Orcs have played important roles throughout The Lord of the Rings franchise, but the creators behind The Rings of Power intend to showcase the creatures more than ever before. In preparation, we’ve got a first look at some of the variations we’ll see throughout the series.
At the end of Tolkien’s First Age, the Orcs were decimated nearly to the point of extinction in the War of Wrath. Since The Rings of Power will be taking place in the Second Age, we meet the creatures as they’re scattered across Middle-earth. Thousands of years before they become the earth-shattering force that helps level the realms of elf and man, Orcs are low in numbers, down on their luck, and fighting for survival.
Because this is a wildly different age for the Orcs, with the timing being much earlier than the Orcs we’ve seen on screen up to this point and their numbers being so diminished, it was important that they look and feel different from the creatures we already knew.
“We spent a lot of time talking about what it would mean to be an Orc in the Second Age. It felt appropriate that their look would be different, part of a wilder, more raw, Second Age, Middle-earth, closer to where the First Age ends. As we meet them, they’re not yet organized into armies, they’re a little more scattered and they’ve been scavenging. So it’s just a different time in their total story.” by Lindsey Weber.
It’s hard to imagine the Orcs outside of the swarms of warriors we’ve become accustomed to, but Weber dropped a major reveal for the series in regards to the Orc’s repopulation when teasing her favorite moment of the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. “There’s some female Orcs that I truly loved,” she said. “But there’s one Orc in particular, who’s very, very tall and strong, who has a particularly enjoyable fight with one of our Elven characters that I suspect will be, or hope will be a favorite among fans.”
The Rings of Power team isn’t giving us all of their secrets just yet, though. Asked about the potential of ever seeing the creation of the Orcs (even though their creation takes place in the First Age rather than the Second), Wilson played it coy. “Well, that would just be telling you too much,” he said with a smile.
Below you can see 5 images of the Orcs from The Rings of Power:
