Season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power expands the mythos of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Second Age with heightened tension, deeper character arcs, and rich worldbuilding across its eight episodes.
Among its most iconic settings, Khazad-dûm—the vast and ancient Dwarven realm—emerged not just as a backdrop but as a living, breathing character central to the narrative. To bring this monumental world to life, The Yard was selected as the only French VFX studio on the production, contributing to approximately 250 visual effects shots, including 11 full-CG sequences, over the course of 18 months. This ambitious collaboration was built on a foundation of creative trust between The Yard and overall VFX Supervisor Jason Smith. Entrusted not only to maintain continuity with season 1 but to elevate this iconic environment, The Yard’s team of around 80 artists approached the project with creative ownership, technical precision, and a commitment to crafting a version of Khazad-dûm that felt ancient, vast, alive, and integral to the evolving story of Middle-earth.
Enhancing Khazad-Dûm
One of The Yard’s most substantial contribution to The Rings of Power Season 2 was the complete enhancement of Khazad-dûm, the legendary subterranean realm of the Dwarves. In this new season, the location evolves into an immersive and dynamic narrative force—central to both the physical scale and emotional depth of the story. Building upon the foundations established in Season 1, The Yard was tasked with extending the scope and detail of the Dwarven world, and significantly elevating its complexity and realism. Their work encompassed the entire expanse of the kingdom, from the monumental entry door carved into the mountainside to the deepest, light-starved caves and underground lakes—each space brought to life with narrative intent and visual richness.
To meet the demands of a series largely shot on sound stages, The Yard developed 19 distinct environments, creating expansive digital set extensions and seamlessly blending CG assets with live-action plates. These environments included towering halls, bridges, cliffside terraces, mining shafts, flowing rivers, and underground reservoirs. The team also meticulously integrated natural elements—from water, rock textures, and vegetation to fog, flame, and reflective surfaces—ensuring interactions with characters and practical sets felt physically grounded.
Sophisticated lighting systems were developed to replicate the subtle interplay between natural daylight filtering through cracks in the rock and torch-lit shadows, allowing for mood-driven variations that supported each scene’s emotional tone. The result is a Khazad-dûm that is not only larger and more intricate than before, but also alive with geological and architectural realism, fully supporting the epic narrative unfolding within its depths. This work required extensive DMP, CG environment, assets and FX simulations work.
Populating Khazad-Dûm
Khazad-dûm is not just a vast underground realm—it’s a living, bustling kingdom where Dwarves are active at every level of the caves and tunnels. To capture this dynamic atmosphere, The Yard was tasked with bringing the environment to life through the creation and animation of digital crowds, illustrating the daily rhythms of Dwarven life: mining, transporting goods, building, and reacting to the natural events around them. This required animating characters in motion across multiple layers of the vast subterranean world, ensuring the presence of Dwarves felt constant and authentic throughout the sprawling environment.
