Chris Connor on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and its potential to restore Middle-earth to former glory after The Hobbit…
Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings was a monumental cinematic achievement, managing the arduous task of bringing the world of J. R.R. Tolkien to life and introducing a new audience to the author’s work.
The films received praise from both audiences and critics alike with The Return of the King winning 11 Oscars. While the Rings films remain beloved, for some the franchise feels tainted by Jackson’s follow-up The Hobbit, which expanded a relatively light source material into another sprawling vast trilogy, pulling from other parts of Tolkien’s canon.
The Hobbit films are certainly not without merits, with fine performances from Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage in particular but the legacy of the trilogy seems to have left a bad taste in some fans’ mouths, with many questioning the need to stretch the story beyond the initial two films planned.
With the highly anticipated Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the most expensive TV series ever made, now hitting Amazon Prime in September, it seems an appropriate moment to look at what went wrong with The Hobbit and how this series can prove another sterling entry in the franchise.
Firstly, the series increased focus on practical effects and shift away from some of the CGI heavy Orcs suggests the production crew have paid attention to some of the more obvious criticisms of The Hobbit’s visuals and what was a clear strength of the Lord of the Rings films. The use some of the techniques employed on the original trilogy should hopefully help make this feel like a return to the Middle-earth of Jackson’s original films.
However, The Hobbit films pulling from so many different sources to expand the story ultimately left it feeling muddled in places. As vast as the original trilogy was, it is always pulling from Tolkien’s books, whereas the decision to adapt elements of The Return of the King appendices and unfinished tales left The Hobbit very convoluted, and at times forgetting that it was Bilbo’s story. Of course it was important to expand on Gandalf’s role and the rise of Sauron but often this detracted from Thorin and the Dwarves’ quest.
Conversely, The Rings of Power is telling a largely original story, not drawn from a specific part of Tolkien’s source material, although there is clear potential for elements of The Silmarillion to be incorporated. This series, being set millennia before the Peter Jackson movies, will be more tangential, whereas at times The Hobbit felt like it was trying too hard to explain certain characters origins or what they were doing during the events which distracted from the core story being told.
Rings of Power doesn’t have the baggage of the previous films attached to it, and so has more freedom to tell an expansive story. It has the benefit of exploring unfamiliar characters, locations and timeframes; while The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings occupies a fifty year span of Middle-earth’s history, the series has a huge playground to explore in the lead up to the initial conflict between the Free Peoples of Middle-earth and the forces of Sauron. It will also provide an expanded role for the likes of Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel and promises to bring a more diverse feel to the universe than the six films that preceded it.
Of course The Lord of the Rings trilogy remains a tentpole for cinematic fantasy adaptations, and is rightly praised for bringing the scale and story of Tolkien’s novels to the big screen. While The Hobbit did earn acclaim in certain areas, its extended run time and shifting focus led to it falling far short of its predecessor. The Rings of Power therefore presents an opportunity for the Lord of the Rings franchise to find its footing once more, taking clear inspiration from what worked with the initial films while paving the way forward for a wealth of exciting new adventures in Middle-earth.
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Chris Connor
Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power stars Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Daniel Weyman, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Lenny Henry, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Simon Merrells, Geoff Morrell, Peter Mullan, Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, and Sara Zwangobani.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set to premiere on September 2nd 2022.
Originally published August 28, 2022. Updated September 2, 2022.
