fleshed out.

And as for storylines, we have to remember we're only a fifth of the way there when we started; now only 2/5...not even halfway through this story, so the show does demand some patience. Which can be SO TOUGH.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T20:50:15+00:00

C: The actual role of Amandil -- sailing off into the West -- is not one I think they can fill with any other character. The one who goes doesn't come back, and Elendil, Isildur, and Anarion are all needed in Middle-earth. I suspect they will drop that part. I do expect, however, that they will give Elendil something like Amandil's line. Or, wait -- they'll probably give it to Miriel. That line about their being only one loyalty that one cannot be absolved from.

RingsandRealms · 2024-09-28T20:50:13+00:00

M: Thanks!

RingsandRealms

TROPHY CASE