The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power costume designer Kate Hawley has revealed the team's creative process involved studying naked dwarves during pre-production.
Hawley revealed how this risqué reference material informed the look of The Rings of Power's Dwarven characters during a panel at SCAD TVfest, as reported by EW. "Don't look at me weird, but I spent time looking at naked dwarfs," she said. "What is their physicality in this world and their body shape? It was a proportional exercise. And then inside formed the external of the costume." Hawley also listed several of the costume design tricks she employed to make Dwarven performers appear shorter, such as giving them oversized armor and lowering their outfits' waistlines.
The unorthodox approach Hawley brought to the Dwarves' wardrobe carried across to at least one other Middle-earth race in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the Harfoots. Hawley discussed the creation of the Harfoots' clothing in a previous interview, insisting it was important that it reflected the Hobbit subspecies' nomadic lifestyle. To this end, she and her team incorporated a range of unconventional materials in the Harfoot costumes, including vegetable dyes, berries and soot.
The Rings of Power's Upsized Season 2
Hawley is currently hard at work on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, and she'll apparently have even more budget to play with this time around. Amazon Studios' Head of Global TV Vernon Sanders said as much in a recent interview, insisting that the second season will "put more money on screen" now that the show's creative team is firing on all cylinders. Sanders added that The Rings of Power Season 2 will also include "bigger battles" than its predecessor, as well as several "iconic moments" from author J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth mythos.
Sanders isn't the only senior executive at Amazon Studios talking up The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power's future, either. The production company's CEO Jennifer Salke recently backed the streaming series' chances of maintaining its following, despite the recent announcement that Warner Bros. is developing its own slate of Lord of the Rings movies. "We're extremely proud of [The Rings of Power], and invested long term," Salke said. "So, we definitely think there's enough fan love to sustain ours for a long time."
All eight episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are currently streaming on Prime Video.
Source: SCAD TVfest via Entertainment Weekly