The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Season 2

The ask? Return to Middle-Earth for the next instalment of Prime Video’s hit series, depict a famous never-before-seen Tolkien battle, and introduce a brand new CG character. That sounds like a task for the DNEG fellowship!

The second season of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ focuses on Sauron’s rise to power and his plan to trick the Elves into forging the all-powerful rings that he needs to rule over Middle-Earth. The season culminates with the ‘Siege of Eregion’ - a deadly battle that marks the beginning of the ‘War of the Elves and Sauron’.

Following our award-winning work on ‘The Rings of Power - Season 1’, DNEG was proud to return to the franchise for Season 2, working across all 8 episodes of the show and leading the (cavalry) charge for the grand finale as the main VFX partner for episodes 7 and 8.

Our key work for the series included a large-scale digital environment build for the legendary Elven city of Eregion. Our VFX team started with location plates shot in New Zealand, and replaced the cliff edge with an entirely CG city constructed of intricate towers of marble and patinated copper that sit on Dwarven granite foundations. For the ‘Siege of Eregion’ in episode 7, we created various levels of destruction for the city environment to show its deterioration from a pristine state to [spoiler alert!] total ruin at the end of the battle.

Our Creature Animation team was also set a monster challenge - the design, build and animation of Damrod the Hill Troll. Working from a 3D concept model and supporting concept art, our teams built the fully digital character asset including his clothes and weapons. Our Animation team then worked to find the right movement and attitude for Damrod to give him a sense of mass without slow motion.

As well as our complex environment and creature work, our VFX team also contributed large-scale FX, digi-doubles, CG prop enhancements, and crowd work for the climatic battle sequences - extending a small contingent of live action horses to a few hundred for the Elven cavalry, and extending the practically-shot Orc army to be thousands.

‘The Rings of Power - Season 2’ was a unique creative challenge for our teams, offering the opportunity to deliver incredibly complex and intricate VFX work while being immersed in one of the most well-loved fantasy stories ever told. If that’s not an adventure fit for a Hobbit then we don’t know what is!

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Season 2 | VFX breakdown reel

'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Season 2' | Official Trailer

Amazon Prime’s hit series is back for Season 2! 

Power

changes everything

We all made 
it happen

Mike Ehrmantraut from ‘Breaking Bad’ was the inspiration for the Hill-Troll in ‘The Rings of Power’ siege

Crafting Tolkien’s Vision: Creating Epic VFX for ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2

How DNEG crafted the troll and the Eregion battle in season 2 of ‘The Rings of Power’

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Season 2: Greg Butler – VFX Supervisor – DNEG