Amazon and Jeff Bezos spent close to a billion dollars to acquire the property rights to the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) stories from beloved author JRR Tolkien’s estate and to produce a prequel show they call Amazon’s Ring of Power (RoP). Bezos himself said he wanted a hit show something of the scale and popularity of HBO’s hit show Game of Thrones and was willing to spend more money than the GDP of many small countries to achieve this vision. The LOTR franchise seemed like the right place to build this empire due to the financial success of the Peter Jackson films and a strong loyal following of the books across the globe. The new RoP series is scheduled to be released on Amazon on September 2nd, 2022 (which by the way, is the day Tolkien died in 1973).
Many Tolkien fans expressed concern upon hearing the announcement of this project. Their concerns were based upon Amazon’s track record with shows such as Wheel of Time where there was very little resemblance to the original source material (book series) and instead focused on introducing diversity and woke ideology at the expense of an actual story. This left many readers of the Wheel of Time feeling very disappointed and angry and Tolkien readers fearing the same would happen to their beloved world. Another original Amazon-produced fantasy show Carnival Row was such a woke diversity dumpster fire, that despite having an A-list actor and almost A-list actresses it is unlikely there will be a second season of it due to lack of popularity and people being turned-off by the in-your-face and non-stop social justice virtue signalling.
As for RoP, there was a series of news which seemed to point to something being amiss in the creative development of the show. This included the announcement that the foremost Tolkien lore scholar in the world and and whose job it was to provide guidance for keeping the show true to Tolkien was fired and no other replacement named. Another tidbit was the show runners stating they wanted to produce something that “…everyone can identify with and which reflects the world we now live in.”. Since then the show runner have been busy walking back their comments but it is clear to any die-hard Tolkien fan that the RoP series have very little basis in what Tolkien wrote with out-of-character story lines and things that just don’t align with the world that Tolkien painstaking built over his lifetime.
When Peter Jackson made the original LOTR trilogy, he stated he would not make a modern retelling but attempt to capture Tolkien’s vision as faithfully as possible. Most fans and critics would agree he achieved this. While Jackson took more liberties in the Hobbit series of movies which garnered a lot of criticism from Tolkien fans, the Hobbit trilogy still stuck to the original story outline and any new side stories not from the book were still consistent in keeping with Tolkien’s world and characters.
Fan Fears Confirmed
With the recently release of sneak peaks and trailers, fears of the Tolkien fandom appear to be confirmed. Fans immediately reacted negatively to the non-Tolkien changes of the show. The character elf-queen Galadriel who in the Tolkien books, was a representation of royalty, grace and beauty whose power was her ability to persuade and inspire is now a sword-wielding female version of Conan the Barbarian hacking her way through her enemies. Also, Galadriel appears to have no husband in the show which Tolkien specifically wrote as always being by her side probably because having a husband would take away from Galadriel’s spotlight. Some fans took issue with even how the elves look in the new trailers because they are supposed to all be tall, white, and with blond hair. RoP elves appear to have out-of-the-salon looking short hairdos. While Tolkien’s world was based upon Northern European history and mythology for its setting, the show now has black dwarves, black humans, black elves, etc. and female main characters. Yes, the sneak peaks at the show indicates there are mostly female main characters because men are weak and stupid in general according to modern media conventions.
With the uproar raised over the release of the first trailers or sneak peaks, the show runners tried to walk back the marketing by stating that “there will be no modern-day politics written into the show”. However, this statement is in direct contrast to the RoP actors who in recent interviews brag about how their characters are “activists” and talk non-stop about how diversity is a cornerstone of the Amazon project rather than say anything about the story or how Tolkien himself would have reacted to their version. Tolkien in life was especially protective of his life’s work and the mythology he so carefully crafted.
Tolkien Fans are Racist?
Because so much is invested in RoP show, both in terms of money and reputation, Amazon is taking the strategy of attacking any Tolkien fans who dares to question their modern untelling of Tolkien as racist. This is now pretty much standard practice in the media industry that anyone who questions the woke vision of the world must be racist. Sort of like the tactic of calling anyone who questioned any of President Obama’s decisions as a racist because how can you possibly question a black President unless you are one? If Amazon is looking to alienate the fandom of Tolkien, they are certainly doing all the right things. However, this calls into question why Amazon would spend so much money on something that has such a dedicated and loyal fanbase only to do everything in their power to deliberately anger and push them away. But then again, we have all seen what Disney has done to Star Wars (and it is not good).
One Tolkien fan writes:
It began with the forging of the great films, Threads were given by Tolkien: wisest and fairest of all writers, Rights were granted to Jackson, great minder and craftsman of the mountain of lore, And nine, nine hours were gifted to the race of men who, above all else, desire quality, But they were all of them deceived, for another show was made. In the land of Hollywood, in the fires of Amazon Prime, the Dark Lord Bezos forged in secret a master flop, And into this show he poured his money, his greed, and his will to dominate all film, One film to ruin them all, One interpretation to find them, One ideology to bring them all, and in the wokeness bind them, In the land of Hollywood, where the child groomers lie.
Other fans complain about the overall look and feel of the trailers saying that the production appears cheap with an overuse of CGI:
Who will be Watching?
Mainstream media outlets and magazines bought and paid for by Amazon have already declared RoP a triumph of filmmaking and praised its social activism and that the previous LOTR and Hobbit trilogy made by Peter Jackson will be nothing but a footnote in history (I think not). This is an attempt to attract as many non-Tolkien readers to tune in and watch as they have angered and pushed away the fandom who love the books. The gamble Amazon is taking seems to be on a broader mainstream appeal. If the previous Amazon productions are any guide, this will be a commercial failure. However, the show runners and Amazon will walk away patting themselves on the back for putting together such a ground-breaking and socially conscious show. Remember, a billion dollars for a global corporation like Amazon is just another Saturday night.
As for me, if the Tolkien fandom starts talking that the show is worth watching then I may consider it. However, I’ve had enough diversity and social justice rammed down my throat enough to last a lifetime and am not interested in any more. I’ve seen what Amazon has done with their shows and I am fairly certain their remake of LOTR will be no different.
