How Rings of Power Season 2’s Bold Book Depa...

A major change in the order in which the Dark Lord Sauron forged the Rings in Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is being addressed by series showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. The pair said their choice was the perfect one for the show, per an interview with The Direct.

The source material used by the series, which includes The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, show Sauron first making the Dwarven rings, then the Elven rings and finally, the One Ring, which was forged before the Siege of Eregion. In the series, the Elven and Dwarven rings were forged, but even though Ereigon had fallen, the One Ring had yet to be crafted.

McKay noted there is a “technicality” in Tolkien lore that the One Ring was made before Eregion fell. He said to accomplish that in Season 2, “Sauron would have had to have left his storyline, gone off on his own to Mordor, and made the One Ring, and then come back, and we just deemed it a bridge too far.”

The Showrunners Used The Ring Poem

McKay added, “And instead, we have tried to adhere to the order of the making of the rings that is laid out in The Ring Poem, which, to our minds, is probably the order that most readers and viewers are familiar with from either Peter (Jackson’s) films or The Lord of the Rings proper, and that rationale, we think is serving the show well.”

He also noted that the show is an adaptation of Tolkien’s works. “And when you’re doing an adaptation, you make choices to bring something to the screen, and hopefully in a way that is, you know, thrilling, emotionally gripping, and every choice we make is for that, and hopefully that brings you actually closer to the source material, rather than further away,” McKay said.

Throughout the series run of The Rings of Power, fans have been wondering about some of the liberties taken with the show, including the timing of The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) being revealed as Gandalf.

No Such Thing as Canon?

In a previous interview, Dr. Corey Olsen, president of Signum University and Mythgard Institute, who is dubbed the “Tolkien Professor” said that “canon” may not even exist in the world of Tolkien. Signum University, which is based in New Hampshire, offers graduate programs in Tolkien studies.

“First thing to specify is that there’s no such thing really as canon in Tolkien,” Olsen said. He added that fans often refer to the stories of Middle-earth as a “legendarium” rather than canon. Olsen added that J.R.R. Tolkien himself often considered “playing around” with the timeline in Middle-earth after the books were published.

Sauron Actor Says His Character Has a Lot to Accomplish

Charlie Vickers, who plays Sauron in The Rings of Power, said in a previous interview with FilmFare that when he started Season 1 of the show, playing the character of Halbrand, he did not know that he would end up playing the Dark Lord. “Sometimes I’m just washing the dishes at home and it hits me. It’s unnerving, unbelievable, and one of the most humbling experiences of my life…And I’m ever so glad that people have taken to The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power in such a big way,” Vickers said.

Vickers added in another interview that his character’s journey so far is just “the tip of the iceberg” and that Sauron has a “big to-do list” for the future.

Seasons 1 and 2 of The Rings of Power are streaming on Prime Video.