One of the showrunners for Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power says the series' themes are "profoundly faith-based" and honor the fantastical world created by J.R.R. Tolkien, a devout Catholic who authored the novels that inspired it. Now in its second season, Rings of Power is a prequel to the original Lord of the Rings tales, drawing from Tolkien's books and their appendices. It is scheduled for five seasons.
"There's a great quote that we discovered where Tolkien talked about [how] he's always interested in writing something that is universal and timeless. He doesn't want it to be a one-to-one allegory," showrunner and creator Patrick McKay told Crosswalk Headlines. "And he talked about how when he was writing the book, it was a Catholic work, unconsciously, because of his own faith -- but then in revisions, consciously."
"And I think the way that we see that in the books, and the way that we hopefully have translated over to the series, is that the themes are profoundly faith-based," McKay added.
The series follows the story of a female elf, Galadriel, who is seeking to rid Middle-earth of the nefarious Sauron. McKay and fellow showrunner J.D. Payne are executive producers.
"We're dealing with good and evil," McKay said. "We're dealing with the fall, fallibility of man. We're dealing with temptation. And in Sauron, we have a character that we very much see as an analog with [John] Milton's Satan [in Paradise Lost]. This is the tempter and the seducer and the deceiver, and he's pure evil, but he's complexly evil. We've worked very hard to hopefully bring that to life in a way that honors those themes, going back to the books."
Payne said the series' light-vs.-dark plot is a major theme. Galadriel discovers that "maybe there was no one who was strong enough to defeat Sauron, but it is not strength that defeats darkness, but light," Payne told Crosswalk Headlines.
Rings of Power is rated TV-14. McKay said he and Payne want the series to be viewable by families.
"We're not interested in might-makes-right [and] everyone's being murdered all the time. You know, hard R -- that's not this show. That'll never be this show. That's not Tolkien. Tolkien is for everyone. His themes are universal and timeless," McKay said. "We like the idea that a family could watch this show. It is going to be dark and scary at times, as the books are, and we're dealing in life and death. Characters die in this show, and it goes quite dark in places, quite psychological in places, but it's never going to do so in a way that's exploitative, or that will be cheap or cynical."
The series may be too scary for young children but is likely appropriate for tweens and above, McKay said.
"It is hopefully dark and high stakes and scary and even upsetting at times, in a way that is earned and true to Tolkien's themes of good and evil and 'how do you save the world in the face of unrelenting darkness?'" he said.
Aaron Earls, a Tolkien fan who reviews films and television series at the Wardrobe Door Substack site, said the adaptation offers a valuable reflection of Tolkien's themes.
"For better or worse, The Rings of Power is not a one-to-one direct adaptation of Tolkien's words, but it is a faithful rendering of Tolkien's world," Earls said. "Christian families can appreciate that the show allows viewers to see the timeless truths of Middle-earth lived out in complex and volatile times. In a world that can seem bleak and filled with cynicism, The Rings of Power doesn't attempt to ignore the darkness but instead reminds us of the light of hope. As Tolkien himself wrote, 'Dawn is ever the hope of men.'"
Photo Credit: ©Prime Video
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.