“The Rings of Power”
This is why Galadriel differs so greatly from her film version
The two versions of Galadriel – Morfydd Clark on the left, Cate Blanchett on the other – are very different from each other.
© imago images/Cinema Publishers Collection/Amazon Studios
In “The Rings of Power” the elf Galadriel acts differently than in the “Lord of the Rings” films. There are a few reasons for the discrepancy.
The Tolkien series “The Rings of Power” has started on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service. Many viewers with knowledge of Peter Jackson’s (60) legendary “Lord of the Rings” films will rub their eyes in amazement, especially at the Elvish main character Galadriel, played by Morfydd Clark (33). Because in Jackson’s trilogy from the early 2000s, the Elf was embodied by the two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett (53) – and came across as significantly different.
The differences between Blanchett’s and Clark’s Galadriel are striking
Master director Peter Jackson depicted the character Galadriel in his works as a self-contained ruler of the Elvish kingdom of Lórien. Here she is one of the ring bearers while the powerful items to launch the Amazon series don’t even exist yet. In this epoch, known as the Third Age of Middle-earth, Galadriel appears ethereal and majestic as she strides barefoot and in her flowing white robe about her domain.
Jackson’s mystical figure loses his composure only once when Frodo offers her the One Ring. In the Battle of Helm’s Deep, at the end of the second Lord of the Rings film The Two Towers (2002), Galadriel does not appear. Throughout the trilogy, the character never really gets his hands dirty, so to speak.
In “The Rings of Power” Galadriel is a veritable action heroine
How different is the earlier version of the character from the prequel series “The Rings of Power”, set in the so-called Second Age of Middle-earth. In the first two episodes alone, the elf heroically scales an icy cliff face, hunts down a snow troll at least twice her size, and in a death-defying manner jumps overboard her ship, only to be completely on her own sea to swim.
The difference between the two versions of the character is therefore obvious – and the series executive and actress Morfydd Clark have also addressed this in various interviews and discussions with US publications.
That’s why Galadriel is so different in the Amazon series
“The idea of Galadriel as a warrior is thus already built into Tolkien’s Legendarium”, co-showrunner JD Payne revealed to “Time”, referring to template author JRR Tolkien (1892-1973), who throughout his life expanded the mythology of Middle-earth. Actress Clark also agrees. “Galadriel is [zur Zeit der ‘Herr der Ringe’-Serie] thousands of years old, but it’s not as old as it will be,” explained the Welsh actress “Inverse”. At the time of “The Rings of Power”, about 3000 years before Jackson’s films, Galadriel was “not yet that wise”.
It is precisely this “calmness and wisdom” that the Elbin “hard-earned” in her long lifespan, as her actress adds to “io9”.. Like many Elves, Galadriel went through something of a Sturm und Drang phase – a time that viewers can now witness in the “Lord of the Rings” series.
Lindsey Weber, one of the executive producers of The Rings of Power, agrees. “When we meet her here, she’s thousands of years younger and she’s boisterous, haughty and confident. And occasionally people with those traits are wrong and there can be huge consequences, but obviously she’s a powerful character and she gets some things whole too manage well”, Weber revealed “IGN”.
Amazon’s “Lord of the Rings” series will therefore follow Galadriel’s development into the character already known from Jackson’s films. Actress Clark also used a real-world parallel to illustrate the point. she tellshow “some of the most laid-back older people” she knows have experienced a great deal in their lives. Against this background, it also makes sense that these people are “so calm now”.