The Lord Of The Rings TV Series Won't Be Influenced By Modern Politics, Says Showrunner

It’s less than two months to go until The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Amazon Prime Video. Excited? You should be - the show, which takes place hundreds of years before Bilbo Baggins’ adventures, is looking super promising. 

Online though, rumours have been circulating which suggest that modern politics may have an influence over the series’ story, but as reported by GamesRadar+, showrunner Patrick McKay has clarified that this won’t be the case.

Take a look at the latest trailer for The Rings of Power below.

“This was one of Tolkien's debate points with C.S. Lewis, his friend and colleague,” McKay told Total Film magazine (via GamesRadar+). “It was very important that what he was creating was not an allegory. He was not commenting on historical events of his time or another time. He was not trying to transmit a message that spoke to contemporary politics. He wanted to create a mythos that was timeless, and would be applicable - that was his word, ‘applicable’ - the applicability across times.

“Every single choice we’ve made at every turn of making this show has been to be faithful to that aspiration, because that’s what we want as viewers,” he continued. “We don’t want to adapt the material in a way that might feel dated. We aspire to being timeless. That’s why these books still speak to people so much, because so much of what’s in them has not aged a day. And we aspire to do the same thing. And I think we feel that once people see the show, and see what the stories and characters and worlds are in context, they’ll feel the same way.”

It was also explained that the story has been condensed as if the Second Age had been allowed to run for thousands of years, human characters would have been dying between episodes which is hardly ideal. McKay revealed that a non-linear series had been considered, but it was determined that the audience would have been less emotionally invested in it. Fair enough. 

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will release on Prime Video on 2 September.