Ready to Return to Middle Earth? 'The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power' Releases New Mysterious Character Posters + 4 Things This 'The Lord Of The Rings' Hopes to See in the New Amazon Series
Earlier today, Amazon released a slew of mysterious character posters for the upcoming "The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings of Power" series. Unfortunately for fans, the eagerly-anticipated show's posters only show each character's torso and hands, leaving faces and each character's identity shrouded in mystery.
With the show coming to Prime on September 2, 2022, these character posters made me think: What do "The Lord Of The Rings" fans want to see in the upcoming TV series?
What This "The Lord Of The Rings" Fan Hopes to See in the New Amazon Series
Full disclosure: I'm a massive "The Lord Of The Rings" fan. I first saw the films in the original trilogy out of order when I was in middle school. They quickly became my favorite films - I got the extended edition DVD's and we watched them so often that my family soon banned me from choosing them as the movie we'd watch while eating dinner. I credit "The Lord Of The Rings" with inspiring my writing and filmmaking dreams. Thus, when news came down that Amazon was working on what has now become the most expensive show of all time, I must have been excited, right? Well, not necessarily. After the disappointment of "The Hobbit" trilogy, I wasn't sure if I was ready to return to Middle Earth yet again. But, now that it's finally coming, here's what I would want to see.
1. More Diverse Characters (That Aren't Racist)
As mentioned previously, "The Lord Of The Rings" inspired me to become a writer. My first dream was to become a fantasy novelist and create expansive, new worlds like Professor J.R.R. Tolkien. Because of this, I started writing a 300+ page fantasy novel in high school, and when I went back to read the manuscript, one detail leaped out at me: My "fellowship" was populated with diverse characters, a characteristic I had unconsciously added when I was so young, I didn't have the lexicon to pinpoint what had made me uncomfortable about Tolkien's original.
If you think back to the main characters in Tolkein's "The Lord Of The Rings" and "The Hobbit" trilogy, you will find that everyone is Caucasian, from a culture based on some European culture. Any character that is not "white" or a fantastical creature is evil. I'm not kidding. There's a whole group of people called "Easterlings," who wear turbans and ride elephants...and they work for Sauron. Yikes. Some of this racism makes sense if we think about the author and the time he lived. (For an idea of what time that is, Professor Tolkien famously fought in both World Wars.) However, now that we're making a new series that takes more creative freedoms from the original, then perhaps it's time to update how we depict race in Middle Earth and reflect a Europe that has always been diverse and cosmopolitan.
2. Respect for the Source Material
This might be a strange follow-up after I just mentioned taking creative liberties to improve Middle Earth's diversity and inclusion, but I do think that the series still needs to respect the spirit of the original source. Since the series takes place during the Second Age, I'm assuming that the creators are drawing from books, such as "The Silmarillion," "Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth," "The Children of Húrin," among others.
Out of these books, I'm most familiar with "The Silmarillion," which reads like a book of mythology for Middle Earth, spanning from how the universe containing Middle Earth was created to right before the events leading up to "The Lord Of The Rings."
If the Amazon series is based on this book, then the show needs to take an epic tone to reflect the grandness of the events in "The Silmarillion." That way, the series can avoid the weirdness that plagued "The Hobbit" trilogy, which tried to take an epic, "The Lord Of The Rings"-like tone when adapting a book that was originally a child's bedtime story. Match what you're trying to adapt, please!
3. Epic Worlds and Adventures
Some of the most engrossing aspects of "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy was its wonderful, intricate design and cinematography and strong writing by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson. However, despite the similar style in its marketing materials, it's important to remember that the Amazon series has a completely different creative team.
Even more unfortunately, while "The Lord Of The Rings" was once considered "unadaptable," "The Silmarillion" is even more difficult to adapt. Since it's written as a compilation of mythological tales, it doesn't follow a single or even an ensemble group of characters on a journey. There's a wide range of characters and places - to the point that "The Silmarillion" contains an "Index of Names."
For the Amazon series to succeed with fans, the writers will have to surmount this difficulty and either chose a character or handful of characters to follow, and pick and choose what tales to adapt, so that there can be a coherent storyline. Then, as long as enough of that expensive production budget went to design, I believe the show will at least be off to a good start.
4. Intentional Homage to "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit"
Whenever a company chooses to adapt a property with a built-in fan base, there's a danger of the new adaptation succumbing to cringey fan service. And, with such a big-name property like "The Lord Of The Rings," it would be surprising if the series never referenced either the original film trilogy or the "The Hobbit" trilogy.
Thus, if the Amazon series is going to refer to its predecessors, I would like them to do so respectfully and with intention. Previously, "The Hobbit" trilogy raised fan ire for prominently featuring Orlando Bloom's Legolas for fan service, despite the character never really making an appearance in the book.
However, a good example of how to intentionally use fan favorite characters is the recent "Spider-Man: No Way Home" film. With its fascinating premise, the film brings back characters from both Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy and Marc Webb's "The Amazing Spider-Man" almost-trilogy in ways where they are integral to and further the plot. I would like "The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power" to do the same with fan favorites.
So, what do you think? Is there anything else you'd like to see in Amazon's upcoming Middle Earth series? Let us know!
"The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power" premieres on Amazon Prime on September 2, 2022.
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