The teaser for Rings of Power, the most expensive TV series ever made, is here. How did Twitter react?
Amazon Prime Video dropped the first teaser to the long-awaited Lord of the Rings series, The Rings of Power last weekend. Long-time fans of author JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth franchise have had a series of divisive reactions towards the most expensive series ever made.
A billionaire fanboy: Following the dramatic announcement of the series in January, where literal molten metal spelled out its title, this is our first look at the big-budget Lord of the Rings (LOTR) prequel. The series that made Jeff Bezos personally dish out $250 million just to acquire the rights to, will cost an estimated $1 billion to produce its five planned seasons, essentially making it the most expensive TV series to ever be made.
To think the franchise was resurrected through nothing but the whims and fancies of an LOTR fan, albeit a billionaire megacorporation owner, doesn’t come as too much of a surprise considering how seriously Tolkien fans are invested in the franchise.
The Second Age: The series is set thousands of years before the events of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit ever took place on Middle Earth. Described as the Second Age, avid fans of Tolkien would know that the series is set at a time of growing unrest in Middle Earth, during the last alliance between Elves and Men and the forging of the titular Rings of Power by the Dark Lord Sauron.
Showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay based the series off author JRR Tolkien’s appendices to the LOTR trilogy which elaborate on the Second Age and was written under the Tolkien estates scrutiny and approval.
A toxic fandom: However, the series has received divisive responses from fans so far in what has been described as an “avalanche of unveiled, blatant and shameless” racism following the inclusion of people of colour among the cast of characters.
Since the author’s original text primarily featured white-skinned characters, ‘devout’ Tolkien fans have taken the casting choices as a personal attack, besmirching Tolkien’s name and ruining the integrity of the world he created for tokenistic social approval.
Actress Sofia Nomvete’s portrayal of Dwarven Princess Disa, the first ever female dwarf to grace the screen, Nazanin Boniadi’s role as the human Bronwyn and Ismael Cruz Córdova’s Silvan Elf Arondir were among the characters that received the most hatred from LOTR fans.
Amazon pushed back against the online trolls, executive producer Lindsey Weber affirmed to Vanity Fair, “Tolkien is for everyone. His stories are about his fictional races doing their best work when they leave the isolation of their own cultures and come together.”
A risky investment? A lot rides on the success of the series both critically as well as financially. Though the pre-release material for the series has been met with intense skepticism from fans, the verdict’s still out on whether or not the multi-million-dollar project will be a worthy successor to Peter Jackson’s mantle; and more importantly, a solid investment from Amazon.
The Rings of Power is set to drop on Prime Video on September 2, 2022.