‘The Rings of Power‘ also known as ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power‘ is the biggest show to come out of Amazon Prime. Based on the eponymous novel and its appendices by J. R. R. Tolkien, the show is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth.
Amid the filming of the second season, its showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay recently opened up about several things, including how they bagged it from Tolkien’s estate. Let’s find out what else the showrunners said about ‘Rings of Power‘.
‘The Rings Of Power’ Showrunners Open Up About Several Things
J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay are two first-time showrunners helming Amazon Prime’s biggest show to date, ‘The Rings of Power‘. They opened up about several things in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Initially, HBO had pitched the idea to Tolkien’s estate. It was followed by Netflix pitching several shows, including a Gandalf series and an Aragorn drama. “They took the Marvel approach,” an insider said, “and that completely freaked out the estate.”
“It was our collective passion and fidelity to Tolkien that really won the day,” Amazon Studios TV co-head Vernon Sanders said. When Paye and McKay first heard that Tolkien’s work was coming to TV, “a shiver ran through us.”
“We had reached a point — we’d been writing movies for 10 years that should have gotten made,” McKay said. “Movies where the director was right, the cast was right, the script was right, the title was right and it was a big IP — and it still wasn’t happening. So [we thought] maybe we should try this TV thing.”
Read More: Is Halbrand, The Dark Lord – Sauron In Rings Of Power?
The Duo’s In-depth Knowledge Of Tolkien’s World Impressed Amazon
While doing their pitch to Amazon, Payne stated that their show would be “’Braveheart’, not ‘Narnia’ — you want it real and lived in.”
“When that session of fevered creativity and inspiration ended, we had a moment of silence,” McKay recalled. “I looked at the board like: ‘That’s it, this is what the show wants to be.’ “
Payne and McKay compared the follow-up events to “a six-month presidential campaign” where they tried to impress several executives. Despite being unknown in the industry with no substantial credit under their name, the studio put their fate on the two.
In one of the meetings, Mckay said “This is everything you’ve seen in The Lord of the Rings movies” and described other places on the map. “There’s so much more story to tell!”. A total of five seasons with a budget likely to touch US$1 billion.
