Lord of The Rings Series Suffers Death On Set, Statement Released
A horse has died while filming The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Animal lovers, you may not want to read this one. According to Deadline, a horse has died on the set of Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings series, The Rings of Power. “We are deeply saddened to confirm that a production horse died on 21st March,” said an Amazon Studios spokesperson. “The incident took place in the morning whilst the horse was being exercised prior to rehearsals.”
The statement continued: “Both a veterinarian and a representative of the American Humane Association were present at the time. The independent necropsy has confirmed that the horse died of cardiac failure.” It is not clear exactly what led to that cardiac failure on the set of the Lord of the Rings series. The horse was reportedly standing with 20 other horses, getting prepared for a scene, when the tragedy struck.
More than 30 horses in total were being used during filming that day, as there was a large battle scene being filmed. After the horse fell to the ground and passed away, everyone in the vicinity was asked to leave for between half an hour and 45 minutes while the body was taken out. After that, everyone got back to work on the Lord of the Rings project, surely a bit more somber than they were before.
The horses for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series were supplied by a company called The Devil’s Horsemen, who reports that nothing of this nature has ever happened to one of their horses before. The company, which has been run by Gerard Naprous and his two horsemaster children, Daniel and Camilla Naprous, for 50 years, has provided horses for numerous high-profile films and series, such as Transformers: The Last Knight, Game of Thrones, The Crown, Wonder Woman, and Justice League.
The Devil’s Horsemen is a different horse supplier than the Lord of the Rings show had previously, as the series moved its production location from New Zealand to the United Kingdom after season one wrapped.
Unfortunately, while this was the first horse from that company to die while on the job, the loss of this Lord of the Rings animal actor is not the first case of an animal losing its life on-set. This type of incident is rare, but not unheard of. Just last year, a horse died while filming HBO’s The Gilded Age. HBO also lost “at least” three horses while filming Luck, which is a drama about horse racing. After the death of those horses, that series was canceled.
During the filming of another Lord of the Rings project, The Hobbit, more than 12 animals died. On the set of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, there were numerous reports of neglect and animal cruelty, with horses being injured and dying from those injuries, other horses being tied up and left for hours on the ground, unable to move, goats and sheep that died from being infested with worms, animals that were trampled to death by other animals – and that’s just the highlights.
These types of incidents on the set of Lord of the Rings works and other films and series have caused PETA and other animal rights organizations to urge filmmakers to use CGI instead of real animals in their films. And honestly, with reports like this coming to light, it is not hard to see why.
