The Rings of Power

[bio_hazard]

Surprised nobody posted this already – first posters from the upcoming LoTR series from Amazon. It's still pretty thin on details.

I'm keeping my expectations low, but if it's like the Tolkien version of the AppleTV+ Foundation series (i.e. really dumb and really pretty) I'll probably be ok with it.

[Estie]

I have read only bad things. I have no intention to watch unless I get recommendations by someone who I trust.

[bio_hazard]

Oh yeah, it may well be an expensive heap of garbage, especially with this apparently being a Bezos vanity project. That said, most of the hate I've seen so far has been that they've cast non-white actors or might have LGBTQ storylines (lol).

[AnonymousHero]

It's going to be hard to come even remotely close to the LoTR trilogy, but I wouldn't outright dismiss it juuuust yet.

Maybe it could end up occupying a space between LoTR and The Hobbit, even?

[Mondkalb]

I like the overall look of the depicted characters.
Good work from the design and costume departments here, and way better than what they did in WoT, so there is hope.
At the end, it all depends on the stories. The scource material is as good as it could possibly be, but on WoT they managed to butcher story parts because they thought they were better writers than the author of the original ...
I shall try to keep my expectations low until september.

[Pete Mack]

Right. When you think "peasant" do you think "WoT lookalike" or Breugel? Gotta have the occasional white shirt, red hat, or red scarf.

[debo]

I really liked the first half of the Wheel of Time show, and I was generally OK with the idea of them drastically changing the story. I was disappointed by the last half because the main characters did literally almost nothing. They just waited around while things happened to them. I was somewhat flabbergasted that they had even bothered making those last episodes with writing like that.

I feel somewhat less interested in attempts to modernize LOTR, especially since it got such a good, relatively direct treatment in the first three movies. I don't think I'll bother watching this.

[Nick]

I am looking forward to seeing what they do with this, but have no idea what to expect. Given that it's set in the second age around the time of the forging of the rings of power, the source material pretty much comes down to:

• A little bit from Appendix A and the relevant bits of the timeline in Appendix B from LotR;
• The Akallabeth and the first part of Rings of Power from the Silmarillion;
• A lot of the Second Age part of Unfinished Tales;
• Possibly extras from HoME, but I doubt they'll go there.

I guess they'll split the action between Numenor and Middle-Earth proper. There's a bit of detail on the Numenorean part (especially Aldarion and Erendis), but they will be basically making up most of the characters and events to fit into a very sparse framework.

So basically all bets are off. We'll just have to wait and see

[tuhasunaze]

My boyfriend is a big fan of LoTR and I already have a good news to tell him. I'm not a criticist and not an expert in cinema, so to say that this TV series will be bad would be a mistake for me. Let's not get disappointed in advance, wait and see what they'll show us.

[Mondkalb]

Some more pictures, characters revealed, and a lot of text: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood...ies-first-look

Hm, I don't know, the dwarf princess ...
Someone told me, she has some sort of side whiskers, but it is barely noticeable.

[DrWho42]

i hadn't heard much about it, but i'm cautiously optimistic?

[bio_hazard]

This Vanity Fair article has me a little more optimistic. I'm not expecting anything close to the original PJ movies but I like they seem to be emphasizing practical effects and taking some care with the dialog.

[archolewa]

Honestly, Im really glad they decided to pick an era thats basically a giant gaping hole in Middle Earth lore. It gived them room to do their own thing. I would fly into a frothing rage if they say, gave Beren and Luthien the same treatment PJ gave the Hobbit.

[bio_hazard]

I wonder if we'll ever see Beren and Luthien.

Unrelated, apparently there's going to be something animated about the Rohirrim in a couple of years.

Set roughly two centuries before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” “The War of the Rohirrim” will explore the exploits of Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan, and the creation of Helm’s Deep, the stronghold featured in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.”

Kenji Kamiyama (the TV series “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” and “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex”) is directing with “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” producer Joseph Chou through his anime studio Sola Entertainment, which has been working on the film since it was announced in June 2021.

[Nick]

I wonder if we'll ever see Beren and Luthien.

Unrelated, apparently there's going to be something animated about the Rohirrim in a couple of years.

Interesting, I hadn't heard about that.