Troll Scene, Season 3 Explained by Ismael Cruz Cordova

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 7 of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” now streaming on Prime Video.

It’s all-out war in Middle-earth, with orcs and elves at each other’s throats.

The siege of Eregion continues in “Rings of Power” episode 7, with the forces of Adar (Sam Hazeldine) breaching the castle walls and storming the elven stronghold. Hundreds of deadly, disgusting orcs destroy the city, but Elrond (Robert Aramayo) has a plan to prevent the destruction: call in dwarven reinforcements led by Prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur). However, by the end of the episode, the dwarves are nowhere to be found, as King Durin III (Peter Mullan) has been corrupted and brainwashed by his power ring.

Unfortunately, the elf having the worst day of all is Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards). He finally realizes the truth about Sauron (Charlie Vickers) and sees through the dark lord’s disguise as Annatar, but the damage has already been done. Celebrimbor has created all the rings of power at Sauron’s command, and the master blacksmith decides to mutilate his own hands so that he can no longer create more dangerous jewelry.

Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) steps in to save the day and helps free Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) from Adar’s orc camp. She shares a kiss with Elrond before they join the elven army at Eregion. In a team of tough elves, Arondir and Elrond defeat a huge hill troll that stomps through the battlefield. However, before Arondir can take out more orcs, he finds Adar in the skirmish and fights him one-on-one. Adar proves to have the upper hand and he takes down Arondir before moving on to Elrond and taking over his ring of power. The episode ends on a somber note, meaning more destruction will follow.

Of VarietyCórdova discusses the intense, physical training he went through this season to play Arondir, breaks down his troll fight scene, and teases that season 3 is already in the works.

Arondir does even more flipping, fighting and orc killing this season. How has your training changed since season 1?

All the wire work and everything you see in the show, it’s me. I only have a little bit of stunt that I have a double for because it had to be one take and we had to split it – but the rest is me. I learned all that in the first season and I was trained on wires. They are quite complex. In Eregion I actually stand up there on that high wall and jump. They are stuntman stunts! I had to train quite a bit in strength, martial arts and choreography. I also tried to change a little bit of the texture of the movement to indicate a little more of his anger and sadness.

You practice sword fighting and archery. Did you also learn to ride a horse this season?

I did horse riding. I don’t think I’ll get to ride in front of the camera this season, but I did for two months. There was an episode, I think it was the sixth, that I open while running through the woods. That used to be horse riding, so that’s what I trained for. I don’t remember how we got there, but he just runs away. It’s the forest and the elves run quite fast and long. There was no point in him being on a horse, but I did train, and I loved it. I found out I wasn’t going to ride anymore long before they stopped the lessons. I just continued very quietly.

Is there a workout you haven’t done yet that you would like to try?

I haven’t done any stunt driving. I’m a little interested in that. I’ve been training in breath holding underwater, but I haven’t been able to do anything big underwater yet and I’d really like to. I have no interest in jumping out of any type of plane – zero, absolutely none. Or walk through fire – I’m good. I’m super focused on the choreography of it all. I want to get really good at lines when I practice martial arts, like sword speed, which I started playing with this season when I was carving orcs really nicely. Something! To be honest, I just keep going. I was trained in 16th century calligraphy and learned how to make my own spines and paper in this other project. In the last film I just made, I learned to play a whole song on the violin. I’m that guy.

There aren’t that many cars or planes in Middle-earth, so you’re probably safe there. But Arondir should be able to play a song on the violin someday!

That would be great. I would love to sing on the show. So much has been written about the singing of elves, and we see it in Gil-galad too. I always think it’s super awesome for Arondir to do a lot of these things because it shows you this difference and contrast between types of elves. He is not a royal, rich or city man. He is a rough, rugged warrior poet who essentially defends every wrong that comes out of the capital. He’s the one who says, “Okay, I’ll save you now, and I’ll save you, and I’ll save you.”

In the hill troll fight scene, how much of the monster was practical versus CGI?

There was a large structure with all kinds of mats around it, nets and chains. I jump, grab him and drive him down. They had two big feet and a small part of them on the bottom, so we interacted with that too. We’ve seen the sketches so we know what it looked like and the battle itself was so realistic with so many orcs. You really had the feeling that troll was there.

There are so many orcs and elves running around the Eregion battlefield – how chaotic was it on set?

The energy is there; I feel so immersed. There is a fire, the great wall of Eregion has been built, it was so very muddy. The landings are completely different. When you land on it, the mud just sucks you in. People are running around you. So when you do choreography and you learn it in certain directions, you become completely disoriented. Everyone has to be precise. There are so many swords floating around. It can be overwhelming, but I find it exciting. I absolutely love that kind of thing. Having Elrond and Gil-galad close by, those heavy hitters of the elven world, made me feel like one of the boys.

How did your fight with Adar go? After killing the troll and some orcs, I expected Arondir to beat him one-on-one.

As the fighting progresses, he becomes a little more reckless. That recklessness, that’s the mistake I made. I get super emotional. That’s how Adar can catch me. Otherwise Arondir could have met him on an equal footing. We had to find the fault. You see Arondir doing all these great things; you just saw him help kill a troll. There’s no justification for him not being able to have an even fight with this villain other than letting it go. His attitude changes completely, and in that little bit of weakness, Adar knows exactly that. He kept destroying me, and we had to find that moment.

There hasn’t been an official renewal yet, but have you reviewed season 3 at all or seen any scripts?

As far as I know they’ve kind of confirmed that we’re going for a third. I haven’t seen any scripts though. I’d love to do it. But I’m pretty sure we’ll go for a third.

This interview has been edited and condensed.