The second season of the series ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’, based on the books of J.R.R. Tolkien and produced for Prime Video, was filmed in different locations on the island, in March, 2023 and produced by Sur Film
The great challenge for the series creators, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, was to recreate from scratch the region of Rhûn, which Tolkien had drawn on his maps.
The premise for representing the land of Rhûn was clear: they needed to find a desert and hostile terrain and leave behind the green landscapes of the United Kingdom.
Martin Foley, the art director of the production, explains in the shooting dossier the uniqueness of this location for the story of the series: “The most exotic of the new locations is the desert land of Rhûn, a part of the map for which Tolkien provides scant detail. Rhûn is more than just a desert, it’s a whole journey into the unknown.” It is a hostile environment and a physical challenge to shoot. Finding the location involved approaching landscapes with a fresh eye, free of prejudices.
“We knew we needed somewhere that was hot and sandy. The land where the story takes place is a treacherous and vast environment. Tenerife offered those things.”
Upon landing in the Canary Islands, the team realized they were very close to what they were looking for. Lindsey Weber, executive producer of the series, with experience in works such as Star Trek Beyond and knowledgeable about difficult enclaves, says that there was one island that stood out “for being a very versatile environment” and representing everything they wanted. “We knew we needed somewhere that was hot and sandy. The land where the story takes place is a treacherous and vast environment. Tenerife offered those things.” The interior of the island provided the ideal setting for the drifting journey of The Stranger (Daniel Weyman), Nori (Markella Kavenagh), a Hartfoot, and Poppy (Megan Richards). The imagined region of Rhûn finally had a location and a name. “The combination of the big wide-open spaces and the tiny characters was magical. There is real visual beauty to Tenerife,” Weber says when talking about the island.
All the Rhûn scenes were situated inland in the Teide National Park. “We were very lucky and privileged to be able to film there, because the environment put the actors straight into the world of Rhûn”, confirms Canaries Production Manager. The enormity of the landscape only underlined their vulnerability. Actor Daniel Weyman describes a “sunlight that looked green. Even the camera spoke like a wizard.”
Sur Film team, the Tenerife production company responsible for the Rings of Power service, recalls the challenge of working with adverse weather conditions in all locations and, above all, in the Teide National Park: “The weather was not helping. At 5 a.m., the temperature was 5°C, but at sunrise, it reached 30°C. In addition, setting up the deployment required for a project of this nature in an environment such as Teide and working with tourists who already knew about the filming of the series was tough. Despite all this, the team always showed professionalism to continue filming in the face of the climatic diversity of our island.”
Actress Markella Kavenagh underlines the good reception of Sur Film and all the professionals who worked on this production: “The Tenerife technical team made a huge effort and showed great commitment. They welcomed us with real warmth and showed us such kindness. We would head to the set at three or four in the morning and we would always be greeted with smiles and laughter. Within a week of being there, it truly felt like a family. I felt so connected to them, so connected to their stories.”
In addition, the makers of the Amazon series took notice of the sharp northern coastline. Charco de la Laja offered a location for a Númenórean Sea Trial. There they recreated the setting where Elendil (Lloyd Owen) and Queen Regent Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) must confront a fearsome sea creature. Other desert scenes were filmed in areas in the south of the island, such as the San Blas reserve, a protected natural area in Arico, and on the coast of the same municipality.
Tenerife’s filmmaking infrastructure and talent
From the prehistoric epic One Million Years B.C., which brought Raquel Welch to Tenerife in 1966, to the present day, the island has served as the setting for films such as Clash of the Titans, Jason Bourne, Rambo: Last Blood and Wonder Woman, among many others.
Priscila Calero, head of locations at Sur Film for The Rings of Power, assures that “although there are more and more demands, that’s a good thing: we are in the spotlight so that everything is done well and the sector is becoming more and more professional. The film industry moves different sectors and, depending on the needs of the filming, production companies hire specific profiles: mountaineers, engineers, sustainability agents, environmentalists, etc. In The Rings of Power, full-time specialists in oceanography, ornithologists specialised in houbara (an endemic type of bird), archaeologists or palaeontologists, among other technical profiles, were hired.”
Anecdotally, the Sur Film team recalls that at one point a natural pigment had to be found to decorate an area of the floor and walls of Charco de La Laja. A pigment that will not generate toxic waste or pollutants for the sea. While the art department was looking for alternatives, Juan Cano, ‘Nono’, producer and CEO of Sur Film, came up with the solution: squid ink could be used as a natural pigment for the Middle-earth environment. And so, it was.
“Filmmaking is a really thriving industry and, in the last decade, they’ve really honed their craft,“ declares Mally Chung, Canaries Production Manager. “One of the great things about filming in these more unusual places is the possibility of working with good technical professionals, who will end up becoming filmmakers.”
