Amazon’s original proposal for TV rights to “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings” by JRR
Line of Events
An epic drama set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, which follows an ensemble of characters, both familiar and new, as they face the dreaded re-emergence of evil in Middle-earth. The cast of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and other actors who completely transformed for their roles. Tolkien’s novels were intended to make the series a new adaptation of the latter (actually a retelling of Gospodar prstenova: Prstenova druzina (2001), Gospodar prstenova: Dvije kule (2002) and Gospodar prstenova: Povratak kralja (2003)), but the Tolkien estate rejected this proposal.
for passages and references to the Second Age in which they could set their story
Amazon eventually acquired the rights on the condition that the series be different from Peter Jackson’s previous adaptations and that they not conflict with anything Tolkien had previously written. Early proposed ideas included prequel stories with characters like Aragorn, Gimli, and Gandalf, but the showrunners preferred to focus on important events not covered in the novel lore rather than simple side stories, so they agreed with the studio that the series would they take place during the Second Age of Books. Not having the rights to Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, The Unfinished Tales, and The Histories of Middle-earth (which explore the First and Second Ages), they checked the appearance of the Lord of the Rings novels and appendices. The estate and several experts in Tolkien lore (including his nephew and author Simon Tolkien) were consulted about the inclusion of new characters and plot elements.
Featured in Critical Potion: The Rings of Power – Fandom War (2022)
Dubbed subtitles for several languages incorrectly refer to King Durin III as “Durin II”. The opening credits are a musical sequence of matter forming various shapes, based on the creation myth “The Music of the Ainur” by J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Silmarillion”.. Unsympathetic characters.
A plot with huge logical errors
Plots so obvious that we saw them coming the moment the plot characters were introduced. The only thing that surprised the twists was the fact that the writers threw away what was already established in the books to make them happen. For me, it ended up being another reboot that was not only terrible, but spit on its predecessors. The only positive I’ll give is that at least the visual effects seemed worthy of the franchise’s gigantic budget.
It’s hard to imagine how this franchise could topple
If only they allocated some of that budget to a strong writing team. Watch the cast of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power in all their most iconic roles, from Morfydd Clarke in Saint Maud to Benjamin Walker in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and many others.