Amazon: The Rings of Power is “not our Game of Thrones”

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is already nearing the end of its eight-episode first season, and while critical consensus has been split, people are definitely watching, as Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke laid out to Variety. “We’re cresting toward 100 million customers having watched it so … It’s a big number,” she said.

"We can’t wait to get more info on how the audience all breaks down. We really anticipate, with these last three episodes, a huge turnout, because it’s all coming together and curiosity is at a fever pitch. And these last few episodes are the strongest in the season, because they’re not just about the setup. They’re excellent."

And Amazon needs a lot of people to watch this show, because they’ve invested a huge amount of money in it. Just acquiring the rights cost them a cool $250 million, and then hundreds of millions more to make the first season. “We’re building infrastructure for five seasons,” Salke said. “We’re building a small city. We were always going to spend what we needed to spend to get it right. I’m fortunate to be working at this company where we want to be financially disciplined, but nobody wanted to compromise on what this would be visually.

"I think it was all money really well spent. If you look at how people are reacting to the visual experience of the show, that’s been overwhelmingly positive."

The Rings of Power vs Game of Thrones

The visuals have definitely been a highlight. That said, the show has had some trouble standing out, not only from the beloved Lord of the Rings films of yesteryear but also from some of the other big-name fantasy shows on TV at the moment, including The Witcher, House of the Dragon and even Amazon’s own The Wheel of Time.

House of the Dragon is a particular sticking point; the two shows are airing their first seasons at the same time. Also, House of the Dragon is a prequel to Game of Thrones, which still exerts a powerful gravitational pull on the minds of not just fantasy fans but TV fans in general. But Salke and company were careful for The Rings of Power not to read like a spin on Game of Thrones:

"There’s so much darkness in the world. Leaning into light was the other thing that was really appealing to everybody — bringing something to our global customer base that is hopeful and has light and that a family can watch. So many people have grown up with this literature, and we wanted this series to pay it forward for new generations of Tolkien lovers. The line we’ve been using is “If you’re old enough to read the books, you’re old enough to watch the show.” We knew from the beginning that this was not our “Game of Thrones.” In fact, the fans spoke up from the minute the deal was closed, saying, “Please don’t try to insert sex and a level of provocative violence,” things that don’t feel true to the stories that Tolkien wanted to tell."

It’s true that The Rings of Power hasn’t had extreme sex and violence, although there have still been moments that reminded me of Game of Thrones way more than I thought they would. Remember when Halbrand broke some guy’s arm against a door? It’s hard to imagine that kind of body horror in any of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books.

Then there’s the structure. While House of the Dragon has eschewed the geographic sprawl of Game of Thrones for something more intimate, The Rings of Power actually does remind me of GoT in the way it follows groups of disparate characters having separate adventures all over the map. So there may still be some ways that the shadow of Game of Thrones haunts The Rings of Power.

The Rings of Power has even muddied up the moral framework of Tolkien’s stories, which were mostly about battles between good and evil, by introducing figures like the evil elf Adar, or acquainting us with Galadriel’s dark side. Still, the conflicts are admittedly less murky than on House of the Dragon. “The whole idea of why we got the rights to begin with was to tell the story of good versus evil — of people coming together from all different worlds to fight evil, really,” Salke said. “That was really the essence and the heartbeat of the whole thing. And that’s why it resonates with people — that’s why showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay’s vision has resonated.”

"Season 1 is really doing the hard work of setting up who all those characters are, what are the worlds and how are they going to come together to fight the ultimate evil to save the world. I mean, what could be more resonant than that?"

When might The Rings of Power season 2 come out?

Salke and company are gearing up for five seasons of The Rings of Power. The first will end in just a couple Sundays; there are only two episodes left. When might season 2 come along?

"We want the shortest time possible between seasons, but we want to keep the bar just as high. So it’ll take what it takes. But there’s been some urgency around moving quickly, which is why these guys have been writing all through their hiatus. We’re moving fast."

So in short we don’t know, but as long Jeff Bezos supports this thing, we’ll see more of The Rings of Power eventually. “Jeff Bezos loves this show and this whole endeavor as much as anybody possibly could,” Salke said. “I’ve talked to him a lot about it. He loves the show, and I can tell he’s proud of it. And he respects the integrity of what we’re setting up and the intelligence and thoughtfulness behind it. And, of course, we hope that more and more people come to it, because it’s five seasons of storytelling.”

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