Empire's 'The Rings Of Power' Exclusive Introduces Some Exciting Show Details
“We even know what our final shot of the last episode is going to be.” JD Payne, one of the showrunners for Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, told Empire magazine in an exclusive interview. Payne revealed that they don’t just have a vague idea of where the story will go. They have a detailed map, even to the last shot of the entire series.
TV series can be more fun than movies sometimes since the story goes on for much longer than two hours and can add more details. However, the downside of TV series is that usually there’s a season or two that is really good, parts of others that are OK, and then those seasons that no one wants to talk about. This can be due to many different reasons, but one of the main ones is not having a complete plan for the story. Showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay and director JA Bayona talk about this in the Empire interview. Payne stated: “The rights that Amazon bought were for a 50-hour show. They knew from the beginning that was the size of the canvas – this was a big story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. There are things in the first season that don’t pay off until Season 5.”
The showrunners went in with a plan. They have a clear end goal. And they plan on telling the whole Second Age of Middle Earth in just 50 hours of television with an entire five seasons. The series is already entirely written from beginning to end. And that story is going to encompass stories about the Elves, Dwarves, Men, and Harfoots of Middle Earth. The stories will be told through the significant events of the Second Age: the forging of the rings of power, the Fall of Númenor, and the rise of Sauron, to name a few.
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Payne and McKay have stated that while the story’s details are their own, the story’s outline, the events, and some of the characters are taken straight from J. R. R. Tolkien’s writings. Payne stated: “It was like Tolkien put some stars in the sky and let us make out the constellations. In his letters [particularly in one to his publisher], Tolkien talked about wanting to leave behind a mythology that ‘left scope for other minds and hands, wielding the tools of paint, music and drama.’ We’re doing what Tolkien wanted. As long as we felt like every invention of ours was true to his essence, we knew we were on the right track.” McKay added to Payne’s comment. “It came from Tolkien and we’re just the stewards of it. We trust those ideas so deeply, because they’re not ours. We’re custodians, at best.”
Hopefully, these comments help ease many Tolkien fans’ anxieties over the series and what direction it might take.
In the exclusive, new images from the series have also been released.
Empire’s exclusive further talks about the introduction of Harfoots into Middle Earth. Harfoots were first mentioned in “The Appendices” of The Lord of the Rings as the forefathers to the Hobbits of the Shire. They are mentioned as being around in the Second Age, so it makes sense that they would be a part of this series. After all, what is the Middle Earth universe without Hobbit-like beings? The Harfoots look a lot like Hobbits, with furry feet and short stature, but they are wanderers still and haven’t settled in the Shire.
In The Rings of Power, the main Harfoot is named Sadoc Burrows, and will be played by Lenny Henry. Henry told Empire: “We’re a nomadic tribe, moving with the weather and the fertility of the crops. We have big caravans on wooden wheels, and we’re very good at hiding things because humans are much bigger than us and bring trouble. We’re the traditional Tolkien little guy. Traditionally, the little people in this world provide comedy but also get to be incredibly brave. You’re going to see us run the full gamut of emotions and actions in this adventure.”
Lenny Henry also went on to talk about the power of playing a character in the Tolkien universe as a person of color. Fantasy, as a genre, hasn’t generally been known to feature a lot of people of color in prominent roles, so, for Henry, this was a significant opportunity. “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it. Finally, in this show, kids will see people of colour taking up space in the centre of a fantasy series. We’re very visible in this world, and that’s very exciting.”
Empire’s full The Rings of Power exclusive releases in stores on June 9, 2022. There are three unique covers to choose from. One features a young Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), and another features dwarves Durin IV (Owain Arthur) and Princess Disa (Sophia Nomvete). And the third will feature the three main Harfoots: Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards), Elanor ‘Nori’ Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh), and of course, Sadoc Burrows (Lenny Henry).
Amazon’s The Rings of Power series will premiere on September 2, 2022, and hopefully, more news will be released before then!
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