Fans eagerly await a return to Middle-earth as the September 2022 premiere of Amazon's highly anticipated series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power looms closer. The latest trailer for the prequel series teases the epic scale of what is arguably the streaming platform's biggest project. This makes sense since, per The Playlist, each episode reportedly had a budget of $58 million, making it one of the most expensive TV shows ever made.

One notable person looking forward to The Rings of Power is Dominic Monaghan. No stranger to the Lord of the Rings franchise, Monaghan played one of the central hobbits — Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck — in Peter Jackson's acclaimed movie trilogy. It's been just under two decades since Monaghan appeared in the movies, and it was certainly a life-changing role for the actor, both professionally and personally. Recently, as outlined by Cinema Blend, Monaghan reunited with his fellow Lord of the Rings co-stars/hobbits — Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, and Billy Boyd — for dinner at a restaurant, which overjoyed fans eating at a nearby table.

Since his days in Middle-earth, Monaghan has starred in hit movies and TV shows like Lost, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker. His newest show Moonhaven is currently streaming on AMC+, with new episodes added weekly. It is, in fact, during our exclusive interview promoting the show that Monaghan touched upon Amazon's The Rings of Power. "For sure, I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with it," he said. "[It's] great to see a new team of creatives working in that Tolkien world, which is so rich and dense and well-rounded."

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Monaghan Hopes The Rings of Power Cast Enjoys Every Moment

"My advice for anyone working on the Lord of the Rings project is to just enjoy it as best they can," Monaghan said when asked if he had any words of wisdom for the cast. "It could end up being one of the best jobs that they work on in their career, and you don't want to be stressing out during the whole time doing that because you're going to wake up, and a few years later, you're going to realize that you just sleepwalked through the best job you ever did."

It's sage advice, particularly for The Rings of Power actors like Morfydd Clark, who will be playing Galadriel — a beloved character first brought to life on-screen by Cate Blanchett — and will surely soon find herself in the global spotlight. With Lord of the Rings marking his feature-film debut as an actor, Monaghan knows first-hand how big of an opportunity it is to be cast in a world as adored as Tolkien's. "You need to enjoy it," he adds. "Enjoy the locations. Enjoy the crew that you're working with. Enjoy the project that you're making. And if you're an actor [on set] every day, you should have a huge smile on your face."