Amazon Studios and Prime Video announced an all-female directing team for the upcoming second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
In a press release, Amazon Studios announced that Charlotte Brändström would return to the show alongside Sanaa Hamri and Louise Hooper.
Brändström directed episodes six and seven of the first season titled “Udûn” and “The Eye.” If you recall, the sixth episode featured the nonsensical eruption of Mount Doom, the illogical chase sequence featuring Galadriel, Adar, and Halbrand, and the battle sequence showing the Númenóreans routing Adar’s orcs.
The seventh episode was a slow and meandering one that followed the survivors of the eruption as they traveled to the ocean in order to flee the destruction.
Brändström other credits include directing episodes of Netflix’s Jupiter’s Legacy, The Witcher, and Away. She also previously directed episodes of Prime Video’s The Man in the High Castle as well as Outlander and Counterpart for Starz.
Hamri previously worked on FOX’s Empire series as well as an episode of the upcoming second season of Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time. She also has directed episodes of Nashville, Desperate Housewives, Shameless, Rectify, and Glee. She also directed The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, Just Wright, and Something New.
Hooper’s credits include the miniseries Flesh and Blood. She’s also worked on The Sandman, The Witcher, Inside No. 9, and Treason. The press release also notes she received a BAFTA nomination for directing Our Gay Wedding: The Musical.
In the second season Brändström will be directing four episodes and will also serve as a co-executive producer. Hamri and Hooper will both be directing two episodes each.
Season 1 directors J.A. Bayona and Wayne Yip will not be returning for the second season.
Not many details have been revealed on what the second season will feature. However, back in October showrunners Patrick McKay and JD Payne did indicate Sauron will be playing a major role.
Payne told The Hollywood Reporter, “Season one opens with: Who is Galadriel? Where did she come from? What did she suffer? Why is she driven? We’re doing the same thing with Sauron in season two. We’ll fill in all the missing pieces.”
McKay added, “Sauron can now just be Sauron. Like Tony Soprano or Walter White. He’s evil, but complexly evil. We felt like if we did that in season one, he’d overshadow everything else.”
“So the first season is like Batman Begins, and the The Dark Knight is the next movie, with Sauron maneuvering out in the open. We’re really excited. Season two has a canonical story. There may well be viewers who are like, ‘This is the story we were hoping to get in season one!’ In season two, we’re giving it to them,” he stated.
According to Amazon the show “has been an unprecedented success, viewed by more than 100 million people worldwide, with more than 24 billion minutes streamed.”
“The highly anticipated series attracted more than 25 million global viewers on its first day, marking the biggest premiere in the history of Prime Video, and also debuted as the No. 1 show on Nielsen’s overall streaming chart in its opening weekend,” they asserted.
However, interest in the show significantly declined as each episode was released as Nielsen numbers noted a decline in minutes viewed almost every week. The show would eventually fall out of Nielsen’s top charts just two weeks following the debut of the season finale.
What do you make of Prime Video and Amazon Studios having an all-female director line-up for the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power?