The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power owes a lot to Peter Jackson’s live-action The Lord of the Rings films, with even the opening moments a call back to the films. Your mileage with The Rings of Power may vary. For some, it’s a pleasant return to Tolkien’s incredible fantasy world.
For others, it’s an overbudgeted slog that strays too far from the source material. Whatever your feelings, you can’t deny that Prime and showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay have used Jackson’s films as a tome for their series set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit.
The look of the show, its epic scale, and its music are all explicitly pulled from Jackson’s movies. While the series and the movies are no more connected than Rankin/Bass animated The Hobbit is to Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring, the show does evoke the films, starting with the beginning of the series.
Both Live-Action Lord Of The Rings Adaptations Start With A Galadriel Voiceover
Both Jackson’s movies and The Rings of the Power begin with narration, and both are done by Galadriel. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Cate Blanchett plays the Elven queen and catches the audience up on thousands of years of Middle-Earth history. It’s brilliant place-setting in a complicated universe.
She introduces the idea of the Rings of Power and explains, in clear and economical screenwriting language, how we come to the start of Fellowship and the stakes. Even more impressive, her voice-over is powerfully moving. “But there were some who resisted,” still sends chills down my spine.
The Rings of Power also has an incredibly complex world to explain before it gets to its main storyline, so it borrows the Galadriel voice-over trick, though here she is portrayed by Morfydd Clark. This young Galadriel also explains the history of Middle-earth, but she begins in the First Age of Middle-earth.
Galadriel Being The Lord Of The Rings’ “Narrator” Actually Makes Sense
Having Galadriel be the “narrator” for both Jackson’s film and The Rings of Power makes as much sense internally within the setting as it does as a way to get the audience oriented. Galadriel is a legendary figure in the history of Middle-earth, and she’s been around for the most important events of the setting.
Galadriel’s story in The Silmarillion is surprisingly sparse compared to other characters of her stature, likely a result of Galadriel first being written for The Lord of the Rings and not The Silmarillion, meaning J.R. Tolkien had to go back and reinsert her into his prehistory text.
Of course she would have enough knowledge to explain the history of the world in voiceover. Galadriel is the daughter of an elf named Finarfin, the son of Finwë, who is arguably the most important Elf king in LOTR history. Basically, Galadriel is the descendant of Elven royalty in Middle-earth.
She is also considered extraordinarily beautiful and preternaturally wise. In the early ages of Middle-earth, she stood up against her brethren who were leading the elves in a destructive rebellion. In Lord of the Rings and The Rings of Power, Galadriel has the history, the grace, and the power to tell the story of Middle-earth better than anyone.
- Release Date
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September 1, 2022
- Network
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Amazon Prime Video
- Showrunner
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John D. Payne, Patrick McKay, Louise Hooper, Charlotte Brändström, Wayne Yip
