What To Expect From Amazon's Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
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Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy is the definition of a tough act to follow. Beloved by critics and Tolkien fans alike, the movies were groundbreaking on every level imaginable, pioneering new CGI techniques and paving the way for a new generation of big budget, character-driven fantasy franchises. And now, two decades on, Amazon hopes to recreate that magic with a highly anticipated new series, The Rings of Power.
This is reportedly the most expensive TV series ever made, with a $1 estimated billion price tag for five seasons. But as high as the financial stakes are, the cultural stakes are even higher, given how beloved both Tolkein's books and Jackson's trilogy are. The Rings of Power isn't a direct adaptation of either, though. In fact, the Tolkien estate specifically gave creators J. D. Payne & Patrick McKay permission to make a prequel series, set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the events of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The events of the Second Age are referenced in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings books, and are depicted briefly in the opening sequence of the first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring. But The Rings of Power will be the first work to depict them in any detail.
During a panel at the Television Critics Association press tour this week, McKay made it clear that while the series isn't based on any single Tolkien work, it's deeply connected to his canon. After a critic suggested that the series is only "vaguely connected" to Tolkien, McKay responded: "I just want to sort of quibble with the ‘vaguely connected'... We feel like deep roots of this show are in the books and in Tolkien. And if we didn’t feel that way, we’d all be terrified to sit up here. We feel that this story isn’t ours. It’s a story we’re stewarding that was here before us and was waiting in those books to be on Earth."
The creators were also keen to emphasize that although the events of the series will be broadly familiar to die-hard fans, the bulk of the story of entirely new.
“This is before Frodo, before the rings, the time during which the rings of power were forged,” co-creator J.D. Payne said, while McKay added that the writing team "weren't interested in a nostalgia play. We felt that this show had to earn its place on its own merits. There are different stories that you’ve seen before.”
While the appendices of the Lord of the Rings books form the spine of the series, Payne added that he and his fellow writers also drew from "poems and songs and stories and half-whispered rumors and histories that are sort of scattered throughout the text" in exploring undeveloped areas of the story.
“Tolkien is sort of a treasure hunt—there are some places where he’ll give sort of little summaries, and you’ll get bits, but often it’s a whispered thing, and you get a little nugget here, and a little nugget there,” he added. “And so, our job as storytellers has been to really excavate that. Part of Tolkien’s allure is that he’s created a world that is always bleeding out beyond the pages, where he hints at something but doesn’t give you all of it. And that’s part of what makes it so intriguing and makes you always want to lean in and learn more.”
While plot details remain tightly under wraps, the series will focus on the forging of the Rings of Power, the subsequent rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, and on "the story of Tolkien’s Númenór, which is sort of Tolkien’s Atlantis," per Payne. A newly released promo image offers our first glimpse at Númenór, a thriving and technologically advanced kingdom of men that occupied an entire island during the Second Age.
Several members of the huge ensemble cast were also present for the panel, and discussed the camaraderie that formed between them during the series' epic production schedule. The cast includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman and Sara Zwangobani.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was filmed on location in New Zealand and the UK. The first season will premiere on September 2.
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