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So, first thing’s first, The Lord of the Rings started off as the Hobbit, a children’s fantasy novel by English author J.R.R. Tolkien back in 1937. This inevitably led to the creation of the sequel, The Lord of the Rings. Without spoiling anything, it’s basically a story about a group of hobbits—halflings who enjoy feasting and comfort—going on adventures—i.e. doing the complete opposite of what they would rather do.
Needless to say, the books became a huge success, with the Lord of the Rings series alone selling over 150 million copies, and becoming one of the best-selling books of all time. Since then, there were various adaptations of the fantasy epic, including radio, audio books, as well as film and television.
Many actually know the franchise from its film adaptations from the early 2000s. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy has won numerous awards, including 11 Oscars and several consecutive Academy Best Picture nominations.
Initially, the idea for a TV series was pitched to Netflix, HBO, and Amazon, with the last one picking it up. After working out all of the legal and creative details, Amazon announced its TV series, titled The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, back in January of 2020.
Two years later, on September 1st, the first season launched with a planned 8-episode rundown. The first two episodes were released at once, while the remaining 6 will come out every week starting September 9th.
But as is with every fandom, most are protective of their beloved franchises. And once the episodes hit the ether—actually, even before that—everyone already had an opinion and reacted accordingly.
In short, reactions and opinions were all over the place.
Not-in-so-short, besides all of The Lord of the Rings fan pressure on Amazon to do a good job, there were those who were set out to hate on it whichever way they can. Whether because it included an all new cast, or because the first impressions were not up to the expectations of the fans, or because it was by Amazon, folks shared their skepticism.
One skeptic was Elon Musk. His reaction to the pilot was that every male thus far looked like a coward, a jerk or both and only Galadriel was brave, smart and nice.
Oh, and there was also that one tiny little fact of how could they release the show on the anniversary of Tolkien’s death?!
Others, on the other hand, praised the show. Most do agree that it wasn’t all that bad. Sure, at first it was a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, it currently stands at 84% and a 6.8/10 on IMDB. Besides, it’s still too early to rate it as a whole because we’re only 2 episodes in, and the picture should become clearer by October 14 when the last episode in the season is scheduled to air.
While many loved Morfydd Clark’s performance as Galadriel, others pointed out the overall cinematography, the locations and the overall quality as being absolutely fantastic, and that it was worth the wait.