The Rings of Power

So it is that we at last have a title for Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings TV adaptation, and it is The Rings of Power. According to the showrunners, "The Rings of Power unites all the major stories of Middle-earth's Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor, and the Last Alliances of Elves and Men. Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring — but before there was one, there were many... and we're excited to share the epic story of them all."

 

"Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."

Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will premiere Friday, September 2 on Prime Video, with new episodes every Friday (much like their The Wheel of Time adaption). What do I think of the enterprise? Well, interviews with the cast show that they know the colossal size of the shows they are attempting to fill; that it will be mercilessly compared with Peter Jackson's epic The Lord of the Rings movies. I have heard that the Tolkien Scholars Amazon hired are satisfied with it, which is a good sign. I know that not having Cate Blanchett play Galadriel is going to hurt us on an almost physical level, but I have high hopes for the new actress, Morfydd Clark, who reads a familiar verse in the teaser below. Ultimately the show will either be a masterpiece or a confirmed failure; it will either be worthy of Tolkien, as the movies were, or it wont.