The Rings Of Power’s Leon Wadham On Kemen’s Dangerous Season 2 Ambitions & Why He Shouldn’t Get A Ring

With his father now in power, Kemen is quickly becoming far too power hungry in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2. Introduced in season 1 of the Prime Video prequel to J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel, Kemen is the son of Trystan Gravelle’s Pharazôn, the key advisor to Númenor’s Queen Míriel. Having been raised in a life of luxury and privilege, Kemen is often a troublesome thorn in both his father and other Númenórian’s sides, as he frequently gets away with his actions.

In The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2, Kemen’s ambitions are growing well beyond his reach after he and Pharazôn ruled over Númenor during Míriel’s travels to the Southlands, having gotten a taste of the life of royalty. After his father successfully takes the throne from his cousin, Kemen attempts to bond even further with his father by carrying out his various changes to the island of Man, including disbanding the Sea Guard led by Lloyd Owen’s Elendil. This, in turn, leads to deadly consequences, including the killing of Valandil.

The ensemble Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 cast sees the returns of Leon Wadham as Kemen, Ema Horvath as Eärien, Maxim Baldry as Isildur, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Míriel, as well as Galadriel’s Morfydd Clark, Sauron’s Charlie Vickers, Robert Aramayo’s Elrond and The Strangers’s Daniel Weyman, among many others. While the world of Man may not get as big of a focus as Galadriel’s hunt for Sauron or Celebrimbor’s forging of the titular rings, it’s still just as impactful and gripping in season 2.

As the new season of the show continues, Screen Rant interviewed Leon Wadham to discuss The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2, Kemen’s dangerous ambitions and how they’re growing wildly out of control, his testy relationship with his father, Pharazôn, and why he feels his character shouldn’t be given a Ring of Power.

Wadham Feels Númenor’s Growing Power Struggle Was “Inevitable”

Screen Rant: The Rings of Power season 2 has been even more incredible than season 1, which I didn’t think was possible, but here we are, and I’m saying it. I love what we’re seeing in Númenor this season, as Pharazôn starts taking power, Míriel is still trying to find who she is in this new world, and Kemen is becoming a little power hungry this season. What was your first reaction when you saw the scripts for season 2?

Leon Wadham: I was thrilled by them. You really feel that Sauron’s return has cast this kind of shadow across the land, and everyone has been stirred up in some way by it. It feels like everyone’s been plunged into a form of darkness, and they’re all kind of scrambling to find their way toward the light. And what was happening in Númenor was, I guess, inevitable, but it really felt like it was high stakes that this kind of underlying power struggle wasn’t underlying anymore. People were really fighting for what they believed the future of this island should be, and it was exciting to be right in the heat of that.

Kemen’s Ambitions Partially Stem From “Living A Charmed Life”

Now I feel like so many people in Númenor are really ambitious. They’re not necessarily evil — some of them are a little more than others — what do you think it is that turns Kemen a little more towards the dark side of morality once he gets that power?

Leon Wadham: So my read on Kemen in season 1 is that he knew how good he had it. He knew he was living a charmed life, and he kind of had the sense that if he just kept doing what he was doing, doing what he was told, that eventually he would be given more responsibility, he’d be given more respect, that things would go his way. But, I think between seasons with Pharazôn kind of running things while Miriel was in the Southlands, he got a taste of how much more was available. And given how horribly the exhibition to the Southlands went, it now seems clear as day to him that there has to be a change here. That we can’t keep going down the road of the faithful. We have to start empowering the King’s Man. It feels that we can’t wait a second longer.

So, there’s an impatience there, but now that he’s seen what’s out there, I think the hunger you talk about, that ambition, has been amplified also. Last season, he made these wild swings and there were no real consequences. So, he’s gone from a person who was like, “I just do what I am told, and one day it’ll pay off,” to a person who’s realized that he can afford to take risks, he can afford to take big swings, and odds are, he’ll get away with it. So, I think we are seeing, in season 2, somebody who is pushing the box out.

Kemen “Hugely Admires” Pharazôn (Though “Does Not Feel It Coming Back His Way”)

I would love to hear about Kemen and Pharazôn’s relationship this season, in particular, compared to season 1. Because I was talking with Trystan, and he was saying how his read on their relationship is that Pharazôn doesn’t necessarily give Kemen all the love and respect that he wants, and that’s why Kemin’s going the route he is. What are your thoughts on their relationship, and whether Kemen feels that appreciation and respect from his father?

Leon Wadham: I think Kemen hugely admires his father, has massive respect for his father, and does not feel it coming back his way. I think he thought if he just stuck in there and proved himself, eventually he would earn it. But it hasn’t been forthcoming. And again, part of taking big swings is, “Well, what would it take?” I mean, that first scene in this episode, to me, on the page, I was like, “Oh, this is another test. Pharazôn wouldn’t say these things, what is he trying to get here?” I feel like that is par for the course with this relationship. Everything is a game within a game, within a game. And Kemen is always trying to keep up to prove that he’s capable. As far as if that’s why he’s darkening, I think it’s a combination of factors. But certainly, if this relationship was warmer, if his father was more, I guess, open or generous about — well, where do we begin? — things may have turned out differently for this man.

Wadham Had A Special Past With Valandil’s Alex Tarrant

In looking at this week’s episode, Kemen gets presented one of the most devastating blows to his character yet, in that he kills Valandil. I’d love to hear about the filming of that sequence, since it is a very physical one between you and your co-star.

Leon Wadham: Yeah, it was great. So, I went to drama school with Alex [Tarrant]. I think he was a year below me, and in the 10-plus years since graduating, we’ve never done a scene together. We’ve been in the same projects now and then, back in New Zealand, and now here. But for some reason, we’ve never been able to play a scene until this season of Rings of Power. And I’m heartbroken that these are the last scenes we’ll do together in this show. [Chuckles] But they were so fun to do.

He’s such a great actor and such a great guy, so that added another layer to it, another dimension. It really felt like we were getting to do something that had been in the works for a long time. But the scene was shot over, I think, three days. Obviously, there is a real pool in the shrine, there’s sort of this massive water feature in the middle of it, and it is concrete everywhere. So, trying to work out how we were going to do this safely was a problem I’m glad I didn’t have to solve. There were so many other people trying to work out how this is going to work.

There was open flame, there were incredible stunt performers that did things that I absolutely couldn’t do. My double was Tom Cotton, the New Zealander. And the moments where it clicks from me into Tom and Co. — again, thank God that’s not on me. [Chuckles] You’d feel that. But I don’t think I’d done anything like that on the show before. I hadn’t really seen how many people come to the party to pull something like that off. So, it was a thrilling experience.

I’d love to also turn to the mentality of that sequence, because I was also talking with Ema, and she feels that that might be sort of a wake-up call for her character about what alliances she’s sided with. For Kemen, though, do you think this is going to be a wake-up call that maybe he is going down that darker path we’ve discussed? Or do you think that’s going to sort reinforce it in his mind of, “Well, I just did this myself, so why can’t I do more”?

Leon Wadham: I think it depends how it is received. I don’t think he goes to the shrine to kill anybody. I think that is a show of force that is meant to be purely about making an impression. We’ve seen him earlier this season try and, I suppose, indicate or call for a respect he would like to be shown, and it hasn’t happened. So, this is him going, “I’ll make a huge impression and that’ll put an end to this question.” And that is not how that plays out. But I don’t think he ever intended it to be anything more than a show of force. That sword is not meant to come out of its sheath. That is just the result of things spiraling completely beyond his control. So, I think the question going forward is, “Will there be consequences and what will he learn as a result of how this is or is not handled by the people around him?” Because if he’s rewarded for it, then yeah, why would he change?

Kemen Getting A Ring Of Power Would “Be A Disaster”

I see I have time for one more question, so I did want to ask really quickly. This season has also been about building the Rings of Power for the dwarves, as well as the grappling about whether to build them for Man. What do you think Kemen would do if he got one? Would he change or worsen if he got his hands on one of those Rings?

Leon Wadham: I feel like things are going so badly already, don’t give Kemen a ring. That will be a disaster. Celebrimbor says earlier this season, when the idea of giving rings to Men is even raised by Sauron, that that would be a terrible idea. And I think watching what’s happening in Númenor this season, there’s no doubt as to what he means. If we’re already in this shape without them, where will we be when they arrive?

About The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2

In Season Two of The Rings of Power, Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Building on Season One’s epic scope and ambition, the new season plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.