How ‘The Rings of Power’ Producers Made the Series Accessible to Both Mega Fans and Tolkien Newbies
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings viewers back to Middle Earth. There are many fans of Lord of The Rings, but they’re not all on the same level regarding intensity. There are more casual fans who simply enjoy being in this world, and there are hardcore J. R. R. Tolkien fans who know every detail and lore of Middle Earth. The producers had to find a way to make The Rings of Power accessible to all types of fans.
‘The Rings of Power’ is set in a new era of Middle Earth
Many Tolkien and Middle Earth fans know the story in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The Rings of Power tells a story many fans might not be aware of. It takes place in the Second Age of Middle Earth and focuses on the events leading up to the forging of the Rings of Power and the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron.
The story featured in The Rings of Power is only mentioned in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings novels. The developers of this series are expanding upon what’s mentioned and creating a somewhat new story within Tolkien’s world. This might not be a problem for casual fans, but hardcore Tolkien fans could have issues with some of the liberties taken.
‘The Rings of Power’ showrunners explain how they appealed to both mega fans and newcomers
In an interview with Collider, The Rings of Power producers explained how the series appeals to all types of fans. They needed to find a way to make sure the information was not overwhelming newbies while providing enough details within the setting and costuming that would satisfy hardcore fans.
“We worked very hard, every day, to make the show accessible to people who have not read the books, have not seen the movies, and who are totally new to Tolkien and Middle-earth, as much as and equally for the fans, who know the Legendarium incredibly well,” producer Lindsey Weber said. “Certainly, for the mega fans, there are additional things there for them, that they will catch in every frame. There are details and costumes and runes carved into things and suggestions that they will certainly find in all the craftsmanship that you’ll see across all the departments, that go into making every frame of the show. The daunting part of it, we certainly put a lot of pressure on ourselves because we are fans too, and we know what this means to so many people. The challenge, every day, was to make all these worlds come to life, all at the same time.”
Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series had a massive creative team
The Rings of Power is one of the most expensive TV shows ever made, with a budget that is expected to go past $1 billion. That budget is going into bringing this world to life, and Weber said multiple worlds are being brought together that required the attention of “thousands of people to bring it to life.”
“The show is five or six worlds in one. Any one of them would be enough for 50 hours or more,” Weber told Collider. “We’ve got the Elven world of Lindon, we’ve got the Dwarven world of Khazad-dûm. We’ve got the two human worlds of Númenor, which is never been captured on screen before and required an enormous amount of imagination and planning to figure out, and we’ve got Eregion in the show, we’ve got an Orc world. We’ve got all kinds of places for fans to go, and each one needed to have its own color palette and shape and form language and, in some cases, smells. That required the work of hundreds and hundreds of people and, in some cases, thousands of people to bring it to life, and they had to all be ready, every day. I think only 25% of our cast plays human characters, so that requires prosthetics. The property is inherently epic and requires locations, stunts, water and fire and ice, and scale work, where characters are meant to be at different heights. There is no shortage of challenges, but that’s also the fun of it.”
The Rings of Power is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
