The Lord of the Rings Star Roasts Rings of Power as "Money-Making Venture"

The first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is now on Prime Video and while the series has been a hit with fans and has earned praise from several actors involved with the original The Lord of the Rings films, not everyone is thrilled with the series. Bernard Hill, best known for his role as King Théoden isn't exactly a fan of the new series. In fact, the actor hasn't seen series at all and has no plans to.

When asked by Metro (via Variety) if he had seen the series, Hill said that he wasn't interested and called the series a "money-making venture".

"It's a money-making venture and I'm not interested in watching that or being in it," Hill said. "Good luck to them and all that stuff, but it's not like the real thing."

He went on to say that he feels like the whole franchise should have ended with the end of the original trilogy, The Return of the King.

"I think they were pushing it when they made The Hobbit," he said. "The Hobbit's a tiny book. They did it well — they did it really, really well. They expanded it but I think you can only stretch a piece of elastic so far. I think they managed it in The Hobbit because there were some really good things in The Hobbit without a doubt."

Hill seems to be in the minority of film actors to have such an opinion about Rings of Power. Billy Boyd, who played Peregrin "Pippin" Took in the trilogy, previously said that he very much liked The Rings of Power and that he particularly loved seeing the different places in Tolkien's world again.

"I have seen it. I liked it very much," Boyd said. "I, as a fan of Tolkien, loved seeing all these places again — some of them for the first time. You know, to see Khazad-dûm and Númenor and all these places. I think that gave me the most joy. I think the way they jump from one place to another made it very watchable for me."

He continued, "I think, 'Oh, here we are in Númenor' and then it would jump to the caverns of Khazad-dûm. I loved that. And, seeing things like the rings for the first time — all of that is just really joyful for me. I loved it!"

Boyd isn't alone in enjoying The Rings of Power. Gollum actor Andy Serkis previously shared his own praise for the series.

"I think it's really beautifully crafted, I think there's some really great performances in there," Serkis shared with Jake's Takes. "I recently did a reading of Lord of the Rings for Audible and in the preface, in the foreword, it covers The Rings of Power, the age they tell within The Rings of Power, so I was familiar with that world, and I just think it's a really beautiful rendition. And, again, having the time to be with those characters is something very, very exciting and I know the Lord of the Rings fans are loving it."

He continued, "I really did enjoy -- again, the scale is incredible. In terms of the cinematography, performances aside, it feels so epic and in the same way that this does, the same way that [Star Wars: Andor] feels like ... You find it hard to separate it from the movies, they feel like movies, every single episode. It does have mythic and scale-wise epic nature to it in Rings of Power, in the same way that Andor does, it feels like a huge movie."

Season 1 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is now streaming on Prime Video.