‘Lord of the Rings’: Dominic Monaghan Will Talk ‘Rings of Power’ on Podcast With Billy Boyd (Exclusive)

Dominic Monaghan is keeping an eye on Middle Earth with the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power this September. The actor played Merry Brandybuck in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, and he now hosts The Friendship Onion podcast with his co-star Billy Boyd. In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Monaghan said that he and Boyd plan to discuss The Rings of Power on the podcast as soon as it comes out.

“I would think we’ll definitely talk about having watched the first episode,” Monaghan said. “I would assume myself, Elijah [Wood], Billy [Boyd] and Sean [Astin] would all watch the first episode together because we’ve talked about that before. And then I definitely think Billy and I will probably come on the podcast and talk about how we feel about it.” Monaghan has not seen the show yet and did not seem to have any insider information, but he said that he is eager to support the project and pay the goodwill he received forward.

“You know, we also want to be supportive of those actors and of those creators and give them the benefit of the doubt in the same way that, 20 years ago, people were like that with our project,” he said. “So, fingers crossed it ends up being something fantastic. And yeah, I would look out for us to be talking about it on The Friendship Onion when it comes out.”

The Friendship Onion podcast launched in 2021 following the Lord of the Rings cast’s virtual reunion during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the beginning, Monaghan and Boyd discussed different aspects of the LOTR franchise and their experiences with the fandom. Over time, the two branched out into different topics, but they’ll be returning to the subject when the new show launches.

The Rings of Power is set thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings, so there’s little chance of Monaghan, Boyd or any other main characters making cameos in this show. It is set during the “Second Age” of Middle Earth, and is based mostly on the appendices of the original books along with other supplementary material from J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing.

Monaghan currently stars in Moonhaven, a new sci-fi series airing on AMC+. It takes place in a future where climate change, pollution and war have ravaged the Earth and humankind has put its hopes on a superintelligent artificial intelligence to rescue the planet. Monaghan plays a “mooner” — a moon colonist living with the A.I. in isolation to help it learn about humanity and develop solutions to the world’s problems.

There are three episodes of Moonhaven available now on AMC+, and there are new episodes dropping every Thursday. Rings of Power premieres on Friday, Sept. 2 on Amazon Prime Video.