The Showrunner Says That Modern Politics Will Not Influence The Lord Of The Rings TV Series
There are less than two months until The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres online on Amazon Prime Video. Excited? Are you excited? The show takes place hundreds of years before Bilbo Baggins’ adventures. Looks super promising.
Rumors circulated online that modern politics might influence the series story. However, as reported by GamesRadar+, Patrick McKay clarified that this will not be the case.
“This was one Of Tolkien’s debate points with C.S. McKay said that Lewis was his friend and colleague. He needed not to be creating an allegory. He wasn’t commenting on historical events from his time or any other time. He wasn’t trying to communicate a message to current politics. He wanted to create an eternal mythos applicable across time – that is his word, ‘applicable.
He said, “Every single decision we made in making this show has had been to be faithful to that aspiration because that’s all we want as viewers.” We don’t want the material to feel outdated. We strive to be timeless. Because so much of the information in these books hasn’t aged one day, it’s why they still resonate with people. We aspire to achieve the same. We believe that people will feel the same after seeing the show and understanding the context of the characters, stories, and worlds.
The story was condensed because if the Second Age had been allowed for thousands of years, the human characters would have died between episodes. This is not ideal. McKay said that although a non-linear series was considered, it was decided that it would be less emotionally engaging for the audience. Fair enough.