The team behind the series aren't holding back
'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' season one has been a mighty success for Prime Video, but not everyone has been so kind to the fantasy prequel.
Making a prequel series based on The Second Age of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantastical world was always going to be a struggle, but even 'The Rings of Power' showrunners were surprised by the sheer amount of review bombing that happened leading up to the series' release.
Following the first two episodes hitting Prime Video in September, die-hard fans of Tolkien's works began to write scathing reviews of the series, with some presumedly not even having seen a single episode. The keyboard cowards are not happy that female characters and people of colour are front and centre in the series, which diverges greatly from the original writings of the author. Even though the core storyline vastly remains the same, it's these casting choices that have enraged the online trolls.
Speaking with THR, showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay and other members of the Amazon Studios series chatted with the publication all about fan backlash, bidding wars with the Tolkien estate and what's to come for season two of the series.
Jen Salke, Amazon Studios chief, said of the review bombing: "We all saw it coming, there were no surprises. Having insight into our global audience, we also have insight into the darker sides of how people can manipulate reviews and have other points of view that we wouldn’t support."
"The hardest part was for people on the cast who have had things related to them privately that are just harmful," Vernon Sanders, Amazon Studios TV co-head, said.
Co-showrunner J. D. Payne called these people "patently evil". He said the whole point of Tolkien's work is that characters from different walks of life join together to fight this evil, overcoming their differences in doing so. This is something he and his team have tried to ground the series in, and doesn't understand how this "aspiration" would lead to viewers being "enraged".
He added: "I don’t see how people who are saying these things think that they’re fighting for good. There’s a line in episode seven where Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) says 'every war is fought from without and within'. Even if you’re fighting for something you think is good, if you do something worse in that fight, then you become evil. I don’t see how people who are saying these things think that they’re fighting for good. It’s patently evil."
Although they had competition from HBO and Netflix in terms of securing 'The Lord of the Rings' rights from the Tolkien estate, it was Amazon Studios' "collective passion" for the project that got them the TV series. While HBO pitched a re-telling of 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy by Peter Jackson, Netflix planned a "Marvel approach" with a number of series focussing on different characters such as Aragorn and Gandalf. This approach, apparently, "completely freaked out the estate". Amazon's prequel idea was the superior, more unique, tactic.
The final episode of 'The Rings of Power' season one will premiere on Prime Video on October 14. Season two, which will be "bigger and better" on "every level", is already filming in the UK.
Read the full feature over at The Hollywood Reporter.