The newest installment of the behind-the-scenes look at “The Pendragon Cycle” is set in the mesmerizing backdrop of the Hungarian forest, the perfect setting for a pivotal scene as Ganieda (Brett Cooper) encounters Myrddin (Tom Sharp) for the first time.
Fans get a glimpse of the epic love story to come, all set in a stunning backdrop and Myrddin (also called Merlin) meeting a princess. This all takes place during week four of filming.
The scene is a pure “fantasy forest look” with mist all around and light streaming through the trees.
“We are filming a very important scene today, which is Merlin and Ganieda’s first meeting,” director Ryan Whittaker explains. “They have a fun interaction.”
“Merlin has just left the hillfolk,” he continues. “And so he’s coming back to civilization and he runs in Ganieda.”
“This is my first contact with another person outside the tribe,” Sharp adds of his character.
Cooper jokes about her co-star’s unkempt appearance, but despite this Whittaker says it became clear that the two actors had “chemistry” that was undeniable. Ganieda is described as having “beauty that’s only matched by her boldness.”
The team also discussed how they created a stream for the scene where one didn’t exist before, all in an effort to stick to the narrative in the books and truly bring the words on the page to life.
There’s also a teaser of young Merlin having an interaction with the Druids in the same forest when he’s a young boy.
“One of the interesting things to me is you think of a sacred stone circle in the U.K. you obviously think of Stonehenge. And we think of Stonehenge, we think of the Druids,” series creator Jeremy Boreing said. “But of course, the Druids didn’t build Stonehenge. Stonehenge is almost as old as the pyramids of Giza. The Druids live much, much closer to us. But they found them, and they used them… which is something that pagans throughout history have done.”
He continued, “They’re the first scenes where we start to move past the paganism of the Atlanteans and we start to encounter the ideas that they will ultimately are Christianity, although none of them know that when they first encounter it.”
This newest reveal followed three previous installments of the production diaries, which each showed fans a little something different. In “The Week of Battles: Production Diary 2,” viewers followed the actors and crew as they created epic battle scenes using blood, iron, and mayhem.
Production Diary 3, “Meet the Show’s Villain,” gave fans an introduction to Morgian, the Queen of Air and Darkness, who is described as the anti-Merlin and representative of evil. That installment also described the work that went into creating the Atlantean language.
The first production diary documented the early days of filming, including snippets of special effects setup, costume fittings, makeup, and set design.
“The Pendragon Cycle” is a scripted adaptation of the multi-award-winning series written by Stephen R. Lawhead. This heroic and epic adventure series will stream exclusively on DailyWire+ in 2024.
