A lot of diehard Tolkien fans are currently holding reservations about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power due to its time period and subject matter. Taking place in the Second Age of Middle-earth, this is essentially a period that the British author hasn’t really discussed in length, and the only thing the showrunners have to go on are the appendices to The Lord of the Rings itself.
That’s why the writers, including executive producers Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne, have had to come up with most of the narrative details, including the dialogue between the characters. Because unlike The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, the timeline of the Second Age is mostly told through little factual snippets, as if reading a history book.
Despite that obvious disadvantage compared to Peter Jackson’s cinematic adaptation, the showrunners have strived to make this feel like the Middle-earth you’ve grown to know and love. That’s per what they recently told Entertainment Weekly, which you can read below.
“We feel like we’re taking up the gauntlet that he himself put down. He gave us what we like to say are the stars in the sky that we have to connect and draw the constellation in,” said J.D. Payne.
Patrick McKay echoed those same sentiments: “It needs to feel the way you feel when you are in Middle-earth, It needs to pull you in and make you fall in love the way you fall in love with those books.”
The most ardent gatekeepers might need more than that to get behind this new live-action adaptation. Luckily, it just so happens that the first full trailer for The Rings of Power is also dropping today, so stay tuned for more on Amazon’s take on Middle-earth and the world of Arda.
