Some Promising, Or Disappointing, News About 'Rings Of Power ...

Rings of Power

Amazon reportedly has a five-season plan for The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, though oddly, even after the finale of season 2 has aired, season 3 has not officially been confirmed yet. That may be about to change, though whether you think this is a good thing or bad thing depends on your position regarding the show.

Multiple people associated with Rings of Power are effectively saying that season 3 is a go, which range from executive producer Charlotte Brändström:

To star Morfydd Clark, Galadriel herself:

This would echo the idea that the five-season plan marches on, where back in 2022 the showrunners were saying they already knew the “final shot” of the series when it reached that point.

Further evidence is the fact that Amazon is bragging about, not hiding, season 2 viewership. This past week, Amazon confirmed that season 2 had 55 million viewers in just a month of release, even if viewership may have been down somewhat significantly at its premiere. It’s unclear if it’s down overall for the season, but at this point, Amazon may simply be pot-committed to the series with all the costumes and sets and scripts and VFX that have already been crafted for the show, which may be the most expensive in history by the time all is said and done.

Rings of Power

So, this is good news for fans, but bad news for many Tolkien enthusiasts who would rather the show just die, like my own colleague Erik Kain who has been roasting the series all season long, including its finale. Evidence of a large swath of haters can be seen in the show’s audience score, a 48% overall on Rotten Tomatoes, though season 2 was a slightly higher (though still not great) 58%. Whether you want to call that “review bombing” or not is up to you. There has certainly been some level of culture war stuff going on here (black elves!) but a lot of it is “source material” based where fans spar over whether this breaks Tolkien canon compared to others who say the material this draws on is too nebulous for that to be declared.

It is almost certain that with numbers solid enough for Amazon to share, its financial commitment to the series and these quotes from those involved that season 3 is coming. We’ll find out more soon and you can celebrate or mourn that fact.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.