The Rings of Power season 2 gets 18+ age rating, a first for The Lord of the Rings

Between the giant spiders, epic battles and severed fingers, The Lord of the Rings can gets pretty intense. But at the end of the day, it's still meant to be something the whole family can enjoy, and age ratings boards from around the world reflect that. For instance, in Canada, no Lord of the Rings project — movie, TV show or otherwise — has ever been rated anything higher than 16+.

Well, that's over. According to The Direct, Canada's ratings board has rated the upcoming second season of Amazon's Lord of the Rings prequel show The Rings of Power 18+. Some other countries have followed suit, although in the U.S. the second season of Amazon's show will be rated TV-14, the same as the first season.

Are Americans more inured to violence on television than Canadians? No comment. Although we don't know the details, this implies that The Rings of Power goes harder on adult content than the first season. I imagine that means violence — word is that there's a battle scene in season 2 that will last multiple episodes — rather than sex, which has never really been part of J.R.R. Tolkien's work.

You can watch the first season of The Rings of Power for free on Samsung TV Plus

Amazon is doing everything it can to make sure people watch The Rings of Power when it returns later this month, including by making the first season free to watch on Samsung TV Plus (which comes pre-installed on all Samsung TVs and Galaxy devices) starting today and running through August 28. “Nearly 300 million Samsung TV and Galaxy owners will have the opportunity to discover or catch-up on this hit series, while continuing to enjoy free access to one of the world’s largest offerings of live tv channels and popular titles on-demand," said Samsung TV Plus executive Salek Brodsky, per Variety.

Amazon spend a lot of money on this show, which is set thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings proper, so it makes sense it wants as many eyeballs on it as possible. If folk tune in, they'll spend a lot of time with Sauron, the future dark lord of all Middle-earth who is here at a bit of a low ebb. “He starts with no resources, no allies, no army – nothing except for his own cunning,” co-showrunner Alexander Payne told GQ. “And we’re going to watch as he uses manipulation, coercion, bloodshed and deceit to start his rise as the new Dark Lord of Middle-earth!”

The first season of The Rings of Power split Lord of the Rings fans, many of whom (okay, me) didn't love how fast and loose it played with J.R.R. Tolkien's established mythos. But if the show is good on its own terms, that won't matter...much. If the series is going to stick around — and according to co-showrunner Patrick McKay, they have a five-year plan — I want it to be as good as it can be, on its own terms or on Tolkien's.

“Much of season two was written before the release of season one, so we’ve got a plan and we’re sticking to it," McKay said. "We read everything. It’s impossible not to want to listen and not to want to engage with people. And if people like the show, that can feel pretty good, sometimes. But at the end of the day, we’re making the show that we believe in.”

Reading everything could be challenging considering how many people online are...aggressively frank with their opinions, let's say. “And if they don’t like the show then, you know, sometimes people are…” Payne said, trailing off. “It’s interesting to see what people have to say. We’ve been working on this for a long time. We’ve got a plan and Tolkien had a plan. We’re excited to see it all the way through.”

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