Three acclaimed women directors helming ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2

Posted by Brandy McDonnell on Mar 5, 2023 | 0 comments

Three acclaimed women directors are bringing to life Amazon Prime Video’s next chapter of adventures in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth.

Charlotte Brändström, Sanaa Hamri and Louise Hooper are each helming multiple episodes for Season 2 of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” according to a news release.

Brändström, who directed two highly acclaimed episodes of “The Rings of Power’s” first season (Episode 106, titled “Udûn,” and Episode 107, named “The Eye”), is directing four episodes of the second season and serving as co-executive producer for the series’ forthcoming season.

Hamri and Hooper are directing two episodes. Brändström and Hamri also have overall deals with Amazon Studios.

Brändström is an award-winning director and graduate of the directing program at the American Film Institute. She recently finished directing a pilot for Netflix Sweden titled “The Unlikely Murder,” and her other directing credits for television include “The Outsider” for HBO; “Jupiter’s Legacy,” “The Witcher” and “Away” for Netflix; “The Man in the High Castle” for Prime Video; and “Outlander” and “Counterpart” for Starz. Brändström also directed the entirety of two European limited series: “Conspiracy of Silence” for Viaplay and “Disparue” for FR2, and has also directed more than 30 feature films, miniseries, and movies-of-the-week.

Additionally, Brändström is an international Emmy award nominee for “Julie, Chevalier de Maupin.” Her upcoming projects include “The Continental” with Mel Gibson for Starz, “The Consultant” with Christoph Waltz for Prime Video, and “Shōgun” for FX.

Hamri is a renowned film, television, music video and commercial director from Tangier, Morocco. She recently completed executive producing and directing “The Wheel of Time’s” second season for Prime Video. Previously, Hamri was executive producer/director for Fox’s hit series “Empire,” and her other episodic television directing credits include “Shameless,” “Rectify,” “Nashville,” “Elementary,” “Glee” and “Desperate Housewives.” Hamri is also an acclaimed music video director and has collaborated with numerous hip-hop/R&B musicians, including Prince, Common, Lenny Kravitz, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, Jay Z and Mary J. Blige.

Also, Hamri has won an NAACP Image Award for India.Arie’s “Little Things” video, as well as an MTV VMA for Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass.” In addition, Hamri directed Mariah Carey’s sold-out five-arena concert documentary, “The Adventures of Mimi,” and has also directed the feature films “Something New,” “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2” and “Just Wright.”

Hooper is an acclaimed British drama director, known for the four-part limited thriller “Flesh and Blood,” starring Imelda Staunton and Stephen Rea; and “Cheat,” the four-part drama starring Molly Windsor. Her additional directing credits include the first season finale of Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman,” “The Witcher,” “Inside No. 9” and “Treason.”

Hooper began her career directing BBC Arts documentaries, working with David Lynch, Helmut Newton, Arthur Miller, David Attenborough and Björk, and also received a BAFTA nomination for directing “Our Gay Wedding: The Musical.”

“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” has been viewed by more than 100 million people worldwide and has been an unprecedented global success as the top Original series for Prime Video in every region in its first season.

All eight first season episodes of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” are now available to stream exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories in multiple languages.

The series went back into production in October in the UK. Amazon Studios head Vernon Sanders recently told Collider that the earliest viewers might see Season 2 is this year, although it’s “more unlikely than likely” that the sophomore run will debut in 2023.

“It would be amazing if we could get Season 2 out within a year of Season 1’s release. It may take a smidge longer than that, but we’re doing everything we can, and we’re going to get better and faster as we go,” Sanders told Collider.

“The Rings of Power” Season 1 brought to screens for the first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” books and takes viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness.

Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared reemergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the farthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.

The first season of “The Rings of Power” has been an unprecedented success, 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. The show has also broken all previous Prime Video records for the most viewers, and has driven more Prime sign-ups worldwide during its launch window than any other previous content, according to a news release.

Additionally, “The Rings of Power” is the top Prime Video original series in every region — North America, Europe, APAC, LATAM, and the rest of the world. The season finale created a global cultural moment, with multiple series-themed hashtags, including #TheRingsofPower and others, trending in 27 countries across Twitter for more than 426 cumulative hours throughout the weekend.

Time reports that, with a record-setting price tag of $1 billion, the first season of “The Rings of Power” is the most expensive show ever made.

Season 2 of the series is produced by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. They are joined by executive producers Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill and Gennifer Hutchison, along with co-executive producer Brändström, producers Kate Hazell and Helen Shang and co-producers Andrew Lee, Matthew Penry-Davey and Clare Buxton.

-BAM

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