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
Theo, played by Tyroe Muhafidin, has joined the list of characters now confirmed as denizens of the Second Age of Middle-earth in Prime Video’s upcoming Rings of Power series. Living with his mother, Bronwyn, in the village of Tirharad, we still know little about Theo’s story or character. We do know, though, that whatever is to come will be entwined with one of the more menacing weapons that Amazon has also revealed: a broken sword and possible family heirloom.
Tyroe Muhafidin as Theo. Credit: Ben Rothstein, Amazon Prime Video
We have seen this sword before, revealed in a series of hands-centric posters that Prime Video released in February. We are still left to speculate about the origin and nature of this broken heirloom – possibly marked by Black Speech – and how Theo and his mother come to possess it. Could this have been crafted by Sauron/Annatar during his seductive stay on Númenor? A remnant of a past migration of Black Númenoreans as they colonized Haradwaith to the south of Gondor? A family heirloom from an absent father, now consumed by a piece of jewelry more powerful than he bargained for?
Credit: Amazon Prime Video
With Theo’s arrival, we are beginning to see some facets of a fuller family in this branch of the storyline that the Rings of Power writers have been crafting. Bronwyn, played by Nazanin Boniadi, is a single mother and village healer, living in apparently rustic conditions with her son well to the south of more familiar Lord of the Rings landscapes. But we know there must be more, even without that broken sword. Bronwyn has a romantic connection with the Sylvan Elf Arondir, played by Ismael Cruz Córdova. (How does Theo feel about that?) And now we also know that Nazanin Boniadi can strike a classic “New Zealand is Middle-earth” pose with the best of our Second Age heroines.
Nazanin Boniadi as Bronwyn. Credit: Ben Rothstein, Amazon Prime Video
And again, we’re left with more questions than answers. Where is Bronwyn headed? Does her regal robe reveal that “village healer” is only a part of her story? Can we get some GPS coordinates for this shooting location? How many cosplay homages will this photo inspire?
Tyroe Muhafidin is a 16-year old Australian actor who has appeared in an array of short films and television series, including Dusk (2018) and Caravan (2019). This will be his first appearance in a major role.
Tyroe Muhafidin
Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerbrings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. The series will launch on September 2, 2022.
Six rounds later, with over 65,000 votes placed across all rounds, a winner has been decided. The victor was announced last night on TORn Tuesday; but if you missed that, we can reveal for you here this year’s Middle-earth March Madness Grand Champion:
Saul Zaentz Co., has filed two trademark applications covering a pair of phrases now associated with Amazon’s forthcoming TV series: “Rings of Power” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”.
The company is the current owner of exclusive worldwide rights to motion picture, merchandising, stage and other rights in certain literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien including The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. It also announced in early February that it was putting all those rights up for sale.
The trademark applications, which were filed with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) on April 5 through German intellectual property specialists Boehmert & Boehmert, cover a wide array merchandising for goods and services under different categories.
Closer examination of the two filings, however, reveal that the key crossover between the two seems to cover electronic downloadable and online games and trading cards under Nice categories #9 and #41.
Whether that indicates that a Rings of Power-associated video game might be in the works as part of some partnership with Amazon remains to be seen. But, since the Saul Zaentz Company holds in perpetuity the trademarks on all the characters and places in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, it might have to be involved in merchandising deals.
The EUIPO filing on “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”.
The news of the filing first emerged on the Reddit forum Leaks and Rumours.
And then there were two… We’re down to the Final of Middle-earth March Madness 2022, A Battle of the Ages – 64 events from the first four Ages of Arda began the tournament, but now only two remain. What will be the Grand Champion for this year? YOU decide! Voting is open until Tuesday morning (April 5th); and we’ll announce the winner on TORn Tuesday that evening. Here’s the button so you can place your vote now!
