Cynthia Addai-Robinson Introduces The Queen Regent Of Númenor To The World Of The Rings Of Power - Exclusive

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is officially off to the races. After four and a half years of production, filming, pandemic hangups, and a lengthy summer marketing campaign, the show released its first two episodes on September 1 or 2 (depending on your time zone).

The initial installment showcased a sprawling world that included major areas of Middle-earth in the Second Age (for context, "The Lord of the Rings" is set in the Third Age, thousands of years after this point). In those first two hours of drawn-out storytelling — which was a first for cinematic Middle-earth — viewers bounced between the frozen northern Forodwaith, the downtrodden Southlands, Dwarven and Elvish kingdoms near the Misty Mountains, and even far out onto the Sundering Seas.

One area that hasn't appeared yet (but will soon) is the famous kingdom of Númenor. The island nation is populated by Men (as opposed to Elves or Dwarves) who are led by a royal family that directly connects to Aragorn himself countless generations later. We recently sat down for an exclusive interview with Cynthia Addai-Robinson ("Chicago Med", "Spartacus"), who plays one of these important personalities. The actress gave us a little teaser about who she plays and what her original Tolkien character will look like in J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay's serialized Second Age adaptation.

In the words of actress Cynthia Addai-Robinson, her character is a person in charge. "Officially, I am playing Queen Míriel. Now, at this point in time, when we're meeting her in the story, she is the Queen Regent. As Queen Regent, she is not fully yet queen, but she is essentially [the] woman in charge."

Addai-Robinson goes on to explain what the situation in her island kingdom looks like when we first see it. "When we are first introduced to Númenor, it is at a time of relative peace and stability, a civilization at the height of its wealth, its power. And [Míriel] intends to keep it that way. But as we know, throughout history and even [in] real life currently, it's never simple. It's never so easy. You have a lot of people who believe that the way forward should be based [on] a different idea of what that is. So she is navigating her people through a segment of society that believes in maintaining and holding on to tradition and the Elven ways. And there are also people who believe in moving forward and leaving that behind and modernizing, innovating, progressing. That's what we're seeing as we first are introduced to Númenor."

This sounds an awful lot like Tolkien's original vision for Númenor. While prosperous, as the Second Age plays out, its people become divided into two distinct groups, "the Faithful" and "the King's Men." This creates the catalyst for the rest of their dramatic history to play out. It will be interesting to see how closely the source material and the adaptation connect.

"The Rings of Power" is airing in weekly installments for the remainder of its eight-episode 1st season.