Excitement for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 is heating up faster than a Helm’s Deep forge, with Tolkien fans eager to return to Middle-earth for more adventures in the beloved fantasy universe. Unfortunately, Nazanin Boniadi, who played Bronwyn, won’t return for new episodes of the Hobbit-inhabited series after briefly stepping away from acting in 2022.
For the uninitiated, Bronwyn is a human healer who gave birth to Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) and engaged in a forbidden romance with the Silvan elf warrior Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova). Eagle-eyed fans clocked Bronwyn’s absence from The Rings of Power Season 2 teaser and have wondered if the character would return. When she’s not sharing her gifts on camera, Boniadi is a staunch activist, so she briefly left acting to focus her attention on the #WomanLifeFreedom movement in Iran.
“I stepped away from acting in September 2022, to focus solely on the #WomanLifeFreedom uprising in Iran and to advocate for the people of my homeland who have been risking everything for freedom,” Boniadi wrote in an Instagram post. “Despite my passion for acting, I knew it would take a very special project to convince me to once again split my time between my day job and my calling as an activist. A Mosquito in the Ear is that project … a beautiful adventure that we can’t wait to share with you.”
Nicola Rinciari directs A Mosquito in the Ear, an adaptation of Andrea Ferraris’s Italian graphic novel Una Zanzara nell’Orecchio, from a script she wrote with Emily Dillard.
Here’s the official synopsis for 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.”
Earlier this week, Amazon revealed Rory Kinnear’s casting as Tom Bombadil for the sophomore season of The Rings of Power. Tom Bombadil appeared in The Fellowship of the Ring novel, helping Frodo Baggins and his friends on their journey. Dressed brightly with a penchant for nature and silly songs, Bombadil is one of the few creatures in Middle-earth that the One Ring has no power over. Described by J.R.R. Tolkien as “older than the old,” his appearance in The Rings of Power, which takes place thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings, fits his character.
Are you excited for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2? Will you miss seeing Nazanin Boniadi as a part of the show? Let us know in the comments below.