22 heroes and plot twists: Details on The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power

In September (on the second day of fall, to be exact), Amazon and Prime Video will present the series "Rings of Power," based on the Lord of the Rings supplements. The events in these texts take place several thousand years before those depicted in the main novel.

The creators of the series admit to having the audacity to shorten the source material. "We discussed it with Tolkien's heirs. If you stay exactly to the letter of the book, you have to tell a story in which human characters die every season because you're jumping 200 years into the future," explained showrunner John Payne. His colleague Patrick McKay makes it clear that even children can watch the series without worrying, as there will be no unnecessarily erotic or violent scenes. In his opinion, Tolkien's novel is "life-affirming and optimistic. It's a book about friendship, brotherhood and how seemingly weak heroes can fight back against the darkness.

What's in store for audiences?

As we're approaching the premiere of the new Tolkien adaptation, the veil of secrecy is slowly beginning to slip away from some of the plot details. Namely:

- There will be more than one protagonist. And not two. And not even ten. The audience will be introduced to 22 key characters;

- There will also be a lot of storylines - the audience will witness the love of forest elf Arondir and healer Bronwen, will see what elf-architect Elrond was like in his younger years, and Sauron (or rather, his spirit) will be invisibly present among the others, as the authors of the project intend to focus on what happened after the war. The director of the first two episodes, Juan Antonio Bayona, draws an analogy with Italy - his native country was long and hard freed from the effects of the civil war;

- Different sources reported different information about the number of episodes - somewhere it was indicated 8, and somewhere - 20. However, the authors planned nine episodes.