Ahead of Rings of Power season 2 airing on Amazon, we caught up with the cast at San Diego Comic Con to talk all things Tolkien, their own nerdy habits and see what they could reveal about the upcoming season. 

Benjamin Walker’s (Gil-Galad) was very happy to return to Comic Con. One of his highlights the first time round was walking the convention floor, an experience he was keen to repeat – “It’s the idea of being amongst people that have something they love”. He particularly wanted to find a graphic novel by an unknown artist and buy it to be part of the experience. He knows he’s a part of a big franchise but wants to support smaller scale creators and fan art which he finds inspiring as he loves “the depth of people’s imagination. SDCC seems like the perfect place for Walker who is a fan of all things nerdy with some of his favourites including Star Wars, Star Trek, Sandman, Pokémon (which his son got him into), and of course…Tolkien. 

His love of Tolkien is palpable and the fact that part of preparing for his role meant he got to re-read the books was a source of great joy for him – “Somehow I found a way to have a job where they pay me to read Tolkien”. 

When talking of his character Gil-Galad he expressed his appreciation for his duality. On the one hand he’s this politically minded peacekeeping individual which we saw a lot of in season 1. But Walker teases that in the second season, the audience will get to see the other side, the experienced warrior – “the gloves come off”. When asked which he prefers playing, Walker has a clear favourite, it’s what he dreamed of as a kid – “cutting off orcs heads in the mud is cool”. I’m sure any Tolkien fan will agree.