Rings of Power Showrunners Confirm That Season 1 Criticism Will Impact Future Episodes

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It’s been quite a bumpy ride for the cast and crew of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The prequel series to the iconic fantasy stories, while overall successful, had its fair share of criticism from hardcore Tolkien fans. In an interview with Vanity Fair, showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay made it clear that those criticisms were heard and will have an impact on later seasons. Payne says the following.

Certainly, you look at audience response, and you see what characters people love, and what kinds of storytelling moves them. I wouldn’t say we’re over-correcting for any of it, but we’re certainly listening to people’s responses.

Rings of Power season 1 wrapped on October 14th, but production for season 2 officially started October 3rd. The show is set to have a total of five seasons, with Amazon pumping quite a lot of funding and hype. Naturally, Payne has stated that the script for season 2 is pretty locked down, which is to be expected. But that doesn’t mean changes can’t still be implemented, even if they are more subtle.

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“In terms of how it’s impacted season two, we wrote most of season two before season one came out. We’re refining the last bits of it now as we’re starting to shoot. But really, the cake was kind of baked before the audience response came in.”

McKay also added in that the bar couldn’t be higher for what the team wants to achieve. The tricky side is that what the team sees compared to what the audience sees have a long space in between. Showrunners that already know the twists and turns in the writing process see a very different canvas than what the millions of viewers see when the project is already completed.

“…In some ways the audience response, we’re a year ahead of that because we saw it a year ago, and we were like, ‘Here it’s really seeming to work, and here it’s maybe not working as well as we might have hoped or thought it would,'” he said. “So to the extent there’s a course correction, it’s just us building on the strengths of the show and on the strengths of our actors and our designers.”

Related: The Rings of Power: All Filming Locations, Explained

The Long Road To The One Ring Amazon Studios

From its conception, Rings of Power was always meant to tell its story over a 50-hour series. The showrunners recently opened up about both their long and short-term plans for the series. McKay had this to say on the details.

“There is a long-term plan with tent pole moments along the way and a very specific and clear endpoint. And that goes not just for sort of big narrative plot lore things, but also for character arcs.”

Currently, it’s unclear if any of those tent pole moments will be affected by the criticisms. Since the show’s premiere in September, it’s been subjected to notable backlash ranging from changes from the source material to ‘forced diversity.’ The outcry has caught the attention of notable names fighting for either side of the issue, such as fantasy author Neil Gaiman and entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Despite the negative attention, Rings of Power has proven its success in viewership for the Amazon Prime Video streaming platform. As fans are eagerly waiting for the return of their new favorite Middle Earth residents, this only proves the weight on the production team. Can they tell their story while pleasing the hardcore Tolkien nerds while keeping their new audience? Only time will tell.

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