Building Middle-earth: Númenor Wasn’t Built in a Day

This story was created in paid partnership with Prime

Building a set is one thing, but what does it take to build an entire city? The Middle-earth of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is dotted with metropolises that came to life vividly throughout the show’s entire first season. The pristine golden groves of Lindon, the endless caverns of Khazad-dûm, the affluent splendor of Eregion: Each of them is distinct and takes a team of expert designers and producers to create from scratch.

This video takes you inside the island city of Númenor, one of the show’s key locales and most impressive feats of production design. To give the seafaring city the sense of scale necessary for the show’s ambitions, production designers decided to create a city in total, complete with a wharf, market, blacksmith shop, and canals. Númenor wouldn’t just be an idea living in storyboards and renderings, but a real city that characters would interact with in full and that would give viewers the impression that they were watching an entire world come to life onscreen.

This story is part of The Hollywood Reporter and Prime’s Building Middle-earth video collection. Click HERE to explore further.