As with many characters in Prime Video’s high-budget series,The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Halbrand is a character that was created for the show. Given that the series is based on the Second Age of Middle-earth andJ.R.R.Tolkien’s appendices, the creative team has taken to developing interesting and mysterious characters with somewhat shady pasts. No one fits this description more than the handsome somewhat roguish anti-hero, Halbrand played byCharlie Vickers. The character is one that has proven difficult to fully understand for audiences; even the far-seeing elf, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) does not fully understand him. Vickers in a clip discusses the relationship that is shared between the pair.
Halbrand first shows up in theRings of Powerin the second episode, Adrift. Along with a number of survivors aboard a raft, he is trying to escape a sea monster when he meets Galadriel swimming in the Sundering Seas back to Middle-earth. Eventually when the monster returns, only Halbrand and Galadriel survive the attack. Vickers explains that his character knew that there was something unique about his traveling companion. “Halbrand. From the moment that he meets Galadriel, he knows that she’s a special elf,” Vickers says.Being special, however, doesn’t make you trustworthy, and Halbrand has refused to share key details of his life with the Elf.
Despite not trusting each other, Halbrand and Galadriel do, however, have one thing in common: they are both running away and towards something in their respective lives. “They’re both running away from things,” Vickers says. “Running towards things.” This is proven very clearly when the pair land on the island kingdom of Númenor with the help of the sea captain, Elendil (Lloyd Owen). By this point, Galadriel has discovered that Halbrand is heir to the throne of the Southlands – a land that is bitterly contested – but does not want it. While Galadriel schemes to get him and the people of Númenor to get her off the island to battle Sauron, he on the other is scheming to remain in Númenor and start a new life.
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Throughout the entirety of the series so far, the pair through their travails seem to be getting ever closer in their relationship. Despite this, “Halbrand is keeping his distance,” Vickers says but for how long? After the battle with the Orcs in the Southlands, the pair share a moment where Galadriel invites him to be free of whatever it is he might have done. It would be interesting to know what exactly eats at him.
Rings of Powerdrops its final episode on October 14; meanwhile, you’re able to watch the clip below:
