Amazon Prime Video is all set to welcome an original series about legendary, horrifying creatures and magic rings, on its platform this September 2nd. Titled Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, this prequel series is directed, and executive produced by JA Bayona. The series is set thousands of years ahead of Peter Jackson’s famous LOTR trilogy, and has a completely unique plot with new challenges, magical powers, and a fantastic environment. 

The 3-part LOTR film series, directed by Peter Jackson, has achieved cult status amongst fantasy lovers. Bringing back that success for the OTT platform, Bayona and showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay have based the premise in alignment with legendary author J.R.R. Tolkien and Jackson’s approach to the story. Co-showrunner Patrick McKay claimed that the show doesn’t compete with the founding series and that the team has walked on Tolkien’s and Jackson’s path as mere ‘admirers’ of their craft. “Anyone approaching ‘Lord Of The Rings on-screen’ would be wrong not to think about how wonderfully right Jackson got so much of it. But we’re admirers from afar, that’s it. The Rings Of Power doesn’t try to compete with him,” Mckay said. 

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has Tolkien’s ‘Middle-earth’ backdrop, shown in the film series, but on a different timeline, i.e., the second age. The unique landscape takes LOTR fans to an era of relative peace when great powers were forged, hope was at its highest peak, kingdoms rose to glory, heroes fought, and villains got covered in darkness. Acknowledging similarities of ‘The Rings of Power’ with the Harry Potter franchise and the former LOTR series, McKay said that they’ve dug deep into the mystical world, which was treated superficially by competing properties previously. “There’s the whimsy, friendship, and humor that Harry Potter is so beloved for – but there’s sophistication, politics, history, mythology, and depth too. So, for us, it was about going deeper into what we are, rather than worrying about what other folks are doing,” added Mckay. 

Days ahead of its release, comes GOT’s prequel ‘House of the Dragon’. But there’s no comparison between these two properties as makers of the new LOTR series are focused on Tolkien’s mission. “You can psych yourself out in keeping up with the Joneses, but one of the mantras on this was to ‘go back to the source material.’ What would Tolkien do? Some of these other competing properties – they play one octave beautifully, but Tolkien was playing every note on the piano. He had that variety of tones,” said Mckay. 

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power stars Nazanin Boniadi, Peter Mullan, Benjamin Walker, and Morfydd Clark, and begins streaming on September 2nd, 2022, exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

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