Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Is a ‘Mega Epic’

If The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power does its job, it’d make Peter Jackson’s films seem like Mad Max. In a manner. The upcoming present took over Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday to sure, debut a brand new trailer, but in addition clarify a bit extra of what the present is about, and what the intentions of its creators are.

“In the Third Age, Middle-Earth is post apocalyptic,” co-showrunner Patrick McKay stated. “All of these kingdoms have fallen. The elves are on their way out the door. In the Second Age, Middle-Earth is vibrant. Filled with life…On the show, we’re meeting a very different Middle-Earth than you saw in the movies.”

That’s the largest factor McKay and fellow showrunner J.D. Payne wished followers to get out of their presentation. That sure, that is Lord of the Rings. Yes, there are some characters you recognize. But simply because it’s a prequel sequence doesn’t imply it might probably’t be simply as sweeping and epic because the Oscar-winning movies. In truth, they’ve much more room to inform tales, trigger they’ve dedicated to 50 hours of tv over 5 seasons.

“For this first season we want to reintroduce Middle-Earth,” McKay stated. “We’re thousands of years before the Third Age. The societies and kingdoms and peoples are very different. The world is in a different state and Gandalf says, in the Shadow of the Past, ‘After a defeat and a respite, a shadow grows again in a new form,’ roughly. And that’s what this story is about this season. It’s about reintroducing this world and the return of evil.”

For an concept of what sort of occasions audiences will see within the present, you want solely have a look at the primary 10 minutes of Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring. Take that prologue and actually deepen it and fill it out.

“We felt that the Second Age was freaking awesome,” McKay stated. “It’s Tolkien’s amazing untold story [and] is so iconic. The forging of the Rings of Power. The rise of the dark lord Sauron. The rise and fall of Tolkien’s Atlantis, the greatest kingdom of men ever created, Númenor, and then, finally, the last alliance of elves and men to come together and defeat Sauron. Well, almost defeat. The ring survives so evil can continue to another age.”

“But that story struck us as one that could really live up to and match the grandeur of what we knew the canvas was,” he concluded. “A 50-hour story from the beginning. If we’re going to tell 50 hours of story, we really want to make it worth it. Just as fans and viewers and lovers of Middle-Earth and Tolkien, we didn’t want to do a side thing. A spinoff or the origin story of something else. We wanted to find a huge Tolkienian mega epic, and Amazon were wonderfully crazy enough to say ‘Yes, let’s do that.’”

That mega epic begins on September 2 when The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuts on Prime Video.

Want extra io9 information? Check out when to anticipate the newest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and every thing you could learn about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.