As one of the most famous and beloved fantasy series of all time, The Lord of the Rings is one of the few franchises that is consistently able to spark a lot of interest and discussion regarding whatever the latest release is. The world and stories created by J.R.R. Tolkien are the gold standard of modern fantasy storytelling and world building, and they provide an almost endless array of stories that could be adapted to both the big and small screen. After the immense success of both Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, fans of the series were treated to the first Tolkien adaptation for television with The Rings of Power, which debuted on Prime Video in 2022.
Although The Rings of Power does an excellent job of capturing and translating the magic and grandiosity of Tolkien’s world, the series has a noticeably different approach to the material than the films. While much of this difference can be attributed to the different eras of stories being told, as well as the different creative teams telling those stories, there are also specific behind-the-scenes reasons for the deviation. The Rings of Power actively does not connect to Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, and it even goes as far as recasting several key characters, such as Elrond and Galadriel. Here’s why that is:
Amazon Legally Cannot Build Off the Films
The rights to adapt Tolkien’s stories and the world of Middle-Earth are complicated, and they have been for a long while. When Jackson and New Line Cinema produced the films in the early 2000s, they licensed the film rights to both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings from Middle-Earth Enterprises to do so. However, the television rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, as well as most of Tolkien’s other works, such as The Silmarillion, remained untouched. Over the years, Warner Bros. (which now owns New Line Cinema) has continued to license the film rights, which is how they were able to develop the Hobbit trilogy as well as the upcoming film The War of the Rohirrim, though they now do so from Embracer Group, which purchased Middle-Earth Enterprises a few years ago.
In the late-2010s, Amazon announced they had reached a deal to license the television rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, which would allow them to produce The Rings of Power for Prime Video. While they had the rights to produce much of the same story that had already been seen in the films, Amazon could not actually connect its new show to those films.
That’s because WB and New Line own the rights to the specific Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies that they made. If Amazon wanted to connect The Rings of Power to Jackson’s films, they would have needed to strike a deal directly with WB in addition to their deal with Middle-Earth Enterprises / Embracer Group.
This difference in ownership means that the Lord of the Rings films and Prime Video’s The Rings of Power are legally two completely different things. They are not remotely attached to one another, even though they pull from the same source material. In that way, The Rings of Power is essentially a complete reboot of The Lord of the Rings. Without an agreement with WB, Amazon cannot explicitly connect the new show to the films in any way.
That is why characters such as Elrond and Galadriel needed to be recast, as bringing back Hugo Weaving or Cate Blanchett would have verged into the territory of Jackson’s movies. That’s also why none of the same musical themes carry over into the show, and why so much of the imagery is notably different.
Jackson Was Going to be Involved Early on
Although The Rings of Power was developed entirely separately from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, that doesn’t mean that Amazon entirely ignored them throughout the process. In actuality, they had reached out to Jackson and co-writer Fran Walsh for their help developing the show early on. The idea was that having Jackson on-board would help them to steer the ship in the right direction, while also earning the trust of the legions of fans that have fallen in love with his films.
In a similar effort, The Rings of Power also brought back composer Howard Shore – who did the music for all six Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films – to write the main musical theme for the series.
However, by the time The Rings of Power actually came out, there was one name that was notably absent from the credits: Peter Jackson. The director has talked openly about this on a couple of occasions, saying that he was open to being involved with The Rings of Power depending on the script, but that Amazon suddenly stopped contacting him. After saying they would get back in contact after the first few scripts were written, Jackson never heard from Amazon Studios again. Admittedly, though, he wasn’t upset about it, saying, “That’s the last thing I heard, which is fine. No complaints at all.”
Two Competing Versions of Middle-Earth
With The Rings of Power bringing its own new take on Middle-Earth to life, one might think that version of Tolkien’s world is now the definitive version moving forward. The last film in Jackson’s series – 2014’s The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – came out a decade ago, so it would make sense if we were shifting into a new iteration of Tolkien’s world by now.
However, that’s not the case. In fact, Jackson’s version of Middle-Earth is gearing up to make a major comeback, as WB and New Line are planning on reviving the film franchise with an assortment of new spin-off and prequel films. This new endeavor was just announced last year, with WB going as far as saying they envision The Lord of the Rings as a franchise with the potential to be as extensive and popular as Star Wars.
The first of these new films will be the animated feature The War of the Rohirrim, a prequel about Helm Hammerhand, the ninth King of Rohan, set a couple of hundred years prior to The Lord of the Rings. This new film, which has been in development since 2021, will be releasing theatrically in Dec. 2024, officially kicking off this new era for Lord of the Rings films. However, The Rings of Power is still moving forward at a quick pace, with the second season (of a planned five) likely debuting on Prime Video sometime this summer or fall. This will make 2024 the first year in which these two different adaptations of Middle Earth will be releasing new chapters in close proximity to one another.
While The Rings of Power and the Lord of the Rings films are not connected to one another, it is still to be seen if the overlap between the two will benefit or hurt them both. So far, The Rings of Power has not overtly contradicted anything in the films, and many viewers aren’t likely aware that it is set in a different continuity.
However, as we’ve seen in the comic-book movie space, one bad project can hurt others in the same lane, even if they’re not related to one another. With that in mind, if either The Rings of Power or The War of the Rohirrim end up developing a terrible reputation, they could inadvertently hurt the interest in the other. The best way for both franchises to succeed is to make the most compelling versions of Tolkien’s stories they can. In doing so, they would satisfy fans with great new Lord of the Rings material while also finding plenty of success with a broadening audience.
