The Alliance of Men and Elves
The time is drawing near: lovers of the pioneering books and arguably fascinating film franchises are eager to see the release of the highly anticipated The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. If you didn’t already know (which I highly doubt), JRR Tolkien’s Middle-earth served as the inspiration for the fantasy role-playing miniseries. Rings of power.
The Lord of the Rings installments, its prequel The Hobbit, and a number of shorter novels that patch up plot holes and delve into the massive mythology of this realm are all canonical works set in this world. The showrunners have plenty of room to work since Middle-earth is one of the most complex fictional settings ever imagined. While this is great news for Tolkien’s most dedicated followers, others who are just beginning to get to grips with the mythology may be worried about being left behind.
We don’t share much information about the story arc
Many people are looking forward to this episode, but the story details have not been released widely, so they may have missed something important. One of the most common beliefs on the internet is that the miniseries will follow the arc of the original trilogy.
The events of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogy seem totally off-limits for the series, which makes sense given the near-universal acclaim Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of these works have received. The debate now is whether or not this is a precursor or a follow-up to the well-known novel series on which it is based.
In a nutshell: it’s a bit of both. Warner Bros. as well as Tolkien’s estate became embroiled in litigation after the release of The Hobbit films, but this was resolved out of court. The domain began shopping around for book media licensing and eventually settled on Amazon’s Prime Video.
This means that the original basis for the miniseries was the books themselves. Nonetheless, as filming progressed, Prime Video aimed to further match or unite its series with the hugely popular film, even approaching Peter Jackson to come on and direct the series. Eventually, they formed a partnership with Warner Bros.
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Simply put, the trilogy is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, tens of thousands of years before the original movie episodes. For those who haven’t gone through the books or seen the movies, that means the plot is complete.
Nonetheless, due to the series’ closeness to the films and Jackson’s reverence for the original source material, viewers would benefit from viewing the LOTR film trilogy before diving into the series.
The TV series will likely rely mostly on Tolkien’s writing, but it at least seems to be trying to emulate the style of Jackson’s trilogy. That said, the films’ immense acclaim and appeal suggests that fans will enjoy seeing them even if they don’t have to.
