J.R.R. Tolkien Talks About the ‘Rings of Power’
By Church News
The producers of the The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power says the series’ themes are “profoundly faith-based” and honour 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.”
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