Author J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories set in Middle-earth have been beloved adventures in the fantasy community for decades, but it was director Peter Jackson’s trilogy of The Lord of the Rings films that truly took the concept to an all-new level, making those narratives some of the most beloved cinematic experiences around the world. This means that, for Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the creatives behind the series are tasked with balancing the delivery of fan-favorite characters without contradicting Tolkien’s lore, which includes how to handle the beloved hobbits. Co-showrunner Patrick McKay recently detailed how the series found the balance of honoring the source material while also fulfilling fans’ hopes. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Amazon Prime Video on September 2nd.
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“One of the very specific things the texts say is that hobbits never did anything historic or noteworthy before the Third Age,” McKay shared with Vanity Fair. “But really, does it feel like Middle-earth if you don’t have hobbits or something like hobbits in it?”
In order to not contradict Tolkien’s texts, The Rings of Power will instead feature ancestors of hobbits known as “harfoots,” with the outlet describing these figures as being “hobbit-adjacent.” Of these characters, the outlet goes on to explain, “They may not live in The Shire, but they are satisfyingly hobbit-adjacent. McKay and [co-showrunner J.D.] Payne have constructed a pastoral harfoot society that thrives on secrecy and evading detection so that they can play out a kind of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead story in the margins of the bigger quests. Two lovable, curious harfoots, played by Megan Richards and Markella Kavenagh, encounter a mysterious lost man whose origin promises to be one of the show’s most enticing enigmas.”
With many fantasy fans considering Tolkien’s texts to be sacred, and with the minds behind the series collaborating with the Tolkien estate, it sounds as though the harfoots find the right balance between delivering fans familiar figures while not contradicting the author’s lore. In fact, even incorporating “The Lord of the Rings” into the show’s title has been a point of contention among certain fans, as it’s obviously a recognizable name, yet it applies specifically to Frodo’s journey to Mordor as opposed to being an all-encompassing franchise name.ย
Stay tuned for details on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power before it premieres on Amazon Prime Video on September 2nd.
Are you looking forward to the new series? Let us know in the comments below!
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