“I wanted this to be something that would have been hanging on my bedroom wall,” says senior visual effects supervisor Jason Smith about the heroic depiction of King Durin III (Peter Mullan) sacrificing himself to a fiery monster during the climactic Season 2 finale of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” The immortalizing moment, which follows a tearful goodbye between father and son, drew inspiration from J.R.R. Tolkien’s description of the Balrog as a being of “shadow and flame.” “We didn’t want to ruin the poetry of Tolkien’s writing by showing too much. He leaves space for your mind to help tell the story in a way that you will find compelling, so we tried to do that,” explains Smith. A mixture of milky blacks and crimson hues brought the photorealistic scene together, the contrast in color elevating the nightmarish image where every detail, down to the white-hot flames and lava-red horns, was designed to captivate the viewer. “The first thing we wanted is for people to feel the emotional journey of the story,” says Smith. “Then we leaned into the symbolism while maintaining realism. You’ll notice the creature is a creature of shadow and flame.”
Making the Balrog in ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2, Episode 8
