What We Learned About LOTR The Rings of Power From the Vanity Fair Story

What We Learned About LOTR: The Rings of Power From the Vanity Fair Story

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On Friday, Vanity Fair released a fascinating, in-depth first look at Amazon’s upcoming The Rings of Power series. Here are the biggest takeaways.

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What We Learned About LOTR The Rings of Power From the Vanity Fair Story

A flurry of exciting announcements for Amazon’s upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series has landed in the last few weeks, heralded by the show’s stunning title reveal video, which made creative and innovative use of practical effects. A striking set of posters showcasing the production’s sprawling cast and sumptuous costume designs followed, along with a bombshell first look article from Vanity Fair loaded with exciting new information on the show’s scope and exclusive shots from the set.

The Rings of Power is headed by longtime friends Patrick McKay and JD Payne, a self-described “dark horse” pair who have worked in the film industry for thirteen years, but never received official IMDb credit for any of their projects until this one. It seems Amazon and the Tolkien family heard pitches from numerous potential showrunners before choosing these two based on the strength of their vision — and it didn’t hurt that Hollywood heavy hitter J.J. Abrams enthusiastically endorsed them. With that in mind, here’s a point-by-point breakdown of the biggest takeaways from the Vanity Fair piece on The Rings of Power, including insights into the creative team’s approach, the identities of several new characters and details on the show’s overall tone.

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Where And When Will The Rings of Power Take Place?

What We Learned About LOTR The Rings of Power From the Vanity Fair Story

The Rings of Power will be set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the events of The Lord of the Rings. It’s supposed to be a time of peace, during which the evil Morgoth and his servant Sauron seem to have been vanquished — but the worst is yet to come. As the show’s title indicates, it’s during this period that the Dark Lord, for which the original trilogy is named, will rise again. The forging and gifting of the Rings of Power, Sauron’s betrayal and the subsequent effects that emanate across all of Middle-earth will be the guiding focus of the show’s epic story.

Several major series locations have been confirmed in the Vanity Fair article: the Elven stronghold of Lindon, the powerful human nation of Númenor, and the legendary Dwarven kingdom of Khazad-dûm in its glory days, long before it becomes the tomb-like Moria seen in The Lord of the Rings. Other parts of the piece hint heavily at intriguing locales like human villages and a sort of proto-Shire.

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Which Tolkien Characters Will Appear In The Rings of Power?

What We Learned About LOTR The Rings of Power From the Vanity Fair Story

Naturally, several familiar Tolkien names will return in the show, but as younger and fierier versions of themselves. These include Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), described as angry, clever and brash in this time period; Elrond (Robert Aramayo) as an ambitious up-and-coming politician and architect; and Isildur (Maxim Baldry), a sailor and future king whose eventual dark fate in the Ring’s clutches still awaits him.

Audiences will also meet previously book-only characters like the Dwarven prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur) and the renowned Elven smith Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), who never appeared in the original trilogy but was a pivotal figure behind its events.

As previously reported, the series will include Hobbits as well, though not quite as fans have come to know them. Instead, The Rings of Power will introduce viewers to the Harfoots, the direct ancestors of the Hobbits. Though they don’t live in the Shire, they are apparently as lovable, bucolic and fleet-footed as any Tolkienite could wish. Megan Richards and Markella Kavenagh will play two Harfoots who encounter a “mysterious lost man” in a storyline that promises plenty of twists and turns.

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The Juiciest Storyline Details From Amazon’s The Rings of Power

What We Learned About LOTR The Rings of Power From the Vanity Fair Story

The Rings of Power begins in the aftermath of Morgoth’s defeat, as Galadriel hunts down the last of his allies, seeking revenge for their murder of her brother. The premiere episode is titled “Shadows of the Past,” reflecting the looming threat of Sauron. J.A. Bayona, who directed the first two episodes, makes this illuminating comment: “I think this is all about the repercussions of war. There is an idea that feels very faithful to Tolkien, which is intuition. Galadriel has an intuition that things are not fixed, and there is still something lurking.” It seems many don’t wish to heed her warnings, and Vanity Fair’s descriptions of the early episodes indicate that her determination to fight the approaching evil nonetheless will set her on a dangerous and lonely course.

The show’s biggest deviation from the source material is a compressed timeline, with events that originally spanned 1,000 years in the text brought much closer together. “We talked with the Tolkien estate,” says Payne. “If you are true to the exact letter of the law, you are going to be telling a story in which your human characters are dying off every season because you’re jumping 200 years in time, and then you’re not meeting really big, important canon characters until season four. Look, there might be some fans who want us to do a documentary of Middle-earth, but we’re going to tell one story that unites all these things.”

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The article also reveals that star-crossed love will continue to be a central trope in the universe of Middle-earth. A new character named Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova), a Silvan elf, will have a forbidden romance with a human healer named Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi).

Addressing Tolkien Fans’ Concerns About The Rings of Power

What We Learned About LOTR The Rings of Power From the Vanity Fair Story

Fans have been vocal about their worries regarding possible onscreen nudity in the show, especially after reports of the production hiring an intimacy coordinator. However, the showrunners confirmed that this will not be an issue. Payne explains that they wanted “to make a show for everyone, for kids who are 11, 12, and 13. […] This is material that is sometimes scary—and sometimes very intense, sometimes quite political, sometimes quite sophisticated—but it’s also heartwarming and life-affirming and optimistic. It’s about friendship and it’s about brotherhood and underdogs overcoming great darkness.”

A regrettable — but unfortunately, unsurprising — source of pushback has been Amazon’s decision to cast of people of color as Elves, Harfoots and Dwarves. But the creative team stands proudly behind their inclusive choices. “It felt only natural to us that an adaptation of Tolkien’s work would reflect what the world actually looks like,” says executive producer Lindsey Weber. “Tolkien is for everyone. His stories are about his fictional races doing their best work when they leave the isolation of their own cultures and come together.”

Another source of fan anxiety was the departure of beloved Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey from the production. Neither the showrunners nor Shippey himself will confirm the reason behind his exit, but rumors suggest he was dropped for breaking his NDA by discussing the show with a German fan magazine. Amazon has since kept the names of its team of scholars strictly secret.

How Much Did Amazon Spend on The Rings of Power?

The first season of The Rings of Power alone reportedly cost $462 million, in addition to the $250 million paid by Amazon for the rights to Tolkien’s Appendices. Much of that larger figure goes toward elaborate infrastructure which will be used in later seasons. This is a striking number, to say the least, especially in comparison to the already whopping $80 million-per-season budget of Amazon’s other tentpole fantasy series, The Wheel of Time. The budget for the entire show is estimated to be somewhere north of $1 billion.

With an enormous cast of 22 stars and multiple storylines spanning the whole of Middle-earth, The Rings of Power promises to be a spectacular experience. Either way, McKay and Payne are in it for the long haul — audiences can look forward to a planned 50-hour, five-season series.

To see the Second Age of Middle-earth in all its glory, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres Friday, Sept. 2 on Prime Video.

Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/lord-rings-rings-power-details-vanity-fair/

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