It looks like meat is back on the menu, boys, because IGN has released some exclusive first-look images of the orcs in the upcoming highly-anticipated series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power coming to Amazon Prime in September. IGN has also provided more details from the prosthetic department about the creature design of the orcs.
“Well, I love Orcs,” Lindsey Weber, executive producer of the series starts. “I love creature design, so I’m very happy to talk about this stuff. JD and Patrick — the showrunners — the very first page of their bible was about Orcs. They have a real passion for them, they love practical prosthetics and design.”
The Rings of Power will see the orcs in a very different state to their organised, battle-ready ranks in The Lord of the Rings. At the end of the First Age, the Orcs were decimated nearly to the point of extinction in the War of Wrath. In The Rings of Power, we will find them scattered across Middle-earth – low in numbers, down on their luck, and fighting for survival.
Weber continues; “They (the showrunners) felt that they needed exploration given that this is the Second Age and thousands of years before the events of the Third Age. It was really important to them to treat them as their own culture and explore their world on its own two legs in its own right.”
Weber continues; “It felt appropriate that their look would be different, part of a wilder, more raw, Second Age, Middle-earth, closer to where the First Age ends. As we meet them, they’re not yet organised into armies, they’re a little more scattered and they’ve been scavenging. So it’s just a different time in their total story.”
Weber teases; “There’s some female Orcs that I truly loved. But there’s one Orc in particular, who’s very, very tall and strong, who has a particularly enjoyable fight with one of our Elvin characters that I suspect will be, or hope will be a favourite among fans.”
This has whet our appetite even more for the series, which cannot come soon enough. Unfortunately, we have to wait until September 2 to get our hands on what will be an exciting new path for The Lord of the Rings.
While we wait, check out our guide to the best Lord of the Rings characters.