The Rings of Power showrunners reveal they listened to audience reactions for Season 1 ahead of Season 2. Whilst the basic story and scripts were completed whilst Season 1 filmed, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay say they did listen to any and all feedback for Season 1. Check out what they had to say when they spoke to Collider ahead of Season 2’s premiere in August.
“Season 2 was largely written before Season 1 came out, but Season 2 has been produced after Season 1 came out. Part of the learning process for us on this is really seeing what people seem to respond to in the show.” Payne added, “We also take in everything. We read everything. We read the reviews, we read what you all have written, we read what your colleagues have written, and we read what the fans are saying.”
Well, I hope they read my reviews? The show looked good, and almost worked well for me. However, several big decisions didn’t work. Mithril being vital to creating Rings of Power, alongside the origin of mithril itself were ill advised. Equally, despite Season 1 being all about that Sauron reveal, it never worked for me. The actual finale scenes were really good, what never worked completely for me was believing this was Sauron earlier on. Again, I will stress that there seems zero logic in Sauron taking the body of a mortal, then heading on a boat leaving Middle-earth.
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There are ways to rectify this in Season 2. One by coming up with a plausible reason Sauron was in form of a man and on that boat. This is 100% the toughest task as I can’t think of anything. Secondly, by having the mithril origin story revealed to be a lie, perhaps started by someone evil. Celebrimbor and Sauron could discover mithril is not essential to forging Rings of Power.
Where Season 1 works best is when it sticks close to what Tolkien wrote (a tricky task I admit for a series). Where it faltered was certain new ideas that Tolkien never imagined that someone thought would make good TV. So I’m not convinced when the showrunners say their mission is to stick close to Tolkien. Yet, I’ll hope this is indeed the case and Season 2 is a major improvement. After all, of all the periods the show could have chosen to cover, this specific story was the one I wanted to see most.
“It empowers you to see what people respond to, and it’s always obvious: people respond to Tolkien. That’s why Tolkien is what, next to the Bible and the Quran, reaches readers around the world with a number of copies sold. So, let’s double down on Tolkien and go back to those things that draw people in.”
So, The Rings of Power showrunners say they listened to audience reactions for Season 1 ahead of Season 2. What do you think of their comments? Leave any thoughts below.
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