Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power: Amazon turns off ratings for TV show to combat 'review bombing'

Watch: Amazon has turned off viewer star ratings for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Amazon has suspended viewer ratings on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power in an apparent attempt to stop trolls posting negative reviews.

The fantasy TV series - starring Sir Lenny Henry as Sadoc Burrows - launched on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, 2 September and has allegedly been the target of 'review bombers'.

Review bombing is a process where a large group of online users post negative reviews of a product or service, in protest against their perceived cultural or political issues, rather than the actual quality.

Read more: The Rings of Power - first episode review

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power currently has zero ratings recorded on Amazon Prime despite being online for several days.

The show - a spin-off of JRR Tolkein's famous novels and Peter Jackson's film adaptations - currently has a rating of 84 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from critics.

But it has an audience score of just 34 per cent.

It has a rating of 71 per cent on Metacritic based on 37 reviews from professional critics. But just a 1.9 per cent user score, based on 879 reviews.

The series - which has only aired two episodes so far - currently has a score of 6.8 out of 10 on ratings portal IMDb, which is owned by Amazon.

Some negative reviews directed at the show object to the diversity of casting.

One user writes: “Nobody has a problem with seeing people of colour in movies, series or stories … but this story was already written and should not have been sullied.”

While another said: “Reflecting world diversity in Middle Earth is an odd goal, albeit good for marketing maybe, but it was clearly more important then making a functional TV series. [sic]”

Following the premiere of the first two episodes of The Rings Of Power, Amazon broke precedent by releasing their internal recorded viewer figures for the show.

The global streaming service announced the show had been viewed by 25 million viewers in 240 countries and territories around the world within the first 24 hours of becoming available.

Streaming platforms have become notoriously secretive about their on-demand viewing figures, while terrestrial TV channels and publicly owned platforms such as BBC iPlayer are obliged to publish their ratings, revealing how many people tune in to watch them.

The Rings of Power stars Trystan Gravelle as Pharazon, Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Queen Regent Mariel, and Robert Aramayo as Elrond.

Other cast members include Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Sophia Nomvete and Charles Edwards.

While the prequel series isn't adapted from a J R R Tolkien book, it is set within the universe of his work and draws heavy inspiration from both characters and the history he created.

It follows the Second Age of Middle Earth and is set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings.

Read more: The Rings of Power: How to watch the TV series in the UK

The series will also depict the rise of Sauron and the process of the rings of power being created, as well as the previously unseen kingdom of Numenor and the last alliance between elves and men.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is available to stream on Prime Video from Friday, 2 September.