Why do the rings look so different in ‘Rings of Power?’

The three elven rings in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will be playing a huge part in the narrative going forward, but what fans are wondering right now is why they look so different from their live-action counterparts from Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy.

The “three rings for the Elven-kings under the sky” worn by Galadriel, Gandalf, and Elrond in the movies have a certain weight to them. It’s as if you can almost feel Celebrimbor’s craftsmanship emanating through the screen, conveying the nature of their power and what they would be capable of in the right hands. This is especially true of Galadriel’s ring, Nenya, the Ring of Adamant, which is woven like a silver-hued flower and tightly embraces her finger.

But, of course, that has always been the primary concern of movie prop designers, because it ultimately falls to them to make something that vanishes into the aesthetic backdrop of a movie and suspends our disbelief. When The Lord of the Rings presents Nenya to you as a Ring of Power, you don’t doubt it for a second, because the design is not exactly similar to anything you’d see displayed in your local jewelry shop.

The same could hardly be said of the new Elven rings in Prime Video’s television adaptation. Galadriel’s ring of mithril is a plain circle mounting with three prongs gripping the gemstone in place. Narya and Vilya, belonging to Círdan and Gil-galad, respectively, are more polished, but they look a little too jarring and eye-popping, if that makes any sense. Nothing like the simple, subtle beauty of the One Ring, nor anything that would’ve come out of Celebrimbor’s forge, in whose skill it was said that Fëanor, the creator of the Silmarils, had once again graced Middle-earth.

What’s so strange about this downgrade is that Weta Workshop, the same company that helped bring Peter Jackson’s vision to life all those years ago, is responsible for The Rings of Power. And sure, they may have wanted to go for something different this time, but the end result is hardly congruous to a billion-dollar television series.

It’s the same gripe I’ve had with a lot of design choices in The Rings of Power, namely the armor for Númenorean soldiers. How did we go from that intricate, imposing Gondorian plate in the films to this cheap-looking, scaly, seashell-colored costume?

But hey, we still have the seven Dwarven rings and the Nine to look forward to, so let’s see how the designers fare with them. At this point, I’m concerned that when the time comes for Sauron to create the One, it’s going to look like an exaggerated and stylized promise ring.