The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power heavily expanded the lore created by J.R.R. Tolkin years ago. While it mostly stays true to what longtime fans know, it also expands Middle-earth in some fresh ways and introduces some exciting new characters in the process. Among those new faces is the Silvan elf warrior Arondir, who’s played by Ismael Cruz Córdova. With his casting, Córdova made history as the first Latino actor to portray an elf in the long-running franchise. He’s quite proud to be a part of the beloved saga and recently opened up about crafting a character that looks like him while following in the footsteps of series alums like Orlando Bloom and Cate Blanchett.
A longtime fan of the epic fantasy property, Ismael Cruz Córdova came into Amazon’s ambitious production possessing a lot of respect for what had come before. Of course, the actor was in a very interesting position because, as mentioned, there’d never been an elf like his before. He was aware of the typical characteristics that are associated with his character’s breed. Nevertheless, he was conscious of the fact that he was going to have to bring something unique to the proceedings:
