British actor Dominic Monaghan has some words of wisdom for the cast of The Rings of Power.
The Lord of the Rings star spoke to ScreenRant at San Diego Comic-Con and said he was struck by the magnitude of the marketing campaign for the upcoming prequel.
It’s a little peculiar. We were lucky enough to be taken out for dinner last night by the wonderful people at Audible and TreeFort, and we went to Nobu, which is an amazing Japanese restaurant. And directly opposite from Nobu was a massive, 100-foot Rings of Power thing. I sat just looking at these characters for the rest of the evening, and I kind of said to the guys, ‘That’s kind of weird.’ It’s strange to see it.”
Monaghan seems to find the sheer scale of the show’s promotional campaign amazing and absurd. With a jaw-dropping $1 billion budget, The Rings of Power is the most expensive television show ever made. Per Forbes, Amazon Studios purchased the exclusive adaptation and television production rights from J.R.R.Tolkien’s estate for the mind-boggling sum of $250 million.
In the midst of all the hoopla, Monaghan found himself relating to the pressure the actors might be experiencing. Having played Meriadoc Brandybuck in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he’s all too familiar with the experience. He urged his fellow thespians to ignore the obvious stressors and allow themselves to have as much fun as possible.
“I wish it a lot of luck. I hope that it goes well, and especially for the actors – because I’m inclined to actors. I hope they’re having fun. I hope they don’t feel the pressure of expectation or from what had occurred with the Peter Jackson trilogy. I hope they just think, ‘This is a great job, made some great friends, hope that it continues,’ and they embrace it, because these types of jobs – the jobs that end up being the best jobs that you ever do – can disappear in the blink of an eye. You can be like, ‘Oh, I’m going to do this for years,’ and then suddenly, three years go by and you’re like, ‘What, where’s that gone?’ And it’s done. I hope that they enjoy it, I hope they’re having a nice time, I hope that it’s a huge success.”
This isn’t the first time Monaghan has encouraged The Rings of Power actors to lean into the journey and enjoy the ride and it’s wonderful to see actors supporting each other, especially when the stakes are so high.
The cast of The Rings of Power includes Swedish-born Welsh actor Morfydd Clark (Saint Maud), Robert Aramayo (Behind Her Eyes), Nazanin Boniadi (Hotel Mumbai), Charles Edwards (Under The Vines), Charlie Wickers (Medici) and Sir Lenny Henry (Postman Pat: The Movie).
The Rings of Power premieres on Amazon Prime on Sep. 2, 2022.
