SDCC: Stephen Colbert hosts Lord Of The Rings showrunners at Comic-Con extravaganza
By the power of Arda, Colbert talks to the showrunners of Prime Video's Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power
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Amazon spent nearly half a billion dollars on their new Lord Of The Rings series, and at least half of that must’ve gone into their Comic-Con panel. Led by a string accompaniment featuring series composer Bear McCreary, the panel kicked off with the music of Middle Earth to set the stage, and Late Show host Stephen Colbert on hand to speak elvish and keep things moving.
Prime Video played a room-wrapping trailer on screens all around Hall H, showing off the various peoples of Middle Earth. And all that’s before showrunner J.D. Payne taught us to say “Oh, shit” in Elvish—only to be challenged by Colbert. “Tolkien speaks the language of the soul,” said Payne. And he also speaks the language of debate.
As has been discussed at length, The Second Age is a big question mark, Colbert and showrunners Payne and Patrick McKay confirmed. This is the age of Sauron’s coming to power, the fall of Númenor, and the forging of the rings of power.
“It’s a human story. Just imagine your home, your family, your job, your cosplay costume, the things that matter most to you,” said Payne. “Then suddenly imagine all that’s about to be taken away. How far would you go into the darkness to protect them? That’s the story we’re telling.”
We’re going to be seeing what is a story very similar to the Star Wars prequel, in which the protectors of Earth totally blow it because they underestimated their enemy. But it’s still “an optimistic work of art,” said McKay. As fans of the original Jackson trilogy know, themes of friendship, collaboration, and love are cornerstones of Tolkien.
This is a huge story, much bigger than the ones we’ve seen before, because the Second Age is when the Elves are really popping. “We didn’t want to do a side-story. We wanted to find a huge Tolkienian mega entry,” said McKay.
The Second Age also offers newbies a chance to see characters and races that Tolkien never had a chance to flesh out. For McKay and Payne, they “always go back to Tolkien.”
“Go back to the book. Go back to the book,” McKay re-iterated.
Despite it being a 50-hour story, the show is sticking to the Second Age. “There’s not much room for things from the Third Age,” said McKay.
The brand-new epic, regardless of how indebted it is to Jackson’s trilogy, looks massive, with highly detailed sets, costumes, and makeup that make it all feel realistic. The sets are enormous, building full cities that “are like D.W. Griffith,” said McKay. “Not the racist parts!” he quickly clarified.
And finally, Colbert asked question that was on everyone’s lips: “Will there be Entwives?”
“Maybe you’ve seen them already,” McKay teased.
Don’t do this to us. We miss our Entwives.
14 Comments
Man those showrunners come off like absolute twerps. “always go back to Tolkien.”
Yeah sure. They’ve got the rights to a handful of relevant pages in the appendixes. This just sounds like pure interview kayfabe.
“How far would you go into the darkness to protect them? That’s the story we’re telling.”Talk about a truly unTolkien idea. Christ, just tell your own fantasy story. I’d love some original stuff. But then, who would bankroll these guys with something that didn’t have the Tolkien brand behind it? Even JJ Abrams didn’t pull the trigger on any of their spec scripts.
Have the showrunners ever confirmed that all they have are the appendices? I know the Tolkien Estate never wanted to give Silmarillion rights, but their stance on things has been loosening the past few years.
They have the rights to at least some material from Unfinished Tales, as that’s where the map of Numenor comes from.
Yeah sure. They’ve got the rights to a handful of relevant pages in the appendixes. This just sounds like pure interview kayfabe.We’ve already gotten glimpses of things not in the Appendices. Amazon may not have unrestricted rights to The Silmarillion, but they can certainly request access to scenes and events on case by case basis from the Tolkien Estate. “How far would you go into the darkness to protect them? That’s the story we’re telling.”Talk about a truly unTolkien idea. Christ, just tell your own fantasy story. I’d love some original stuff. What do you mean “unTolkien”? Frodo and Sam went into darkness of Mordor to protect the Shire and all of Middle-Earth. On the darker end of things, Fëanor went into personal, spiritual darkness to protect his beloved Silmarils, and took his people along for the ride. The theme is very Tolkienian on all levels.
Man, you’re seriously salty about this show, huh?
He’s super negative and contrarian about basically everything; you can safely ignore him.
Man those showrunners come off like absolute twerps.
Yeah! How dare they try to stick to the source material as closely as possible!
Before long all that will be left will be to do a series featuring all of Tom Bombadil’s cut appearances.
Easy. Use him as bumpers and framing devices to fill up watch time… in a show that doesn’t have commercials. It’ll be gold.
Forgive me, as I have not followed this closely-enough, but didn’t Amazon spend a ton for the TV rights? I’m thinking that would cover the Hobbit and LOTR and the appendices of the books. I don’t think that covered the Silmarillion. All the material I see for the production oddly looks generic with made up Hobbit clans and random characters. I would think that they would be set up to depict Numenor and Durin but haven’t even heard about that.
The bulk of the lore is available in the Appendices and within the LotR’s own text, but the ComicCon previews have now allegedly shown scenes not available in either, meaning that Amazon has at least limited access to text in The Silmarillion. Durin has already showed up in many trailers and previews, and we’ve had many shots from Númenor featuring both Tar-Míriel, the Queen and Pharazôn, the future ursuper. Isildur and Elendil have showed up, as well. Of Elves we’ve got Elrond, Galadriel, Gil-Galad and Celebrimbor, the maker of the Three Rings. Celeborn is still absent but the showrunners allegedly have a plan for him.
I wanna hear what Colbert really thinks about what he has been shown. Since he is the most Tolkien expert of them all.
*Cue lots of “fans” losing their shit because this doesn’t seem to match up precisely with their preconceptions or because it (gasp!) takes a few superficial liberties from the details of Tolkien’s writings (which he constantly revised and changed throughout his life anyway), and saying it’ll be terrible despite not having seen a single episode of the show yet.Also, if you want to get drunk fast, take a shot every time someone tries to come up with thin linguistic dodges to pretend complaints about casting people of color aren’t racist.
featuring series composer Bear McCreary
At least if the show is rubbish the music is pretty much guaranteed to be excellent.