Rings of Power Amazon buys up Middle-earth, it searches the One Ring! (Rings of Power news thread)

[Chen G. 3,943]

1 hour ago, Quintus said:

 

 

That just looks like Elizabeth: The Golden Age to me, but okay.

[KK 3,307]

1 hour ago, Quintus said:

 

 

 

I don't know...this one feels pretty Hobbit/Game of Thrones-ish (there's even a mountain in the back! ;)). Maybe because I feel like its undermined by the giant statue...which feels like a fantasy cliché at this point.

 

It also, as Jay put it, doesn't feel "lived in". Which is what makes the Argonath statues so special in Fellowship:

 

 

And with The Hobbit, or at least An Unexpected Journey, they felt more wondrous in its production design, despite the digital gloss:

 

 

 

 

 

That Numenor shot feels like a limp after-thought to some of Jackson's visual ideas (even though it all goes to total shit by the third film).

[Holko 9,498]

7 minutes ago, KK said:

That Numenor shot feels like a limp after-thought to some of Jackson's visual ideas

That, plus it feels small and unspecial to me. Most dime-a-dozen mid-2000s RPGs have more personality in their fantasy cities. The movies focused on certain design elements for certain cultures, here you get a hodgepodge with nothing to stand out except the statue and some bridges.

[KK 3,307]

3 minutes ago, Holko said:

That, plus it feels small and unspecial to me. Most dime-a-dozen mid-2000s RPGs have more personality in their fantasy cities.

 

Nailed it on the head there. Zero personality.

 

This is also Numenor we're talking about...the greatest civilization of Men, in their Golden Age.

 

The thatched roofs of Edoras look more impressive! Or at least distinctive.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Did Minas Tirith feel lived in?  Feeling "lived in" is what Thrones got a lot of deserved praise for.

[Chen G. 3,943]

Minas Tirith did.

 

The Elven environments never did, though.

 

All I know is, I liked Romenna.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I love ROTK but Minas Tirith looked kinda like a theme park to me

[KK 3,307]

2 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Did Minas Tirith feel lived in?  Feeling "lived in" is what Thrones got a lot of deserved praise for.

 

Well, to me, it did feel like a great city in decay:

 

[Chen G. 3,943]

Sure, but not every enviroment needs to necessarily feel in decay. I certainly don't think Numenore does.

[Holko 9,498]

The stones all had chips in them, bushes and trees grew onto walls, weeds between the pavement bricks...

[Disco Stu 15,495]

2 minutes ago, Holko said:

The stones all had chips in them, bushes and trees grew onto walls, weeds between the pavement bricks...

 

Obviously the set decorators on LOTR were world class amazing.  But also, you've only seen a single wide shot of the new city!

[Chen G. 3,943]

2 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

But also, you've only seen a single wide shot of the new city!

 

You've also seen pictures off of the actual set.

 

https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/27884-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-2022-tv-series/&do=findComment&comment=1834850

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Looks like whatever Balkan city was used for Thrones and Last Jedi

[Chen G. 3,943]

That'd be Dubrovnik.

[KK 3,307]

53 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Sure, but not every enviroment needs to necessarily feel in decay. I certainly don't think Numenore does.

 

Agreed. But I wish its inherent design was more inspired or striking. And that it didn't look so plastic.

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

38 minutes ago, KK said:

 

Agreed. But I wish its inherent design was more inspired or striking. And that it didn't look so plastic.

 

I get that Amazon wants us to think of this series as a "prequel" to the films, and from a commercial standpoint, it's completely understandable to make this association as strong as they can in the eyes of viewers. To a huge chunk of the audience, Jackson's films are Middle-Earth.  Again, I get it, and had no expectation that Amazon would even consider doing anything else.

 

That said, I personally wish they'd gone with a completely different visual aesthetic. I love Jackson's vision, but it is, after all, only one interpretation. There are countless artists who have shown us there are any number of ways to portray Tolkien's world, and seeing something new and unique (rather than a slick copy that can never live up to the "original") would have been nice.  

[mstrox 6,643]

I think it looks fine and it would be hard not to improve from the Hobbit trilogy.

[LSH 968]

I'm not gonna judge too quickly... there's not much in that teaser to make any well-reasoned assessment.

 

But I'm sure it'll be rubbish.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

1 hour ago, mstrox said:

it would be hard not to improve from the Hobbit trilogy.

 

alfrid is skeptical

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

Does Howard Shore improve the teaser?

 

I think it does. Good music can gives images weight, and gravity and majesty. As I always say, great music can add production value. And Shore's music is definitely capable of that.

 

 

[Luke Skywalker 1,792]

15 hours ago, KK said:

 

It also, as Jay put it, doesn't feel "lived in". Which is what makes the Argonath statues so special in Fellowship:

 

Maybe that statue on the tv shot is newly built? As oposed to being thousands of years in abandonment?

 

You dont expect the pyramids of gizeh to look like the nowadays counterpart when doing a film set in the period just after its construction, right?

[Bilbo 3,709]

So not only is it adding a bunch of non Tolkien storylines and characters none of it is actually going to really look like the Jackson films because legally it can’t. That explains the generic looking cities and stuff. 
 

This is going to be everything bad about the Hobbit x1000 

 

People complained about the Hobbit being a single book made into three movies. This is a handful of pages being made into several seasons of TV! 

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

2 hours ago, His Royal Noelness said:

So not only is it adding a bunch of non Tolkien storylines and characters none of it is actually going to really look like the Jackson films because legally it can’t. That explains the generic looking cities and stuff. 
 

This is going to be everything bad about the Hobbit x1000 

 

People complained about the Hobbit being a single book made into three movies. This is a handful of pages being made into several seasons of TV! 

apparently it’s not just the appendices anymore. They did get the rights to some sections of silm and unfinished tales. 

[Pellaeon 593]

6 hours ago, His Royal Noelness said:

none of it is actually going to really look like the Jackson films because legally it can’t.

 

Strange. New Line Cinema has been part of the production since the very beginning, obviously for the sake of visual continuity.

 

On 11/02/2022 at 2:24 PM, Chen G. said:

I've always thought the stories of Celebrimbor and of Pharazon's life were worthy of dramatization

 

Do you still see that in this show? The premise appears to be, “Galadriel and Elrond in the Second Age.” A veritable blank slate. (Almost as blank a slate as “Hobbits in the Second Age,” which is not a thing at all.)

 

3 hours ago, TheUlyssesian said:

apparently it’s not just the appendices anymore. They did get the rights to some sections of silm and unfinished tales. 

 

My original impression was that they just had the rights to The Lord of the Rings; later I thought they actually got the rights to any and all Second Age writings. Now again I’m scratching my head and wondering if the original impression was correct, since I don’t think they have shown any Second Age material which is not just from The Lord of the Rings. It’s hard to see through the fog of spin and marketing.

 

Maybe instead of “Game of Thrones” they plan to do what Star Trek and Star Wars are doing, start with one show but eventually get to 4-5. So this first show is like the “Discovery” of the bunch—a feeble, bland premise where they can feel their way and get some nice virtue signalling in.

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

8 minutes ago, Pellaeon said:

 

Strange. New Line Cinema has been part of the production since the very beginning, obviously for the sake of visual continuity.

 

 

Do you still see that in this show? The premise appears to be, “Galadriel and Elrond in the Second Age.” A veritable blank slate. (Almost as blank a slate as “Hobbits in the Second Age,” which is not a thing at all.)

 

 

My original impression was that they just had the rights to The Lord of the Rings; later I thought they actually got the rights to any and all Second Age writings. Now again I’m scratching my head and wondering if the original impression was correct, since I don’t think they have shown any Second Age material which is not just from The Lord of the Rings. It’s hard to see through the fog of spin and marketing.

 

Maybe instead of “Game of Thrones” they plan to do what Star Trek and Star Wars are doing, start with one show but eventually get to 4-5. So this first show is like the “Discovery” of the bunch—a feeble, bland premise where they can feel their way and get some nice virtue signalling in.

 

It's confusing but apparently this is how it played out - 

 

Originally you are right, they only had appendices etc. Then they started material with the Tolkein estate. Tolkein estate started liking what they were doing and opening up their purse to start giving them more rights.

[Pellaeon 593]

Okay, but like I said, right now it seems VERY much like generic LotR fanfic, and they haven’t read the more substantial Second Age fiction contained in Unfinished Tales or Sauron Defeated or The Peoples of Middle-earth.

[toothless 963]

There are shots that feel like the hobbit and others that feel like LoTR, we'll see  

[Arpy 4,145]

The important thing to me is that it doesn't look like any other fantasy show out there.

[Chen G. 3,943]

I mostly object to the "Troll" (WTF?), to the Hobbits and to Asteroidude. Having Hobbits in this is eyeroll-inducing enough: not from a canonical standpoint so much as for it being cloying, especially the whole "wide eyed youth in a secret community wondering about the outside world." Seeing Markella Kavenagh's Elanor Brandyfoot (WTF?!) looking like a derpy pixie out of Ridley Scott's Legend doesn't exactly help.

 

And then we have "The Stranger" (Daniel Weyman) AKA Asteroidude. I like the visual of an asteroid crash, but having a person emerge out of its crash site is too Terminator-y. Having that person, discovered by said derpy Hobbits, possibly be Gandalf would be the panderingiest pandering pander ever pandered in the history of pandering. I hope its not.

 

On the other hand, I think Romenna looks sweet. Durin IV (Owain Arthur) looks awesome, and his father Durin III (Peter Mullan) is probably going to be just as awesome. I like the casting of Morfydd Clark and Robert Aramayo as Galadriel and Elrond, and Benjamin Walker's Gil-galad looks good. Its neat seeing full suits of armour in a movie/show again, and its great to see the Belegaer and Forodwaith finally. On the other hand again, Elves with short-hair just look weird. We get a glimpse of Finrod (Will Fletcher) and... he just looks like a dude.

 

So its a mixture of good and bad. Mostly, I'm just very, very concerned with everything to do with Asteroidude.

[Monoverantus 363]

3 hours ago, Chen G. said:

We get a glimpse of Finrod (Will Fletcher) and... he just looks like a dude.

Wait what? Where?

[Quintus 5,399]

I don't get the intense fretting about the man who fell to earth thing tbh and well I'm not hardcore Tolkien enough to care about story embellishments and inventions so long as they're well written and feel compelling - ie absolutely nothing like the woefully misjudged padding out of the Hobbit flicks. I think the very worst thing you could do with this is to go in with a scholar's attitude towards everything that happens, especially since much of it is only loosely based on the appendices to begin with. 

 

I don't even mind that there's "hobbits" present (Harfoots), and hadn't really given this any thought given that I probably already expected them to be a part of it anyway. 

 

People should probably also be ready for a ton of fan service, otherwise why would they ever risk making this in the first place? 

[Pellaeon 593]

The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Showrunners Admit They Don’t Have The Rights To The Silmarillion Or Unfinished Tales

 

Well. Never mind then.

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

What do they need the rights to those dusty ole’ history books for? They have an entire TV writer's room of talent to make up stories.

[Quintus 5,399]

Quote

Well, McKay has an answer, “There’s a version of everything we need for the Second Age in the books we have the rights to.”

 

This is true actually. A lot of the groundwork is actually fairly well elaborated on in The Lord of the Rings. 

[Chen G. 3,943]

2 hours ago, Monoverantus said:

Wait what? Where?

 

This is believed to be Finrod in the Dagor Bragollach:

 

 

And he... he just looks like a guy.

 

1 hour ago, Quintus said:

I think the very worst thing you could do with this is to go in with a scholar's attitude towards everything that happens, especially since much of it is only loosely based on the appendices to begin with. 

 

I'm not going into this with a scholarly approach. My issue is that adding Hobbits to what's essentially a Machiavelian thriller risks cutesification.

[Quintus 5,399]

Guess what, it'll turn out that young Annatar planted the Party Tree.

[Monoverantus 363]

12 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

That? That's supposed to be Finrod Felagund?

 

...

 

Isn't it funny how I thought this was one of the more promising parts of the trailer?

Also, how on earth are they gonna adapt Dagor Bragollach if they don't have Silmarillion rights?

[Chen G. 3,943]

I mean, I like the armour. Nice to see characters in full suits of armour again.

 

But the short hair for the Elves (Galadriel and Benjamin Walker's Gil galad nothwithstanding) is such an odd choice.

[Edmilson 7,384]

The trailer for the show was the third most watched Super Bowl teaser this year, behind the ones from Doctor Strange 2 and Jurassic World 3. It was viewed 80 million times on the internet.

 

https://screenrant.com/doctor-strange-2-trailer-super-bowl-most-viewed/

[Quintus 5,399]

So as is the way nowadays, the grubby minutiae postmortem of the trailer is well underway on all social media, as we now expect. Basically what Fellowship of the Ring would have been subject to had the internet been as entrenched back then as it is now. It would have been a prerelease demolition job.

 

I remember seeing the very first teaser for Jackson's LotR and just feeling hyped. Simpler times. 

[Chen G. 3,943]

4 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

The trailer for the show was the third most watched Super Bowl teaser this year, behind the ones from Doctor Strange 2 and Jurassic World 3. It was viewed 80 million times on the internet.

 

 

I mean, its probably not going to flop: Wheel of Time which recieved a very tepid reaction, was nevertheless one of the most viewed shows ever, and had remained so for the entire season: it didn't have fall-off after the first few episodes had sunk in.

 

The question isn't whether it'll work commerically, but whether it'll be any good? I still think there are things that I like in this trailer, and certainly far be it from me to strike a film or a show off based on a one-minute trailer. But at the same time, there are troubling things in this.

 

 

[Quintus 5,399]

 

[Pellaeon 593]

That’s it, blame the fans. How dare they react to trailers, discuss them, realign their expectations?

 

Anywho.

 

Looks to me like they negotiated the rights to do a “Young Aragorn” show and instead decided to do “Young Galadriel.” (Well, youngER.)

[Chen G. 3,943]

And "Young Elrond."

 

And they transferred the romantic angle that Arwen would have provided to the Young Aragorn premise to this Bronwyn lady (who I think looks neat) and Arondir, who had also clearly expropriated the "Legolas Superhero Moments"^TM

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

Theory - Halbrand is Sauron in disguise. 

[Chen G. 3,943]

A lot of people are thinking that, and it does seem somewhat plausible. It would certainly heighten the dramatic irony of Galadriel, seeking help against Sauron's return, falls-in with him on her voyage to Numenore.

 

That's fine. What worried me with Halbrand character is that this is confirmed as his picture: 

 

And, ontop of that, some keen eyed viewers think they had spotted Halbrand here in a similar garb: 

 

 

So could they - ontop of the Hobbits and all - be building Halbrand up as the progenitor of the Eotheod/Rohirrim? I mean, I don't mind prequels "doing the prequel thing" but some of this stuff...

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

Here's what I got from the Vanity Fair article - 

we wanted to do four or five stories that are the big epics of the Second Age starting with “the forging of the rings.”

The second big story on McKay and Payne’s agenda is “the rise of Sauron himself, when he was a physical villain

No word yet on who might be playing the Dark Lord in his younger, more seductive phase. (Yes, Sauron, the flaming eyeball, was once canonically hot, or in the words of Tolkien himself, “fair to the eyes of Men.” He may be hiding in plain sight)

 

the third story on their list: “the rise and fall of the island kingdom of Númenor.”

 

the final story on the list: the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.

 

Basically Sauron has to be in Season 1. He is the one constant in all these stories. He has to get together with the elves to start the forging of the rings to set the stories in motion.

 

So that is why I am guessing he is one of the revealed characters. And only Halabrand currently fits the mold. 

 

 

 

 

[Pellaeon 593]

7 hours ago, Chen G. said:

So could they - ontop of the Hobbits and all - be building Halbrand up as the progenitor of the Eotheod/Rohirrim? I mean, I don't mind prequels "doing the prequel thing" but some of this stuff...

 

It’s not such a stretch in Tolkien logic, TBH, as the Rohirrim were said to be physically and even linguistically recognizable as kin to the Marachians (the House of Hador of the First Age, one of the groups who made up the Númenóreans). This was an important factor in-story in why the Gondorians allied with them—and the Éothéod before them, and the Vidugavian Northmen before them, and perhaps on up through the years.

 

But could you have a Rider of Rohan *sort* of character in the show, sure. Now hopefully they don’t do some ham-handed prequely stuff like prophecies, or in general feel they have to be super-obvious about the connection. But what they certainly could and should do is set up a character who later becomes a recipients of one of the Nine Rings.

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

Offered without comment.

 

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

12 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Offered without comment.

 

Orwellian is the word that comes to mind