Now she's about to step inside J.R.R. Tolkien's world, to live the life of a hobbit, in Prime Video's highly anticipated new series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

Debuting on Friday in more than 240 countries, and with a slated five seasons expected to cost the studio more than $US1 billion, it is already the most expensive (and one of the most elaborate) television series ever made. It juggles 22 stars - playing both new and well-known characters - with multiple storylines and several locations, including the dwarf mines of the Misty Mountains, the political hub of the elven kingdom Lindon, and the storm-swept Sundering Seas.

Set thousands of years before The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (known as the Third Age), The Rings of Power starts in a time of relative peace. Middle-earth has endured the great wars of the First Age, and its impact is still strongly felt by elves, dwarves and hobbits alike. This Second Age of Middle-earth should be one where they start to rebuild, one which sees kingdoms rise to glory. But darkness is brewing that will see great powers forged, unlikely heroes tested and those same great kingdoms fall to ruin. And from the moment episode one begins, there is just one name pointing towards what lays ahead - Sauron, the greatest villain to have ever flow from Tolkien's pen. The journey is unknown, but what it leads to is well-known to even the most casual Lord of the Rings fans - the forging of the rings.

And right in the middle of all of this is Zwangobani's Marigold Brandyfoot, the strong-willed hobbit - or more specifically, a type of hobbit known as a Harfoot - who is protective of their way of life, and is still wary of the dangers they faced during the great wars of the First Age.

"It is all the things you would imagine," Zwangobani says.

"The battle between good and evil, epic scenes, and cinematic in scope. But it is also, at its heart, about the universal themes of friendship and loyalty, family, the struggle to do what's right, and how far you're willing to go into the darkness to do that."

The role is an actor's dream. One that the Canberran was allowed to help mould and create - along with showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. She thought imaginatively about her backstory, and drew from the lyricism and poetry of her previous theatre work, particularly that of Shakespeare. "It very much translates to Tolkien's world."

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But considering how meticulously planned The Rings of Power series has been so far, it's surprising that Zwangobani's process of moulding Marigold's character was done largely on the fly. There were only three days between the actor getting the role and arriving in New Zealand for filming. This meant she had zero expectations of what filming would be like, and no clue what made Marigold tick.

"I had to just discover on the page and luckily, there was a lot there to discover," Zwangobani says.

"But for me personally, I just trusted the work that J.D. and Patrick had created. I trusted their love of Tolkien really strongly because it was very apparent to me how passionate they were. And I trusted my own connection to Marigold. And then on a larger scale, especially now having seen the first two episodes and seeing what they've created, I trusted all the artists and artisans who worked on it."

From the first moment Marigold and the rest of the Harfoots pop on to the screen it's clear that these are not the hobbits we have come to know. "Pop" being the key word.

After some lone travellers have passed through the area, the Harfoots seemingly come out of nowhere - popping out of trees and emerging from holes in the ground that moments before had been expertly camouflaged by foliage. It is clear that Froddo Baggins' Shire is not even a twinkle in the eye of the Harfoots yet. This is a community in hiding, living a nomadic lifestyle that moves according to the seasons.

It's all part of the Harfoot magic, Zwangobani says, to be able to be perfectly concealed (and safe) from the outside world that was not that long ago under siege. But it's more than that. The community is more connected to the earth than any hobbit we have seen before.

And it's clear, even from the first two episodes of The Rings of Power seen by The Canberra Times, that it's this connection that will mean that the Harfoots will be one of the first to sense the danger that is brewing.

"One of the reasons they exist that way is as a response to the great wars that went before so they have gone into hiding from the rest of the world," Zwangobani says.

"But they are so connected to the land that is their source and their survival. And they are really earthy and they move following the seasons. They move from place to place harvesting wherever the seasons take them. But as we know, hobbits don't have shoes, so we're connected to the ground constantly with our feet.

"Speaking of landscapes, I got to work in the amazing landscapes of New Zealand and one of the things that it kept reminding me of was the wonderful landscape of Canberra. They're very dissimilar, but it's just our bush capital, we're so close to nature there. And so I definitely felt like that natural connection. And the fact that you can just go for walks and bike rides and do all the great things that Canberrans do."

While The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit were both translated for the screen from books, The Rings of Power instead relied on Tolkien's Appendices - 150 pages of timelines, genealogies and notes on language and culture that were a response to the strong fandom wanting to know more about The Lord of the Rings world, following the publication of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Twin Towers.

When the rights for the Appendices went up for auction in 2017, the starting price was a jaw-dropping $US200 million. And while HBO and Netflix were among the bidders, it was Jeff Bezos' Amazon team that won the rights for a cool $US250 million.

There is no doubt that the price for these rights was high - and Bezos' own love of Tolkien's works probably had something to do with his willingness to pay so much - but it was the Appendices that formed the basis of The Rings of Power.

"Tolkien left us this skeleton through which J.D. and Patrick have woven and got the clues to actually create their own world from [the Appendices]," Zwangobani says.

"They are the biggest Tolkien fans that you will ever meet so they wanted to pay absolute homage to his works ... Tolkien has left them this little map that they can follow and then they can fill it with their imaginations.

"And it's just so fantastic because it is this discovery we're all making together as opposed to following things that have already been fully fleshed out."

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It's this freedom that has arguably allowed for more diverse characters and storylines. Rather than following one group of men travelling through Middle-earth as they embark on their quest, there are multiple storylines, taking place in different parts of this world that will - presumably - converge at some point. As an example, there are already more women in the first two episodes than there were across Peter Jackson's six movies which, in itself, says something (although it's not exactly hard to beat five female characters). And looking at Zwangobani's Marigold - who is a mother not only to Nori (played by fellow Aussie Markella Kavenagh) but a matriarch of her Harfoot community - it's a character that hasn't been seen in the Tolkien world before.

But this all feeds into this line that The Rings of Power has to walk. The line between engaging with old fans, and trying to bring in new ones.

"The fan base is passionate for a reason," Zwangobani says.

"I'm a fantasy fan myself. I've gone on after the end of some shows and will read every single thing written about it and listen to every podcast. So I completely respect that passion very much. But I think that the people who've created The Rings of Power are equally fans, and that's what's going to make it great and be embraced by the fandom.

"But it would be so exciting if we could bring new fans, just like the movies ... probably brought a whole generation of fans, we really hope that this one does the same. And then they will go and discover Tolkien's work."

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuts on Prime Video from Friday.

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