With Amazon’s outright takeover of JRR Tolkien’s fantasy works unrealized by almost every measure, new rumors suggest the company will “remake” The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for its second season – starting with the sidelining of its current showrunners, JD Payne and Patrick McKay.
Markella Kavenagh as Elanor ‘Nori’ Brandyfoot, Lenny Henry as Sadoc Burrows in The Lord of the Ring: The Rings of Power
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The word shake was first proposed by a renowned film critic, industry expert, and Movie Threat founder Chris Gore during an appearance on the 314th episode of the YouTube live show Midnight’s Edge in the Morning.
Speaking at the end of the first season of the series and the panel of the day, Gore was asked by the presenter Andre Einherjar, “What have you heard from your colleagues in the industry, it’s everyone. so fascinated by Rings of Power as the show’s players suggest we should be?”, to which the critic admitted to replying, “No, no.”
In fact, said Gore, not only were his industry contacts unhappy with the first season, but its reception was so distasteful that Amazon is planning to revise the second season.
Joseph Mawle as Adari in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
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“I heard from someone who has a connection at Amazon that – if you want to know – that effectively, they will be remaking it,” he explained. “No [Payne and McKay] most likely…they will not be publicly fired, but their role will be reduced.
“It might just stay in the writers’ room,” he added, “but my understanding is that they’re looking for more experienced showrunners.”
Source: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1 Episode 7 “The Eye” (2022), Amazon Studios
To this end, Gore explained that Amazon is “well aware of the problems” before noting that while “there is what they say in public,” there is also “what they do behind the scenes”.
“And what they are doing behind the scenes,” he then emphasized, “they are afraid that this was a failure than they would have expected.”
Robert Aramayo as Elrond and Benjamin Walker as High King Gil-galad in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
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Regarding what has caused the top company to sit-up and get their act together, Gore speculated that there were three main reasons for this change.
“I think the quality of the show is the first thing,” he commented first. “[Audiences are] like ‘Why am I still watching this? This brings sleep.’”
Source: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1 Episode 8 “Alloyed” (2022), Amazon Studios
“The second thing is total rejection by the fans,” he suggested later. “I can’t believe it … there must be very few people who still like it.”
“And third, direct competition from Dragon House,” he concluded. “Even as the seed before and after the seed [of the show’s airing]it started earlier and ends later [thus keeping it in viewers’ consciousness for a longer period of time]”.
Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor and Robert Aramayo as Elrond in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
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While it may be years before Gore’s rumors are confirmed or outright denied, the extremely low viewership ratings currently held by the series on general review sites Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes make it clear that something needs to be done if Amazon hopes to justify it. 1 billion dollars. Lord of the rings investment.
As for writing, Rings of Power currently holds an overall rating of 2.5/10 out of 2422 on previous releases:
Source: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Review Scores, Metacritic
At the end, 35548 fans have left the series with an average of 39% “Rotten”.
Source: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Review Scores, Metacritic
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Obviously, even without getting involved in the huge waves of debate surrounding Tolkien’s work or the cast and crew’s abuse of the author’s fans, the series has failed to land with audiences.
Charlie Vickers (Halbrand), Morfydd Clark (Galadriel) in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
And while some may feel entitled to point to its new 71/100 and 85% rating from critics, these numbers are suspect due to Amazon Studio boss Jennifer Selke’s admission that they were reviewing reviews from critics who had ” views that we would not support“, which suggests a clear bias in the views presented by those reviews that were actually published.
Furthermore, Amazon tried to position the public perception of the series in their favor, the fact that Rings of Power still has a very low audience score which speaks volumes for how little audiences enjoyed this low-key ride.
Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Amazon’s embarrassing first full season The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power now streaming on Prime Video.
Source: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1 Episode 8 “Alloyed” (2022), Amazon Studios
NEXT: ‘Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Announcer Accuses Show’s Critics of Being “A Little Wicked”
