THE LORD OF THE RINGS: New THE RINGS OF POWER Featurette Sets Sail For Númenor

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: New THE RINGS OF POWER Featurette Sets Sail For Númenor

As we inch closer to the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power next month, Prime Video has shared a new featurette spotlighting the island kingdom of Númenor...

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By MarkCassidy - Aug 16, 2022 08:08 AM EST
Filed Under: Lord of the Rings

We're now just over two weeks away from the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and Prime Video (via SFFGazette) has debuted a new featurette spotlighting the island kingdom of Númenor.

This opulent civilization never actually factored into Tolkien's novels aside from a few mentions, but the appendices did into the history of the doomed city, which was ultimately lost to the sea long before Bilbo and Gollum's fateful game of Riddles in the Dark in The Hobbit.

Aragorn's ancestor Isildur (Maxim Baldry) is one of the main characters we'll meet in Númenor, and his name should be very familiar to fans, as he ultimately cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand before falling under the ring's evil influence himself.

Based on this new footage, it looks like Isildur will join forces with Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and a new character named Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) in an effort to prevent the Dark Lord's forces from spreading across Middle Earth.

Amazon Studios’ forthcoming series brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness.

Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set to premiere on Friday, September 2.

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Blergh
Blergh - 8/16/2022, 8:39 AM
The trailers look neat, a little too much CG for my liking but in the end it’s still a TV show. PJ had more time to craft his practical VFX on the original trilogy.

I just hope that once the show drops the toxic conversation around it dies down. I hate what it has done to the LotR fandom, YouTubers that were superficial fans before at best making daily videos complaining about „lore inaccuracies“ (which can’t be proven until the show is actually released) to disguise their real problem with the show.

It might turn out to be bad, who knows?
But until the show is released any type of judgement and hate isn’t based on the plot but rather superficial political reasons.
The same people that complained about black elves in „The Witcher“ have taken over the conversation regarding LotR since „The Witcher“ now is seen as one of the better recent fantasy shows despite having black elves and dryads
mountainman
mountainman - 8/16/2022, 8:44 AM
@Blergh - As someone who doesn’t agree with these very toxic people, I can see some points they have. The Witcher is Scandanavian folklore and Middle Earth is British folklore. It represents those reasons like Black Panther is specifically African.

To me, that doesn’t mean that 100% of the cast has to be white. It does take you out of the show when every single community in these fantasy worlds has to be diverse like modern day America. That’s just not how historical cultures worked. I think it makes sense in larger cities within fantasy worlds as people would have emigrated from all over. But backwoods villages should be mono-cultural.
TheSuperMex
TheSuperMex - 8/16/2022, 8:55 AM
@mountainman - the Witcher and Middle Earth aren’t folklore. Folklore are tales like the Black Dog, Beowulf, King Arthur, fairies, Vampires, Oni, witches, etc. Middle Earth has influences outside of England. A lot of the creatures are based on Norse mythology. Jesus is portrayed as a white man across media but that’s okay with people but having a black or brown person in a European based fantasy series is too far.
Origame
Origame - 8/16/2022, 8:57 AM
@Blergh - ...what? It can be proven. We've got characters in roles they never were in, characters meeting when they never did, races looking fundamentally different from how they were explicitly described as, and that's just what is shown to us front and center.
Origame
Origame - 8/16/2022, 8:59 AM
@TheSuperMex - Jesus has represented the culture worshiping him. You go to a black church, Jesus will be black. You go to a Korean church, you'll see Korean Jesus. This is a terrible example.
Origame
Origame - 8/16/2022, 9:14 AM
@Waddles - lol. I grew up on the prequels so Ewan McGregor is kinda my Jesus.
TheSuperMex
TheSuperMex - 8/16/2022, 9:17 AM
@Origame - Jesus is based in a real group of people. He isn’t based in some fantasy race like Dwarves or Elves. Stop picking and choosing. If it’s okay with you changing him to other races than so can Gandalf.
mountainman
mountainman - 8/16/2022, 9:23 AM
@TheSuperMex - It's modern day folklore, like superheroes. What's the difference between Middle Earth or Superman vs Beowolf or King Arthur? I'd argue the main difference is the time that has passed since those older stories had been told. As I mentioned, I don't have a problem with any non-white character showing up like some of these inflammatory people do. I just don't like that every community, from large city to isolated backwoods village, has to be multicultural. That just isn't realistic. Smaller towns have always, and will always be more monocultural. That is just how things work. Let's take another recent adaptation as an example - Amazon's The Wheel of Time. The books were incredibly diverse. More than 50% of the main characters were women, and there were prominent main characters that seemed to represent all types of people. But the show didn't just have people from different regions be of different races, or have larger cities like Tar Valon be diverse. No, every single backwoods town was multicultural. The Two Rivers is an isolated village that has very little contact with the outside world. There is no way this village would have white and black people unless a recent event had brought the two cultures together. If white and black people lived in the same region, then slowly over time, the coming generations would all start to look the same - unless there is a more problematic issue happening where white people only marry and have kids with other white people and black people do the same. I can't speak for the big YouTube and social media names, but for me personally as a fan, things like that just take me out of the show. It doesn't feel like Middle Earth, The Witcher or the Wheel of Time. It feels like modern day America cosplaying it. There are ways to add diversity without making it feel odd like this.
Origame
Origame - 8/16/2022, 9:40 AM
@TheSuperMex - it's not picking and choosing. Jesus is a religious figure. The reason why he's white in European practices of the religion is because they actually believe the son of God exists and he's white. They believe all the stuff in the Bible actually happened.

No one is following the "religion" of lord of the rings. We accept its fictional. So the only word on the race of these beings is Tolkien, who was very clear all of them are white.
Origame
Origame - 8/16/2022, 9:43 AM
@Waddles - imagine if she chose a still of Ben stiller holding the directors head. She'd probably be like, "look at the horrors those brave soldiers had to face". 🤣
Super12
Super12 - 8/16/2022, 10:23 AM
@TheSuperMex - Middle-earth was very much intended to be a type of British folklore. Tolkien lamented the lack of a unifying mythology for Britain like the Norse and the Celts had, and so he deliberately built his world to be a reflection of his home country & culture.

"I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story – the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the vast backcloths – which I could dedicate simply to: to England; to my country. It should possess the tone and quality that I desired, somewhat cool and clear, be redolent of our ‘air’ (the clime and soil of the North West, meaning Britain and the hither parts of Europe; not Italy or the Aegean, still less the East), and, while possessing (if I could achieve it) the fair elusive beauty that some call Celtic (though it is rarely found in genuine ancient Celtic things), it should be ‘high’, purged of the gross, and fit for the more adult mind of a land long now steeped in poetry." - J.R.R. Tolkien

That certainly doesn't mean darker-skinned peoples would be absent, but it would be incredibly rare and only from those who may have immigrated from the East or South. Anyone who understands human history knows this basic fact, that these kind of multi-ethnic communities is a new development and so seeing it in an ancient myth is disorienting and takes you out of the immersion. That's the issue.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 8/16/2022, 10:29 AM
@Origame - every single one of your points is rock solid perfect. As to the OP’s little attempt to bully shame detractors with the Scarlet ‘R,’ none of the race bending is really going to change many perceptions once the base gets a look at the compressed chronology. THAT is going to drive people insane as opposed to melanin content. These periods in Tolkien’s mythos represent literal thousands of years but, like JJ in 2009 with the Trek reboot, the hipster writing team is far too lazy to research , and align their writing to, the actual franchise canon laid down by Tolkien. A majority of the tantrum-throwing, bully-pulpit crowd just wants to fancy themselves as relevant and important to the conversation, which they are not.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 8/16/2022, 11:10 AM
@Blergh - honestly, I don't mind ''lore inaccuracies''. I would even say I like them.

Think by condensing the story, whether that is from a book, video game or any other story that cannot be told in two hours (as a movie) or eigth (as a show), it needs some sort of shortening the timeline of events.

An example I can think of is the most recent Resident Evil movie. Sure it was cheesy, I think it did a great job of adapting almost three games.
GirshwinDavies
GirshwinDavies - 8/16/2022, 11:39 AM
@Waddles - lmfaooooo
TheSuperMex
TheSuperMex - 8/16/2022, 11:40 AM
@Origame - but you are picking and.choosing and making my point. It’s okay for to portray brown man as white but not okay when white guy is made black or brown. It doesn’t matter if they are worshipped. These religions come from real groups of people. You’re doing the bs when people portray ancient Egyptians as white. There are people who still believe in Norse and they were angry about Heimdall being black in the Thor movies. It’s only a problem when European tales have black or brown but it’s okay when whites are in black and brown tales.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 8/16/2022, 11:56 AM
@mountainman -
And the same folks had an issue with making Asgardians black as well. Black Heimdahl? Blasphemy!

Certainly Tolkien wrote LOTR and it's supporting mythology to be and English mythology similar to the Norse tales so, yea, they were all white but it's fiction. I do think the inclusion of POC amongst the races is more about making that world look more like the real world. Most humans walking the planet are not white people so revising a work of fiction to reflect the actual audience isn't some sin against the original work. It's an interpretation of the work.

If having a few black elves ruins it for some folks that's fine.
Origame
Origame - 8/16/2022, 11:57 AM
@TheSuperMex - ...you do realize this has been heavily criticized, right? Like, some of the bloodiest wars in human history were fought over how Jesus was viewed in different cultures right?

And I never even said anything about Thor. But yeah, heimdall should've been white. And Egyptians shouldn't be white. Stop pretending I'm picking and choosing.
TheSuperMex
TheSuperMex - 8/16/2022, 12:11 PM
@Origame - explain what war was fought over the depiction of Jesus’s race? The crusades were about control of the holy land, where the native people are brown just like Jesus. Lol You just did pick and choose. You said Heimdall should have been white but want to argue that is okay for a man who ethnically comes from brown people to be made white.
Origame
Origame - 8/16/2022, 12:31 PM
@TheSuperMex - dude, you clearly don't know much about the crusades. The crusades were fought between specifically Christians and Muslims. And yes, while it was to fight over control over the holy lands, the reason each was fighting for it was because they believed their interpretation of God's word was correct, including what race they believed everyone was.

Also, it's different because it's what people believe about reality. The people who actually worship heimdall are saying he's white so, guess what? He's white. People who worship Jesus say he's white, then he's white.

How about keeping the conversation about fiction my dude? A better example would be marvel introducing a white wakandan. And guess what? I find that ridiculous. Because the race of wakandans have been established to be black.
mountainman
mountainman - 8/16/2022, 3:36 PM
@Goldboink - Under that mindset, there should be no monocultural stories. There should be white Wakandans, white people in a story based on ancient japan, and let’s add white people to stories about ancient indigenous tribes. It’s not racist to point out things that don’t make sense. It’s stupid to accept things that don’t make sense.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 8/16/2022, 3:59 PM
@mountainman -
I think that you are taking things to an absurd degree. This is not historical. It's a work of pure fiction. I never said that you were racist, only that you might enjoy the work if you could look past skin color in a purely fictional world.

mountainman
mountainman - 8/16/2022, 4:05 PM
@Goldboink - I really hate getting dragged into conversations like this with people like you because you assume things about me that simply aren't true. I had highlighted issues that OTHER PEOPLE had with certain decisions, I have said in this thread I will check the show out, and the only true opinion about race that I stated was that small isolated towns and villages shouldn't be multi-cultural. Big cities and cultures - sure. I can accept that immigration would have happened in that place. But small villages - like the Two Rivers in Wheel of time, some of the random small towns in the Witcher, or whatever the place that the not-hobbits are living at in The Rings of Power wouldn't be multi-cultural. It just breaks the fantasy of watching the show to me. Could it still be good? Sure it could. But it is dumb. I'd rather have the whole small town be black or hispanic or asian or whatever vs having this isolated backwoods town look like modern day New York City. Yes to having diverse casts. No to doing it in a way that hurts the story, world and narrative.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 8/16/2022, 4:07 PM
@mountainman -

"I really hate getting dragged into conversations like this with people like you"

People like you huh? You don't know me.
mountainman
mountainman - 8/16/2022, 4:17 PM
@Goldboink - I don't know you. But you've assumed a lot of things about me, which I don't appreciate. You've tried to lump my opinions in with the opinions of others, which is not something I enjoy. And you defend bad decisions that these media companies make. I realize that some of these online/YouTube trolls are annoying and can nit pick everything. That doesn't mean that every criticism that any person has is invalid. It doesn't mean that we have to gladly accept every product from these companies and eagerly await the next one if we don't like it.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 8/16/2022, 4:31 PM
@mountainman -

Go back and read what I wrote. All I did was state that some race swapping made no difference to me.
mountainman
mountainman - 8/16/2022, 8:40 AM
We will see if this show really disrespects Tolkien’s legacy and world or if this is just a small group of online fanboys makings noises No matter what, this show looks beautiful.

I’m not a hardcore Tolkien fan, so Im nowhere near as skeptical as many others are. That being said, these show runners and actors would really do themselves a favor in finding better ways to address fan backlash. The scolding them and calling them names method hasn’t worked out for many other properties.
McMurdo
McMurdo - 8/16/2022, 9:09 AM
I'm still looking forward to this on a visual level cuz on lsd, this first ep should be fun at least. But for any true Tolkien die hard, the very fact that there are TWO Durin's in this show is enough to show you just how much these showrunners care to do Tolkien justice. Just my two cents. I take zero issue with people of color being present as Tolkien legit wrote about different races being stronger together than apart. Like that was thee ultimate theme honestly. I do think the tim compression is going to make it feel more fan fiction than not tho
knomad
knomad - 8/16/2022, 10:10 AM
Might be interesting. I'm guessing the western part of the island is pro-elf, and the rest isn't. They could have shown Eldamar too.. the ultimate Elvish realm. Valinor would have been off the chart, but I doubt they could do it justice.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 8/16/2022, 11:05 AM
I very much look forward to what story this show is gonna tell.

And although I right now don't like the look of the show, that could change if the whole design matches the story. Including character and set design.

Right now it looks like Wheel of Time where every character gets a good meal and a hot shower in the morning, even though that feels wrong to me in a medievil-ish fantasy world.
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