Tolkien Experts Left Stunned By Amazon’s ‘Rings Of Power’ Presentation
Amazon has been very tight-lipped about their new series: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. All the general public has gotten so far is character posters (and teaser posters), a title reveal trailer, an insider peak from Vanity Fair (that gave fans the most information to date), and a sixty-second trailer that aired during the Super Bowl. These still did not give fans much to take away, and instead just offered up more questions. There have been little announcements here and there confirming actors/actresses and characters and talking a little bit more about the new characters. However, nothing big has happened since February. Until now.
Amazon recently invited thirty or so Tolkien influencers from blogs, websites, magazines, and Tolkien societies to come and view footage of The Rings of Power. Amazon flew these people out from all over the world to Oxford, England where the fans spent all day wandering around the streets of Oxford, looking at where Tolkien lived, liked to walk, worked, and ate with his writer friends, The Inklings, at The Eagle and Child pub. Then, they were shown some footage of the series, more than anyone else had seen before. And their reactions? Well, they seem to be mostly positive.
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Looper stated that the “Tolkien experts are stunned by the initial Rings of Power footage.” This is all great and well, and should help those fans not in this group of thirty to sleep a little better in the hopes that the series will not be a total bomb. Other than reading reactions, these fans do not really get much else out of this opportunity for the Tolkien scholars. These influencers do know probably more than the general public at this point, but they still were only allowed to watch around twenty minutes of footage, which is not much from a series. However, while fans may not know specifics (seeing as how the influencers probably could not tell the world anyway), they do get some insight from their individual reactions.
Justin Sewell, a main contributor to the famous and thriving TheOneRing.net, was in attendance. He stated that the look and feel of the series were more like Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and less like The Hobbit movies that were done later. There was not a video game feel to the footage.
The chair of The Tolkien Society, Shaun Gunner expressed a lot of relief and admiration for what he saw:
“Although the storylines are not exclusively Tolkien, the show has been created with a level of craftsmanship and attention-to-detail is unparalleled, and that is a love letter to the professor."
Pretty much everyone reported that seeing this footage alleviated a lot of their fears both about content and characters and also the quality of the production. Many films, especially fantasy and science fiction genres nowadays tend to lean toward video game and uber special effects like The Hobbit did, which do not give the story the same feel. Fans were very worried that it would be the same with The Rings of Power. However, if so many of the world’s Tolkien scholars and influencers said that they were impressed with the quality and feel then it must be something more akin to Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, which is a relief to many. The trailer did not give fans much to work with in terms of the feel and look of the production. It almost has the same feel as The Hobbit movie. Now, these experts have reported that that is not the case, and that is very exciting news for fans.
The Tolkien experts also got to meet the showrunners, J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay. Some fans have not felt confident with them at the helm since many felt that they are inexperienced and lack credentials. To be fair, this is their first big production, but that does not necessarily mean that they are not good at what they do. Everyone has to start somewhere, and they just decided to start big.
TheOneRing.net’s Justin Sewell felt that they did a phenomenal job:
“Anyone who hears the showrunners speak could not doubt their respect for the writings of Tolkien, their in-depth knowledge of the legendarium, and their desire to do justice to the Middle-earth we all know and love."
Corey Olsen, a Tolkien professor at Signum University who was also part of this group, wrote on Twitter afterward:
“I must say: after meeting them, I feel the show is in VERY good hands."
Tea with Tolkien fan community head Kaitlyn Facista, who was also there, commented on Twitter:
“The passion that these folks have for faithfully bringing the Second Age to life was really touching and was evident in the way they spoke about Middle-earth and Tolkien himself. I was actually very impressed by their knowledge of the legendarium and Tolkien's letters... As a lifelong Tolkien fan, I’m no stranger to seeing adaptations go off the rails or Tolkien’s creative works being exploited for profit, so I will always retain some level of nervousness toward anything set in or inspired by Middle-earth. But after learning so much more about the show and its creators, I do feel quite a bit more confident going forward. From what I’ve seen, it seems to me that this show is in competent hands.”
Tolkien Society Chair Shaun Gunner also added his thoughts about the showrunners:
“This is a level of commitment and interest that can’t simply be faked. Speaking with the showrunners, I am convinced that they are the right people to adapt Tolkien’s works.”
TheOneRing.net shared a whole bunch of reactions from the different people who were there including a thirty-minute travel log from Nerd of the Rings that ends with “My trajectory on this show has gone from cautious to cautiously optimistic, with excitement creeping in.”
TikTok star KnewBettaDoBetta was also in attendance. Kili from Happy Hobbit (known for co-authoring Middle-earth from Script to Screen with Daniel Falconer and Peter Jackson) was also there.
Raising a pint to the Professor in none other than the Lamb and Flag pub where the Inklings often gathered for a drink and to share their writing! I’ll post more soon, but suffice it to say I was humbled to have been invited by Amazon on an adventure to Oxford to visit... pic.twitter.com/tq2iNAEIQG
— Kili & Fili (@HappyHobbit1) May 9, 2022
The Prancing Pony Podcast has moved their excitement from cautiously optimistic to restrained anticipation after viewing the footage and talking to the showrunners. The Broken Sword YouTube channel also posted a long video describing their reactions to the twenty minutes of footage.
El Anillo Unico, the Spanish equivalent to TheOneRing.net, said (translated):
“The most important thing we have discovered and believe we can make public, Tolkien Estate is involved in the creative process, and had active participation during the process. This gives us an idea that Amazon has really had people who are experts in the field and have helped to fill in the gaps that exist in what is written about the Second Age. We loved the music, the visual aspect is very good and it gives us an air of something already known. Quite different from the trailer itself that was released months ago.”
While it may seem like these scholars’ and influencers’ positive reactions could be due to the fact that it was an exclusive trip paid for by Amazon, the excitement in their posts, videos, and comments were consistent throughout. Overall, it was a very positive experience and should help ease many fans’ fears over the series.
The Rings of Power premieres on Amazon Prime on September 2, 2022.
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Source(s): Looper, TheOneRing.net