It’s Officially The End Of An Era For The Rings Of Power

While Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings spinoff, The Rings of Power, has been the only live-action project in the franchise for years, that is soon set to end with the arrival of another movie in the series. Although HBO is the king of fantasy TV, Prime Video has spent a lot of money to ensure that the streaming service can compete with the industry leader. Compared to Netflix, which has The Witcher and Castlevania franchises, Prime Video is a veritable treasure trove of extremely expensive, big-name fantasy hits.

There are their Critical Role shows, The Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein, which managed to turn the Dungeons and Dragons actual play podcast into an animated fantasy epic to rival Game of Thrones. Then there is the streaming service’s infamously expensive live-action Lord of the Rings prequel series, The Rings of Power, which began airing in 2022.

Set thousands of years before the movie trilogy, The Rings of Power seasons 1 and 2 focused on the wars and political struggles that shaped the history of Middle-earth during its Second Age. Although technically suitable for younger viewers, The Rings of Power is no family-friendly fantasy show in the vein of HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter reboot. Instead, the epic series largely apes the style of Peter Jackson’s immersive, ambitious movie trilogy.

The Rings of Power Is No Longer The Only Live-Action Lord of the Rings Project In Production

While comparisons between the original Lord of the Rings movies and The Rings of Power have not always favored the Prime Video show, the series has enjoyed some reprieve from comparisons thanks to the distance between them. Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies were released between 2001 and 2003, and his far more divisive The Hobbit movies arrived between 2012 and 2014.

This means the series began airing almost a decade after the last big-screen Lord of the Rings story. Since comparisons between the live-action movies already plague HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter reboot, The Rings of Power was lucky to avoid direct comparisons with contemporary Lord of the Rings movies for the show’s first four years.

However, that is set to change soon. Although The Rings of Power has been the only live-action Lord of the Rings content viewers have received ever since it premiered, now there is a new live-action movie coming up in the form of 2027’s The Hunt for Gollum.

Will The Hunt for Gollum Change The Rings of Power’s Reception?

Directed by Andy Serkis, The Hunt for Gollum is set to star franchise newcomers Jamie Dornan, Leo Woodall, and Kate Winslet, as well as returning series regulars Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, and Lee Pace, alongside Serkis himself in the title role. This is great news for the fans of the franchise, but could be great or terrible for the creators of The Rings of Powet.

Luckily for them, The Rings of Power season 3’s release date ensures that the show’s third outing will have been and gone an entire year before The Hunt for Gollum’s arrival. That said, the impact of the new movie on the existing show is tough to predict. On the one hand, comparisons might increase. On the other hand, the show no longer needs to be treated as a “replacement” for the Peter Jackson films and can be judged as its own thing.

There is a good chance that The Hunt for Gollum’s direct connections and shared cast members mean the movie will draw heat away from the Prime Video show, as the theatrical spinoff earns more close comparisons with Jackson’s trilogies. However, only time will tell how The Hunt for Gollum impacts the reception of Prime Video’s The Rings of Power when the two Lord of the Rings spinoffs arrive in the coming years.

Release Date

September 1, 2022

Network

Amazon Prime Video

Showrunner

John D. Payne, Patrick McKay, Louise Hooper, Charlotte Brändström, Wayne Yip

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