The Rings of Power season 1 captured the imagination of fans who were eager to explore Middle earth once again, following the events in The Lord of the Rings. It set the stage for an even grander adventure by revealing Halbrand’s true identity as Sauron. Since Amazon Prime dropped the trailer for Season 2, excitement has reached new heights. The trailer introduces thrilling new characters and features epic battle sequences. However, among all the characters, the main highlight was Shelob, the giant and frightening spider, who last appeared in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, 21 years ago. In the trailer, viewers get a glimpse of Isildur, played by Maxim Baldry, battling the familiar creature, who attacked Frodo and Sam on their way to Mordor, in both JRR Tolkien’s books and Peter Jackson’s films.
At first, fans weren’t sure if the creature in the new series was indeed Shelob, but Jason Smith, the senior VFX supervisor, has confirmed her appearance. According to Den of Geek, the spider in the upcoming season will differ from the version seen in the 2003 film. The design team took inspiration from Tolkien’s childhood experience, who was bitten by a tarantula in South Africa. The new Shelob will be a mix of tarantulas and black widow spiders, featuring “long, thin legs” to give it a more unique and terrifying look.
Smith explained, “The first thing we did is we all thought back to the nightmare spiders of our youth.” He adds that they researched about “every spider known to man. I realized that the fear I was feeling most aggressively was with those long, thin legs, the black widow proportions really spoke to me.”
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Revealing how the team shot Shelob for Rings of Power season 2, Jason Smith added, “We’d come out attacking (Isildur) with this mechanical spider puppet that we had made. With multiple puppeteers (working) the legs because we wanted to get something crawling on him. We love visual effects but only as a tool to close the gap where it must be closed.”
Meanwhile, Maxim Baldry shared that facing Shelob was a frightening experience, due to his fears of spiders. He described the scene as a blend of his worst fears. While filming, he had to use a rugby ball with large legs to make it resemble Shelob’s body, which was transformed into the spider using visual effects. Despite this, he found the set to be very realistic and claustrophobic.
As of now, Fans of The Rings of Power will have to wait until August 29 to see if the Amazon Prime series features the satisfying version of Shelob and how they manage the creature in the already complex story.
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