‘The Rings of Power’ to Take LOTR Fans ‘On A New Experience’

*Prime Video’s hotly anticipated series“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” debuted today on the streamer.

I had the privilege of watching the first two episodes in advance and aesthetically, this series is stunning! The visually arresting story pulls you in straight away and if you’re a longtime LOTR fan, you will thoroughly be engaged and invested from the start!

Variety writes, “Throughout these first two episodes, characters are divided into two camps: those who believe the past is behind them and those who believe Sauron hasn’t truly been vanquished. Unsurprisingly if also a bit sadly, the latter group would appear to be correct.”

Directed by Wayne Che Yip, “The Rings of Power” is set hundreds of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” (“The Hobbit”). Amazon reportedly spent $250 million on the rights for the adaptation of Tolkien’s writings about “The Second Age” of Middle Earth, on which the series is based. It reportedly cost a whopping $462 million to produce the first season.

READ MORE: Amazon Drops Trailer for ‘Lord of the Rings’ Prequel Series | Watch

Watch the Official Trailer for #TheRingsOfPower now. Join us in Middle-earth on September 2.pic.twitter.com/TEXeaa1gVP

— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) August 23, 2022

As reported by The Verge, “The Rings of Power” features the following ensemble cast: Elrond (Robert Aramayo), Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and the human warrior Isildur (Maxim Baldry). The show also stars Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir 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.

I got a chance to speak to the cast and producers during the Television Critics Association Summer press tour about what’s going to surprise longtime “Lord Of The Rings” fans about the journey that this series is going to take us on.

Series producer/co-creator JD Payne told EUR’s Ny MaGee that the “Rings of Power is “based on the appendices, which come at the end of “The Lord Of The Rings” trilogy, and then also poems and songs and stories and half-whispered rumors and histories that are found sort of scattered throughout the text,” he explained at TCA.

“Tolkien is sort of a treasure hunt a little bit where there are some places where he’ll give little summaries and you’ll get bits, but often it’s, you know, a whispered thing that someone will say a little bit of in this place so you get a little nugget there and a little nugget there” Payne continued. “Our job as storytellers has been to really excavate that and to look at how the connections between the little nuggets that you get, because it’s always the tip of the iceberg.”

Meet Queen Regent Míriel in #TheRingsOfPower. pic.twitter.com/nqAfmP0Io4

— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo) September 1, 2022

Payne went on to note that “part of Tolkien’s allure is that he 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 what’s part of what makes it so intriguing, makes you always want to lean in and learn more,” he said.

“Our job is to take you back to a time set many thousands of years before the stories that you know. Thousands of years before Frodo, before the ring, and Sauron, everything from the stories that people have seen more commonly, we’re going back to the time in which the Rings of Power were forged, in which we are showing the rise of the dark lord Sauron, the story of Tolkien’s Númenor, which is Tolkien’s Atlantis, and then finally “The Last Alliance of Elves and Men,” Payne explained. 

“So, these are stories that audiences have seen hinted at before and that readers have sort of been tantalized by little details of,” he added. “We then would take those and really try to take the little clues that Tolkien gave us and build them out into entire storylines or characters.”

Meet Prince Durin IV and Princess Disa in #TheRingsOfPower. pic.twitter.com/WD22lrlEN7

— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo) August 25, 2022

Series producer/co-creator Patrick McKay noted that “the privilege and joy really of assembling that jigsaw puzzle is that this is a new story for most audiences who are going to be watching it.”

“We felt from the very beginning as producers that we weren’t interested in a show that was a nostalgia play or a retread or a reboot or a sequel in a lot of the traditional ways we were getting as viewers. And we felt that the show had to earn its place on the stage and stand on its own two feet and hopefully rise or fall in its own merits,” he explained at TCA. 

McKay said, “the stories are different stories than you’ve seen before onscreen from Tolkien,” but noted that “his language is throughout the show, his world, his characters.”

“Audiences are going to be going on a new experience than they’ve had before and there’ll be twists and turns and surprises along the way and sometimes it’ll be intense, sometimes it’ll be hopefully very funny and heartwarming. But it’s not going to be the expected and I think we’ve strived to do that over and over again,” McKay added. 

“The Lord of the Rings: “The Rings of Power” is now streaming on Prime Video. Weekly episodes debut Friday at 12am ET. 

We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!