New trailer for Rings of Power Released

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Some of my favorite movies are from the 40’s-60’s and were so when I was a kid. I enjoy good storytelling and acting. I think there’s a reason why Return of the King won as many Oscars as it did.

I personally can't watch series that I grew up with anymore as recently as the 1990s. Movies such as the Breakfast club, Independence day and iRObot already look dated and I can easily pick apart the acting.

Seinfeld and Cosby show might illicit a laugh but the world the characters live in is not longer relatable to me.

To me, a good movie is a good movie. i don’t feel quite the same way about sitcoms, but I’ve never really been into them.

Alfred Hitchcock movies, for example, are still fantastic.

Movies that are critically acclaimed for acting and directing tend to age well.

I don't understand your preoccupation with how it might be received in the future. This is an 8 episode miniseries looking to cash in this year. Whether people will want to watch it decades from now seems irrelevant. How well is it going to do now? Is it going to appeal to fans and newcomers alike? Is it going to stay within established lore? (looks like it so far). And most importantly is it going to have good acting and a good storyline for its 2022 audience?


In the case of ROP they purposely selected people of color to play prominent roles purely for the sake of diversity. But I don't see that as disrupting the lore any. There's actually a breed of hobbit described as being darker skinned anyways. Hobbits in general were said to have long clever brown fingers. And these hobbits are going to be a nomadic people, because ROP takes place way before The Shire was established. The human kingdom of Arnor is in existence where the Shire will eventually be in in this timeline.

Yeah makes sense.

If you mean now then its just based on Amazon Prime's goals and by the looks of things they are no different to Disney and other franchises that only loosely base the new instalments of LOTR and Star wars on the original canon. There may be a number of reasons for switching things up and moving in new directions. Whatever the reason the need for creativity to ensure good subscription numbers to their platforms is paramount. And...guess what they achieved that. Old fans will subscribe and watch Disney and Amazon prime because they are fans. No money lost there. And diversifying the cast brings in new a market and lays the seeds for generating new customer base for the future (hence my reference for the future of the brand/franchise).



There were accusations that Tolkien's portrayed the middle earth humans elves, hobbits and dwarves as Europeans whereas the bad characters in the final battle including the orcs and others were non-European. The elephant riders and other allies of Sauron looked decidedly Indian and Middle eastern for some reason.

Tolkien's literature was very heavily influenced by old Anglo-Saxon and Scandanavian tales but they are his own re-packaging so its not like he invented this stuff

The human allies of Sauron were Numenoreans he had corrupted because being in the south they were close to Mordor and more under his influence. They are described as dark skinned probably due to long exposure in desert regions.

Orcs originally started out as elves who were captured, genetically altered and corrupted by Sauron's boss Morgoth (basically Satan himself).

The Dwarves on the other hand are an allegory for Jews, and criticized by some as an antisemitic stereotype.

The Numenoreans mentioned above were basically from Atlantis. Numenor being Tolkien's version of it. Some of the main characters in ROP like Elendil and Isildur are Numenoreans who escaped Numenor right before it sank, and established the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor in Middle Earth.

Fair enough. Rivendell and Rohan looked decidedly Scandinavian, the long house and mead halls of Rohan could easily have been taken from Beuwulf

This is Tolkien's watercolor depiction of Rivendell:



This is a depiction of Elrond's house by the Hildebrandts for the 1976 Tolkien calendar:



Theoden's mead hall Meduseld definitely seems to be based on Hrothgar's mead hall Heorot in Beuwulf.

I also note the name Theoden as The Oden. Oden of course being a Norse god.

Peter jackson's rendition seems to be even closer to Heorot in Beauwulf