Fans of The Lord of the Rings franchise will be happy to know that the new Amazon Prime Video TV series, The Rings of Power, will be true to its fantasy movie roots, and tie in to the original work of author JRR Tolkien. The show arrives on the streaming service in September, and many are hopeful the big budget series can do justice to the Lord of the Rings movies that came before it.
The historical drama series will dive into the lore of Middle-earth, taking audiences back to the Second Age, thousands of years before the events of the iconic adventure movies. While many fans are excited at the prospect of this large scale exploration of a time long before the likes of Frodo and Gollum, some are sceptical about such a treasured franchise being touched again.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, in an appearance at the Television Critic Association’s semi-annual press tour, showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne were quick to allay any fears.
“I just want to sort of quibble with the ‘vaguely connected’ [comment], said McKay. “We don’t feel that way. We feel like deep roots of this show are in the books and in Tolkien. And if we didn’t feel that way, we’d all be terrified to sit up here.”
“We feel that this story isn’t ours. It’s a story we’re stewarding that was here before us and was waiting in those books to be on Earth,” he continued. “We don’t feel ‘vaguely connected.’ We feel deeply, deeply connected to those folks and work every day to even be closer connected. That’s really how we think about it.”
Naturally, the 2000s movies are so beloved and a lot of people grew up with those films, so there will always be some trepidation when someone comes along and gets involved in the franchise. But, by the looks of the footage so far, the show looks incredible.
For more on the new series, check out this great feature on the topic of sexuality in The Rings of Power. Or to keep exploring page to screen adaptations, here’s our list of the best movies based on books.