Jessica Vieira | Contributing Writer
It’s been an exciting couple of weeks for Lord of the Rings fans. From twenty-two new posters teasing characters, and behind the scenes photos courtesy of Vanity Fair, to a brand new teaser trailer for Super Bowl Sunday, the show’s year-long silence has officially been broken. This is the first new Lord of the Rings content being created since The Hobbit movies came out in 2012.
In the trailer released for Super Bowl, There are shots spanning major cities that fans have only seen as ruins in the background of Peter Jackson’s movies, or as described in Tolkien’s books. Shots of characters are next – the elves Galadriel, played by Morfydd Clark, and Elrond played by Robert Aramayo, and new characters that haven’t been on screen before, like the elf, Arondrir, played by Ismael Cruz Córdova, and the dwarf, Disa, played by Sophia Nomvete. The trailer closes with two people’s hands reaching for each other to hold.
The show is set in the Second Age of Middle Earth, a time for which JRR Tolkien wrote very little, with the Silmarillion – a prequel to Middle Earth – taking place in the first Age, and the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy taking place in the third age.
Tolkien, after the success of his Lord of the Rings books in 1954, wanted to fill in some blanks to give readers context about Middle Earth and its history. The stories he did complete, however, were never published in a book format. Instead, these stories were put in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, and never became their own novels. Because the content to pull from is little, Amazon has created new plot points and characters for the show.
With new characters, and changes being made to the Middle Earth cinematic universe, there also come changes to the representation being presented. This cast is much more diverse than Peter Jackson’s, and there has been backlash on the internet. Self-proclaimed Tolkien purists believe that Tolkien wouldn’t have wanted people of color representing his stories, and oppose the company’s decision to broaden the scope of Middle Earth in representation. In response to this backlash, Amazon has put out a statement that they wanted to represent how the world actually looked. Aside from the “purists”, Fans everywhere have been excited overall. Twitter was abuzz on the night of the Super Bowl, before and after the trailer released, with fans talking about and analyzing every tiny detail. It’s safe to say that though there are always going to be people that oppose representation, the world of media will progress to reflect what our world is like outside of the screen.
Jeffrey Bezos, Amazon’s executive chair, has spent over one billion dollars in funding for production. He says that Lord of the Rings is an obsession of his, and is very interested in creating something that fans will love.The first season is confirmed to have eight episodes, and planning for the second season has already started. The show is scheduled to release five seasons. The first episode is set to release on Amazon Prime on September 2nd, 2022.