Recent news confirmed that Amazon’s Lord of the Rings prequel TV show, The Rings of Power, will have an entirely new writing team for season three. Whatever your thoughts on the show – I think it’s okay, fun but flawed – this is an enormous shift for any television production. But what effect will it have on the show going forward?

It’s important to note that the showrunners remain in place, and are likely the ones who have decided to change the writing direction. This means that the overall tone of the show will likely remain the same, the direction it’s going in and choices it makes regarding Tolkien’s Second Age tale will likely stay on the same course, too. Put simply, we don’t have a Star Wars sequel trilogy situation on our hands, where each film wanted to take the series somewhere different and felt disjointed because of it.

The Rings Of Power Gets All New Writers

The news of The Rings of Power’s new writing team was leaked initially, but has been confirmed by Hollywood Reporter. Gennifer Hutchinson, Glenise Mullins, Helen Shang, Jason Cahill, and Nicholas Adams have departed the show, and Ben Tagoe, Ava Wong Davies, Constance Cheng, Jonathan Wilson, Griff Jones, and Sarah Anson replace them. Executive producer Justin Doble is the only returnee to the writer’s room.

But what does this mean for The Rings of Power? In my mind, it signals a shift in execution. One of my biggest gripes about the show is the dialogue, which is often cheesy and references the Peter Jackson trilogy and Tolkien’s words from The Lord of the Rings far too often. I understand that Amazon doesn’t have the rights to use anything from The Silmarillion, which would make much more sense to quote from, but is it too much to ask that the show is its own thing?

There are countless instances of poor dialogue that I can recall – the recent “Grand-elf” situation was particularly embarrassing – but the worst for me was when Galadriel was teaching swordfighting in Númenor. She ended her impromptu lesson with a flourish and said, “Well done…” dramatic pause. “…Lieutenant,” honouring the soldier who landed a glancing blow with a promotion. I audibly groaned.

This was minutes after I rolled my eyes when she said, “Come at me,” a line that felt engineered to become a meme in a way that ensured it wouldn’t. The whole sequence felt like it was from a Marvel movie, a schlocky Joss Whedon action flick, instead of the gritty prestige fantasy the showrunners are clearly aiming for.

Can New Writers Save The Rings Of Power?

The Rings of Power is beyond saving for some people, and others believe it doesn’t need saving. I sit somewhere in the middle, and I think it’ll be looked back on more fondly than the Hobbit trilogy, but will struggle to reach the heights of the original Jackson films of the early ‘00s.

If you’re a die-hard Rings of Power hater, the writing is probably not the thing you’re most angry about. Changing the writers isn’t going to stop the show from having a diverse cast, and it’s not going to make all the non-Tolkien characters like Arondir, Theo, and Disa crumble into dust.

If you love the show already, then why change it? It’s Amazon’s number one show at the moment, it’s got millions of viewers across the world, and it’s on the verge of being renewed for a third of five planned seasons.

So why change the writers? If it’s not going to change anyone’s opinions from their deeply-entrenched existing views, then why not continue as is? Truth be told, we don’t know, but there could be myriad reasons for the change. Perhaps the showrunners, like me, have grown tired of the Whedonesque quips and want some more Tolkienian dialogue. Perhaps they wanted a change for different reasons. Perhaps all the old writers had scheduling conflicts. That last one seems unlikely given the wholesale changes and the fact that The Rings of Power is unlikely to be the show you’d shift if such a conflict arose, but it’s possible.

Whatever the reason, this change makes me hopeful for season three. I like the fact that the Balrog has already been sealed deep underground, given the potentially lore-breaking role it could have had in the show. I like the fact that the show seems to be reducing the role of the harfoots going forwards, even if it’s keeping them around. And I like the fact that the cheesy dialogue, by far my biggest problem with the show, could be getting fixed, too. With that trifecta of issues seemingly in hand, The Rings of Power has laid a strong foundation for Sauron’s ascent to power, and it has all the rings ready to be unleashed on Middle-earth. All except One.