Summary
- The Rings of Power showrunners embrace mixed fans' reaction, and see criticism as token of love for Tolkien's work.
- Season 2 brings iconic characters like Tom Bombadil and Shelob to Second Age party.
- Sauron and Celebrimbor's complex relationship is central focus of new season, promises emotional depth.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Rings of Power had a mixed reaction from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Lord of the Rings fans. From a Galadriel viewers weren’t used to seeing, to a Balrog out of time, and invented characters and storylines that filled in the gꦯaps of Tolkien’s Legendarium, it was never going🌺 to please everyone.
But showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick 🐭McKay don’t mind that the show had its criticsꦚ. In fact, they embrace it.
“It's gratifying to have such a fanbase that we have in fans of Middle-earth and fans of Tolkien,” Payne tells me ahead of the Season 2 premiere in London. “And there's a lot of different thoughts and opinions and feelings that come whenever you're working with such a big property. We see it all as a token of people's love for Tolkien. And so we appreciate that people are so engaged with the material. In terms of how it affected us, we had finished writing Season 2 before Season 1 came out, so there wasn't really much opportunity [to change things] there.
“But I'd say also, we read criticism and read comments and thoughts, and couldn't say there's any one that spun the show in a different direction, but it all gets ground up, and then who knows how it affects you as you're there at the keyboard and in the writing room. We are our own harshest critics, believe it or not. There's nothing anyone can say about the show that we or one of our closest collaborators hasn't already said.”
McKay adds, “Positive or negative, it's all background noise to a certain extent.” They can’t be too focused on any one criticism because they’re looking at the bigger picture. The pair hope that every episode of every season is a learning experience that will improve the show as time goes on.
“We as producers and writers have all the institutional knowledge we gained by making the first season in making the second season,” McKay says. “And hopefully that pays off in all kinds of ways, in that maybe we're a little better at doing our jobs, and we know the show better than before, and hopefully every episode is getting a little better than the last one, and every season better than the one before.”
Despite the fact that it was wr🤪itten before the first season aired, Season 2 of The Rings of Power is bringing plenty of iconic faces from Tolkien’s work tꦏo the Second Age party. Trailers have already shown Ents, Narvi, Tom Bombadil, and a young Shelob – all characters and monsters that fans have been clamouring to see on screen for decades or longer.
But how did the showrunn🧸ers decide who to add to the show – as many of these characters are out of place orไ time, transplanted in just-about-lore-abiding ways to the story The Rings of Power is telling?
“We knew that the Stranger was going to be having this coming-of-age story, as he's going on this journey of self-discovery and figuring out what his powers are, how he controls them, what he's supposed to use them for,” explains Payne. “[So] we said, who would be an apt person to guide him through that process? Who's the oldest, wisest person in Middle-earth? Well, Tom Bombadil, we know, is around during the Second Age, and was here before the first raindrop and the first acorn. So if anyone could guide the Stranger along this journey, we thought it would be him. So really, that was ‘opportunity meets storytelling need’, and we feel like the audiences are gonna find it delightful.”
McKay picks another iconic character to wax lyrical about, and the spawn of Ungoliant was simply a great opportuni𓆏ty to give an iconic monster a cameo in thei🧔r series.
“In terms of Shelob, we have Isildur, who was believed dead and abandoned in Middle-earth, and now he's gotta make his way out of Mordor, and we thought, what sort of obstacles might he face along the way? We know Shelob set up shop in Mordor at some point, and the idea of a young Isildur and a young Shelob crossing paths was too delightful to pass up.”
PQ: “There’s this weird, not quite bromance…” J. D. Payne o🉐n Annatar and Celebrimbor
But Payne is most looking forward to seeing Sauron and Celebrimbor’s on-screen chemistry over the course of the next eight episodes. This season is “focused on Sauron”, Payne tells me, and in other interviews the pair have singled out the Elven smith as one of the main p🍸rotagonists this time around, while Galadriel is busy collecting her thoughts and mending her broken trust in others.
“The relationship between ‘the Charlies’, as we call them, Charlie Vickers and Charlie Edwards – Annatar and Celebrimbor – is harrowing,” Payne says. “They go from, initially, Sauron seduces him and then manipulates him and, ultimately, gaslights him into making the Rings of Power, but it leads to a place where they become these sort of close collaborators, and there's this weird, not quite bromance, but I think a relationship that can exist between people who are working to make something difficult together.
“And it ends in a place where you feel so much pꦕathos for Celebrimbor, and I think maybe perhaps one of⛦ my favourite scenes we shot this season is one of their final scenes together. So [I’m] really looking forward for audiences to experience that.”
