The Rings of Power stars tease new character, dwarf drama in season 2

That title isn't just for show. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power finished its first season by finally forging some powerful rings — and there are more on the way.

Specifically, season 1 of Prime Video's epic fantasy series ended with the forging of the three elven rings capable of helping the woodland race survive until the end of the Third Age of Middle-earth. But the elves weren’t the only people of that fantasy continent to get rings of power. In season 2 (launching Aug. 29 on Prime Video) we’ll see what happens when the dwarves get some of their own.

"Due to some very powerful rings, there’s a shift in dynamics among the dwarves,” says Owain Arthur, who returns as Prince Durin IV of the kingdom of Khazad-dûm. “The rings certainly have an effect on the king, and therefore the entire kingdom, really. We see the positives of the rings, but Durin certainly also feels the negative aspects of them.”

Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), the greatest elven blacksmith of the Second Age, forged the three elf rings — with a little help from Sauron (Charlie Vickers) — in the season 1 finale. But the dwarves have skilled smiths of their own, and season 2 will introduce us to one of the most famous: Narvi (Kevin Eldon). Cited in J.R.R. Tolkien’s appendices to The Lord of the Rings as the dwarf who built the Doors of Durin (“Speak ‘friend’ and enter”), Narvi is set to play a significant role in the dwarven politics.

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“He’s weaving in and out of the action throughout the season,” Eldon says of his character. “He’s only mentioned in Tolkien’s appendices, and he’s described as a great craftsman. [Showrunners] J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay had little to go on, but I think we have successfully turned this footnote into a flesh-and-blood character. As well as being this fantastic architect, we see in season 2 that he’s an adviser as well. He’s a right-hand man of King Durin.”

And King Durin III needs friends. At the end of season 1, the dwarven royals were at each other’s throats. After a blow-up fight, King Durin (Peter Mullan) disowned his son. So where does that leave the dwarven prince when we next see him? Not in a good place, to say the least.

“He’s on his knees,” Arthur says. “Everything he’s known in his life has now been stripped away from him. The only thing that stays constant is his wife and his kids. So we certainly see Durin on the backfoot. I don’t think he can get any worse than when we see him at the beginning of season 2.”

But a king can only expect his orders to be obeyed if they make sense. As King Durin bends more and more to the influence of the newly forged rings, he may end up driving Narvi closer to his son in this family feud.

“Narvi has an interesting journey in season 2, as the king increasingly falls under the power of the rings,” Eldon says. “These rings are getting under his skin; he’s becoming less logical and showing signs of madness. So Narvi has to make a very difficult choice about whether he obeys his natural instinct, which is to be loyal and to follow the king’s wishes or to abandon that very basic requirement of his life and instead show more loyalty to Khazad-dûm? He gets to a point where he has to leap one way or the other. I’m not going to tell you what he chooses, but it’s certainly a dilemma for him.”

A version of this story appears in EW's complimentary Comic-Con 2024 Preview print edition, being passed out in San Diego throughout the convention.