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Where the Stars are Strange
"Where the Stars are Strange" is the second episode of the second season of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The series is based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). The episode is set thousands of years before the novel in Middle-earth's Second Age. It was written by Jason Cahill and directed by Charlotte Brändström and Louise Hooper. J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay were set to develop the series in July 2018, and a second season was ordered in November 2019. Filming began in the United Kingdom in October 2022, with Brändström returning from the first season and Hooper joining her. Production on the season wrapped in June 2023. "Where the Stars are Strange" premiered on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video on August 29, 2024. There was a significant drop in viewership from the first season's premiere, but viewership was still estimated to be high. The episode received generally positive reviews, with particular praise going to the Dwarven storyline. PlotThe ongoing eruption of Mount Doom causes seismic activity throughout Middle-earth, including an earthquake in the Dwarven realm of Khazad-dûm that destroys their infrastructure and leads to the withering of their crops. King Durin III and his son, Prince Durin IV, refuse to reconcile following Durin IV's choice to help Elrond mine for the rare ore mithril. Durin IV's wife, Disa, realizes that her ability to sing to the mountains cannot help them and attempts to convince the Durins to talk. Galadriel has a vision of Celebrimbor reciting a poem about the Rings of Power while he is killed by vines that she planted. She expresses concern to High King Gil-galad that Sauron may be in Eregion and asks to go there. Gil-galad has also been having visions since putting on his Ring of Power, but refuses to send Galadriel alone due to her already having been deceived by Sauron. She asks Elrond to accompany her. He initially refuses due to her decision to wear one of the rings, but Círdan convinces Elrond that it would be better for him to help guide his friends rather than abandon them. He is made the leader of Galadriel's company, to her chagrin. At Caras Gaer in western Rhûn, a Dark Wizard expresses displeasure with the Dweller, one of his acolytes who failed to capture the Stranger. He sends a group of riders after the Stranger instead. Learning this, the Stranger, Nori Brandyfoot, and Poppy Proudfellow travel through a desert to avoid detection. They run out of food and water, and the Stranger collapses from dehydration. The Harfoots find a well and are able to revive him, but accidentally alert the riders to their location. Finding a staff that he recognizes from his dreams, the Stranger summons a sandstorm which drives the riders off. He loses control, the staff disintegrates, and the storm sweeps Nori and Poppy away. Sauron poses as Halbrand at the gates of Eregion and refuses to leave. Celebrimbor awaits news from Lindon, not knowing that Gil-galad's messengers were killed on their way to Eregion. Despite promising Galadriel that he would never talk to Halbrand again, Celebrimbor eventually decides to turn Halbrand away personally. Halbrand convinces Celebrimbor that he is Annatar, the "Lord of Gifts", an emissary from the Valar who has come to help make Rings of Power for Dwarves and Men. ProductionDevelopmentAmazon acquired the television rights for J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954–55) in November 2017. The company's streaming service, Amazon Prime Video, ordered a series based on the novel and its appendices to be produced by Amazon Studios in association with New Line Cinema.[1] It was later titled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.[2] Amazon hired J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay to develop the series and serve as showrunners in July 2018,[3][4] and Jason Cahill joined as a writer by the following July.[4] The series was originally expected to be a continuation of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014) film trilogies, but Amazon later clarified that their deal with the Tolkien Estate required them to keep the series distinct from Jackson's films.[5] Despite this, the showrunners intended for it to be visually consistent with the films.[6] A second season was ordered in November 2019,[7] and Amazon announced in August 2021 that it was moving production of the series from New Zealand, where Jackson's films were made, to the United Kingdom starting with the second season.[8] The season's all-female directing team was revealed in December 2022: Charlotte Brändström, returning from the first season; Sanaa Hamri; and Louise Hooper.[9] The series is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings.[10] Because Amazon did not acquire the rights to Tolkien's other works where the First and Second Ages are primarily explored, the writers had to identify references to the Second Age in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and its appendices, and create a story that bridged those passages.[6] After introducing the setting and major heroic characters in the first season, the showrunners said the second would focus on the villains and go deeper into the "lore and the stories people have been waiting to hear".[6][11] They also wanted to explore elements from Tolkien's novels that had not been seen onscreen before,[12] including the eastern land of Rhûn.[13] The season's second episode, titled "Where the Stars are Strange", was written by Cahill and directed by Brändström and Hooper.[14] The title references a line from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in which the character Aragorn says he has traveled to "the far countries of Rhûn and Harad where the stars are strange".[15] CastingThe season's cast includes Robert Aramayo as Elrond,[16] Owain Arthur as Durin IV,[17] Morfydd Clark as Galadriel,[18] Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor,[19] Ciarán Hinds as the Dark Wizard,[20] Markella Kavenagh as Elanor "Nori" Brandyfoot,[21] Peter Mullan as Durin III,[22] Sophia Nomvete as Disa,[23] Megan Richards as Poppy Proudfellow,[24] Charlie Vickers as Sauron,[25] Benjamin Walker as Gil-galad,[26] and Daniel Weyman as the Stranger.[21] Also starring in the episode are Amelia Kenworthy as Mirdania, Kevin Eldon as Narvi, Ben Daniels as Círdan, Akshay Khanna as the Commander of the West, Freddie Bowerman as the Commander of the East, Jeany Spark as the Commander of the South, Jamie Bisping as Calenwë, Zates Atour as Brânk, Bridie Sisson as the Dweller, Arkie Reece as Kilta, Laura Jane Matthewson as Revna, Rachel Payne as Brenna, and Stuart Bowman as Barduk.[27] FilmingFilming for the season began on October 3, 2022,[28] under the working title LBP.[29] Episodes were shot simultaneously based on the availability of locations and sets.[30] Alex Disenhof returned from the first season to work with Brändström as director of photography,[31] alongside Laurie Rose.[32] The production wrapped in early June 2023.[31] Visual effectsVisual effects for the episode were created by Outpost VFX, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), The Yard VFX, DNEG, Rodeo FX, Midas VFX, Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies, Untold Studios, Atomic Arts, and Cantina Creative.[27][33] The different vendors were overseen by visual effects supervisor Jason Smith.[33] MusicA soundtrack album featuring composer Bear McCreary's score for the episode was released digitally on the streaming service Amazon Music on August 29, 2024. McCreary said the series' episodic albums contained "virtually every second of score" from their respective episodes. The album was added to other music streaming services after the full second season was released.[34][35] All music is composed by Bear McCreary:
Release"Where the Stars are Strange" premiered on Prime Video in the United States on August 29, 2024. It was released at the same time around the world, in more than 240 countries and territories.[35] ReceptionViewershipLuminate, which gathers viewership data from smart TVs,[36] said the first three episodes of the season were watched for 63.2 million minutes on their first day of release,[37] and for 553.5 million minutes over the following four-day Labor Day weekend.[38] Whip Media, which tracks viewership data for the 25 million worldwide users of its TV Time app, listed the series second—behind Hulu's Only Murders in the Building—on its US streaming chart for the week ending September 1.[39] Nielsen Media Research, which records streaming viewership on US television screens, estimated that The Rings of Power had 1.02 billion minutes viewed in the week ending September 1. Around 70 percent of those were for the first three episodes. It was the top original streaming series of the week and second overall behind Prison Break. The number was 19 percent lower than Nielsen's calculation for the opening week of the first season (1.25 billion minutes).[40] Samba TV, which also gathers viewership data from smart TVs, listed the series seventh on its chart of top streaming programs for the week ending September 1.[41] Critical responseThe review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes calculated that 92% of 13 critics reviews were positive and the average rating for the episode was 7.4 out of 10.[42] Keith Phipps at Vulture gave the episode three stars out of five. He said it is more set-up for the season but "the plot also thickened" with more details on Sauron's plans and the Rhûn storyline. Phipps highlighted the Khazad-dûm scenes, saying they struck "a nice balance between high seriousness and earthiness" and particularly praising the performances of Arthur and Nomvete. He added that the series was finding interesting ways to tell its stories despite their endings being known to the audience.[43] Arezou Amin of Collider gave the episode 7 out of 10 and said its character dynamics overcame some unbalanced pacing. She said the relationship between Galadriel and Elrond was one of the strongest in the series, but the focus on the Elves meant the other storylines did not have enough time to "flourish". Amin also praised the relationship between Durin IV and Disa.[44] Writing for Gizmodo, James Whitbrook said the episode did a "noble job" catching up the audience on key plotlines from the first season, and highlighted the relationship between the Durins. He said their family drama was where the series "really finds heart". Whitbrook said Sauron's transformation into Annatar was both horrifying and awesome, and said it was fun to watch him begin to manipulate Celebrimbor even though it was not yet clear "how much Rings of Power can really wring out" of that storyline.[45] Leon Miller at Polygon felt the episode was "more of the same" from the first season, with some changes from Tolkien's lore that worked in context and others that did not. He welcomed the addition of Ciarán Hinds as the Dark Wizard but felt the Stranger's story continued to be uninteresting. Miller also had negative thoughts about the Khazad-dûm storyline, feeling its "toothless father-son feud" was beneath the works of Tolkien. Despite this, he found the episode to be "inexplicably watchable" and thought the same would hold true for all but the "most die-hard Tolkien truthers".[46] AccoladesCharlie Vickers was named an honorable mention for TVLine's "Performer of the Week" for the week of August 26, 2024, for his performance in this episode. The site highlighted the scenes where Sauron is in disguise, saying "it was the gleam in his eyes, the small smiles and the casual way he held himself that took his performance to another level. Here, Vickers again proved he's the right man to bring Sauron to life."[47] Companion mediaAn episode of the aftershow Inside The Rings of Power for "Where the Stars are Strange" was released on August 29, 2024. It features actress Felicia Day, the host of The Official The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Podcast, interviewing the showrunners and cast members Edwards, Nomvete, and Arthur about the making of the episode, with some behind-the-scenes footage.[48][49] References
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