The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is almost here! The fantasy series is set to take us back to Middle-Earth where several characters’ fates are uncertain. Maxim Baldry’s Isildur finds himself alone and stranded. Luckily, he has something more than those terrifying spiders we see in the trailers to keep him company. He runs into the beautiful Estrid (played by Nia Towle), a potential love interest.

In an exclusive interview with Filmfare, Maxim Baldry opened up about Isildur and Estrid. He explained, “The main thing I wanted to establish was that if there was going to be a romantic love interest with Isildur, it had to be something deep and profound. It wasn’t superfluous attraction, it’s something cathartic and visceral. He meets this new character Estrid who is mysterious and fascinating. They instantly have a connection. But while it’s from their attraction, it’s also from the fact that they’ve both lost things as humans. That is what attracts Isildur to Estrid and she makes him open up in a way he never has before. That is something I really wanted to explore.”

He added, “Isildur was angry with the world and was desperate to explore new things. But now that he’s in Middle-Earth he’s trapped. When he meets this other human being. Middle-Earth is at its finest when you have these profound relationships between two people who open up to each other and make sense of the world in a way.”

Opening up about their first scene together where Estrid stabs Isildur in the thigh, Baldry shared, “It’s lighthearted. That’s also what’s needed in Middle-Earth because it can’t be all doom and gloom. Despite all the evil enveloping the place, there are people meeting in unexpected ways. Isildur is on edge all the time. When he gets stabbed in the thigh, he’s ready to kill the person. He thinks there’s an orc or something. But they end up having this connection. It was tough to play that scene because how do you make it funny when it’s supposed to be painful with death all around? But I’m glad it its being read like that (laughs).” 

The Rings of Power Season 2 which also features Robert Aramayo, Maxim Baldry, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Tyrone Muhafidin and more releases on August 29, 2024.