Maybe it’s the time zones, but I really thought that John Howe’s interview with Empire about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was coming out tomorrow. Instead, if you’re keen (and an Apple News subscriber), you can read it right now over on Apple News.
The interview expands on the teaser Empire provided the other day, that “this is not the Middle-earth you remember”. Instead, it’s a story of a different time (the Second Age), when Middle-earth was visually and politically a different place.
An excerpt:
Howe can’t elaborate on what that tale may be, but does hint that it takes place against a backdrop of “Sauron’s rise to power, the forging of the Rings of Power and the epic tale of [human city] Númenor” — all events with important repercussions for Middle-earth.
“I was convinced the Hobbit trilogy would be the last we’d see of Middle-earth on film,” Howe admits, explaining that it took an exciting new approach to Lord Of The Rings lore to unlock a story worth telling.
Empire’s forthcoming “Summer Preview” issue is set to include an interview with John Howe about his role as concept artist for Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power TV series.
They’ve posted an enticing preview snippet of Howe sharing his thoughts about we ought to expect from the series in which he empahsises just how different Second Age Middle-earth is from the Third Age world that many are more familiar with.
“This isn’t the Middle-earth you remember,” he says.
“This is a world that’s very vibrant. The elves are not hidden away in Mirkwood or lingering in Rivendell. They’re busy constructing kingdoms. The dwarven kingdom of Moria is not an abandoned mine and the Grey Havens is not yet an abandoned city. I loved having the opportunity to explore that unseen history.”
He also talks about how this story is also taking to the seas.
“We’re finally sailing on the oceans of Middle-earth,” teases Howe, promising a set of sea-faring elves. “They’re daunting and enterprising and are almost colonising the world. They were a lot of fun to imagine. It’s something neither Lord Of The Rings nor Hobbit movies went anywhere near.”
Several Ph.Ds, published authors, Tolkientubers and TikTokers have shared their first impressions of completed footage from Prime Video’s massive new Lord of the Rings TV series – The Rings of Power. (Check out our report too!)
We’ve gathered all of these reactions in one convenient post on TORn. Enjoy!
Amazon assembled a wide group of Tolkien fans for this adventure, but if anyone on the trip is to be considered a celebrity, it is Dr. Corey Olsen. Known as the Tolkien Professor, he is founder and head of Signum University, an accredited online-only graduate school which counts Stephen Colbert as an avid viewer. Corey held court from the first introductions, entertaining a revolving circle of fellow Ringers and fans of his work throughout the week. I loved seeing how excited folks were finally to meet him! While I’m sure he will share his thoughts over the coming days and weeks across his many broadcasts on twitch, Corey’s small but powerful statement has made waves, as an acknowledgement of the quality of the showrunners in charge:
Last week, I was invited by the @LOTRonPrime folks, along with a bunch of other internet Tolkien folks, to attend an advanced screening of some footage from the #RingsofPower show and to meet the showrunners. I must say: after meeting them, I feel the show is in VERY good hands.
The Tolkien Society, currently headed by Shaun Gunner, is probably the most respected LOTR fan group, since its founding while JRR Tolkien was still alive. They have always championed the literary legacy of Tolkien’s works, and often are a strong and balanced community voice among the hype that Hollywood generates. It’s no small thing to earn a positive review from the Tolkien Society, and in their post about Amazon’s event Shaun praises what he saw & heard:
The show has been created with a level of craftsmanship and attention-to-detail which is unparalleled, and which is a love letter to the Professor… this is a level of commitment and interest that can’t simply be faked. Speaking with the showrunners, I am convinced that they are the right people to adapt Tolkien’s works.
– Tolkien Society chair Shaun Gunner
Nerd of the Rings, one of the biggest YouTube channels who started talking about lore and has grown into wonderful interviews with some of our favorite people, shared a 30-minute travelogue with an essential comment at the end: ”My trajectory on this show has gone from cautious to cautiously optimistic, with excitement creeping in.”
My count may be off but there were around 30 influencers at this Prime Video LOTR event, each with an incredibly personal perspective and deeply engaged audiences.
Tea with Tolkien, whose aesthetic I will always strive to reach but never attain, posts:
As a lifelong Tolkien fan, I’m no stranger to seeing adaptations go off the rails or Tolkien’s creative works being exploited for profit, so I will always retain some level of nervousness toward anything set in or inspired by Middle-earth. But after learning so much more about the show and its creators, I do feel quite a bit more confident going forward. From what I’ve seen, it seems to me that this show is in competent hands.
Tea with Tolkien
Tiktok star KnewBettaDoBetta, who was a breakout lore hero for our marathon 6-hour trailer analysis livestream, shares his excitement:
Kili from Happy Hobbit was there too, known for co-authoring ”Middle-earth From Script to Screen” with Daniel Falconer and Peter Jackson. She has mined the Weta archives, and brings a unique perspective on Amazon’s show which I hope we get more of on TORn Tuesday soon.
Raising a pint to the Professor in none other than the Lamb and Flag pub where the Inklings often gathered for a drink and to share their writing! I’ll post more soon, but suffice it to say I was humbled to have been invited by Amazon on an adventure to Oxford to visit… pic.twitter.com/tq2iNAEIQG
El Anillo Unico, often considered the Spanish equivalent of our little site since the earliest Peter Jackson days, wrote (in translation):
The most important thing we have discovered and believe we can make public, Tolkien Estate is involved in the creative process, and had active participation during the process. This gives us an idea that Amazon has really had people who are experts in the field and have helped to fill in the gaps that exist in what is written about the Second Age. We loved the music, the visual aspect is very good and it gives us an air of something already known. Quite different from the trailer itself that was released months ago
El Anillo Unico
Dr. Maggie Parke, director of the Mythgard Institute:
@LOTROnPrime had me and @tolkienprof to London last week to see bits of the #RingsofPower, Tolkien’s Oxford, & to meet the show runners, who kept up with the best of us. Their passion & knowledge made me feel like they were one of us;they get it. I’m feeling very optimistic! pic.twitter.com/dBWq3x4v9w
The top Brazilian LOTR fan group (who I am so excited to have met, thanks to this opportunity!) wrote, “The wisdom and depth of the entire team in Tolkien’s work is something never seen before.”
Na última semana fomos à uma jornada épica. A Amazon nos levou para Londres e Oxford, onde assistimos cenas de #OsAneisdePoder e tivemos a honra de conversar com os showrunners. Foi surreal e espetacular. É a maior série de todos os tempos.@LOTRonPrime#LOTRROP#RingsOfPower
Still don’t believe the hype? Here are further respected voices from the Tolkien community, for you to peruse:
Alan and Shawn were invited to London by Amazon Prime Video to view a sneak peek of footage from The Rings of Power, and to meet the showrunners! We can say that we have moved from 'cautious optimism' to 'restrained anticipation', and are looking forward to telling you more!
— The Prancing Pony Podcast (@prancingponypod) May 9, 2022
Amigos! Debéis saber que la semana pasada fui invitado por Amazon a Londres, donde pude ver algunas escenas en exclusiva de @LOTRonPrime y pude conocer a los dos showrunners de la serie. No tengo permiso para entrar en detalles sobre lo que vi o escuché, pero debéis saber que…
And finally, to everyone’s – and perhaps no one’s! – surprise, the #1 leaker of things and Bezos’s bane against secrecy, Fellowship of Fans was invited to see and share what real finished footage looks like (instead of grainy cell phone pics).
Amazon invited me to an event in London where I saw footage from the show and got to meet the showrunners. The showrunners were excellent and their passion filled me with confidence and time will tell whether that will be translated onto the screen!…
— Fellowship of Fans (@FellowshipFans) May 9, 2022
Big thanks to Varking on reddit for assembling everyone’s takes and being there in person with his own perspective! And thanks to all of the merry company, with whom we had such a great time, and whose opinions are always worth hearing. Find many of the folks from this post around our Discord, where more conversation is happening. discord.gg/theonering You can also join us tonight, 5pm PT for TORn Tuesday, when we’ll have some of these folks as our special guests. And before that, you may want to check out Corey Olsen and Maggie Parke at Other Minds and Hands, as they discuss last week’s events in their livestream (1pm PT).
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, a 5-season adaptation of tales from Tolkien’s Second Age, comes to Amazon Prime Video on September 2 this year.
Last week, staffers greendragon (writing here) and Justin from TORn were delighted to join a merry band, invited by Amazon to a The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power sneak peek event. The group, made up of YouTubers, TikTokkers, podcasters and more from across the Tolkien fandom, enjoyed a day in Oxford, walking in the footsteps of the Professor. They were then treated to a viewing of footage from Season One of the show, complete with music and visual effects. This was all topped off with a chance to meet the showrunners, and hear some of their insight into the show they are bringing to life.
Visiting Tolkien’s old haunts
It was wonderful to see some finished footage; and even more wonderful to hear the enthusiasm and passion of the two folks in charge. There will no doubt be many varied opinions on the details of The Rings of Powerwhen finally we all get to watch it this Fall; but anyone who hears the showrunners speak could not doubt their respect for the writings of Tolkien, their in-depth knowledge of the legendarium, and their desire to do justice to the Middle-earth we all know and love. It seemed like everyone in attendance was impressed and excited by what they heard. Alas, we can’t share any details right now – but we can tell you there are wonders being crafted, to bring to the small screen this September and beyond. And we hope you’ll find that an encouraging thought.
Read on for Justin’s thoughts on the experience:
TORn hosted a party to end the trip in style; at The Crown and Anchor, London
IGN reports that, during an interview at the 2022 Calgary Expo, Sean Astin confided that the “preview” for The Rings of Power gave him “the chills”.
“I for one am excited,” he said. “I saw the preview for it, and it gave me chills. It looked like they got it. I’ve been saying the whole time, they’re gonna do it right. There’s no way Amazon is gonna pay almost a billion dollars for a franchise just to screw it up.”
Sean Astin at Calgary Expo 2022
(Ed: it’s a bit ambigiguous, but we’re pretty sure Sean means the teaser trailer and that, unlike, the Vanity Fair folks, he has not seen the initial episodes.)
Astin, who was being interviewed by bestselling author Sam Maggs, said he hopes the Amazon TV series will bring new fans and renewed awareness to Peter Jackson’s films. And he added that, even if the series didn’t prove a hit, he still supported the attempt and “people with being determined and trying and expressing themselves.”
“I feel that way about all remakes. You have classics that you think ‘please don’t touch that,’ but the truth is, nothing can ever take it away.”
Overnight, Amazon Prime Video Brasil used the final episode of the 2022 edition of Big Brother Brasil to show a high-concept teaser ad for their forthcoming series, The Rings of Power.
“The Big Discovery”.
Subverting expectations, the one-minute teaser eschewed most of the footage we’d already seen via the original teaser released on February 13 during Superbowl LVI. Instead, it deploys a number of highly credentialled Brazillian celebrities to set the scene.
Thanks to the efforts of our fine Discord folks, we have the following text translation of the audio.
Speaker 1 (Thiago Leifert, former-Big Brother host): A powerful force moves our protagonists… a search for a chance to rewrite their own story of being reborn without having to die.
Speaker 2 (Antônio Fagundes, renowned telenovela actor): They heard the call, saw the bars of their imaginary prisons, conquered their fears, and went out into the world.
Speaker 3 (Maria Bethânea, influential Brazillian musician and “Queen Bee of MPB”): But make no mistake, it doesn’t end here. A safe place is, each time, further and further away, and the line between good and evil blurs.
Speaker 4 (Seu Jorge, Samba singer and actor): The fools and the weak spirited are left behind along the way. Those who arrive find in the end a new beginning: redemption. Welcome to the new legend: Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
The choice of voice talent of this calibre has drawn excited approval from Portuguese-speaking fans, who see it as an indication that Amazon will invest resources to create a high-quality localised version. Some fans are already speculating that these four may also be dub actors for the series, but at this point we don’t know for sure one way or the other.
The ad concludes with an abbreviated version of the original teaser, including a Portuguese voiceover of the line from the young Harfoot character, Elanor ‘Nori’ Brandyfoot: Wonders exist in our world. I can feel them.
Prime Video Brasil teaser poster. “Welcome to a new legend: The Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power”
Additional visual easter eggs
The ad also features a number of visual easter eggs for close observers.
The Ring verse engraved above the fireplace.
Above the fireplace are two lines of text in Portuguese that, when translated, read:
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky.
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone.
The Ring verse carved into the bookshelf.
Carved into the bookshelf (which also features a copy of The Lord of the Rings, and Homer’s Illiad) another line reads:
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die
Two pages, seemingly from the appendices of The Lord of the Rings.
The left page appears to be random sentences from the appendices of The Lord of the Rings.
We read “THE CLOSEST THAT HAS EVER (BEEN BETWEEN THE RACES)”, which is in Appendix B (The Second Age), but the sentence immediately below “AFTER THE END OF THE FIRST AGE” does not immediately follow. “OF THE KINGS OF THE NOLDOR IN EXILE” appears two lines later, whereas in the actual appendix it begins at the paragraph before.
The right-hand page indentifiably contains “…DWELT GIL-GALAD, LAST…”, and “…ELVES OF THE WEST”. It may be that it’s meant to portray the following passage from Appendix B, but it’s difficult to tell:
In Lindon north of the Lune dwelt Gil-galad, last heir of the kings of the Noldor in exile. He was acknowledged as High King of the Elves of the West. In Lindon south of the Lune dwelt for a time Celeborn, kinsman of Thingol; his wife was Galadriel, greatest of Elven women. She was sister of Finrod Felagund, Friend-of-Men, once king of Nargothrond, who gave his life to save Beren son of Barahir.
The Ring verse on sheaves of paper.
The loose paper reads:
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie
The Ring verse on wall art.
Although dim and hard to read, the wall art concludes the verse:
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
Seu Jorge‘s mysterious sapphire pendant.
Seu Jorge also wears a large, sapphire pendant. Could it have some prominence?
A painting that shows close remsemblance to part of a scene from The Rings of Power teaser.
Finally, the painting that Jorge faces near the conclusion of his spiel bears a close resemblance to the gigantic waterfall streaming off a mountainside that we saw in the teaser trailer — a waterfall that according to Vanity Fair is a Second Age location in Forodwaith.
Acknowledgements. Many thanks to TolkienGuide, our fan community and Discord folks — including Duilo, sigurboy, JJJaded, and DrNosy — for helping to dissect this teaser, and supplying screencaps.
About the author: Staffer Demosthenes has been involved with TheOneRing.net since 2001, serving first as an Associate News Editor, then as Chief News Editor during the making of the Hobbit films. Now he focuses on features and analysis.The opinions in this article are his own and do not necessarily represent those of TheOneRing.net and other staff.
