Seems like all I do these days is write about trailers for Amazon Prime’s upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power TV series. Well, here’s another trailer:
And here are some more thoughts. This is the most we’ve seen of this show’s glimpse into Middle-earth’s past yet. And it looks pretty good. I am still not completely sold on whether it has the “feel” of The Lord of the Rings, or whether it’s more of a well-produced generic fantasy series. It’s true that a familiar name looms large in this trailer as a villain, apparently to be genuinely embodied for the first time on screen (and with horror elements!). And a familiar face pops up at the end, looking quite as he did in Peter Jackson’s trilogy. Howard Shore’s involvement in the score was apparent, even in the three minutes of trailer we got.
Also apparent in those three minutes: prominent roles for female characters. I have no objection to such a thing, nor did J. R. R. Tolkien; contrary to what you may have heard, women in fact have quite prominent roles in his tales as some of the most powerful and important beings in Middle-earth. This trailer places women in leadership roles of all of Middle-earth’s races. Again, no objection to that. What I will object to is if these female characters are depicted one-dimensionally, without flaws or genuine challenges of their own, with men always reduced merely to being their backwards foils. The male characters in Jackson’s trilogy (and in the books) are not depicted as being without flaws. It would not improve representation to foreground perfect female characters and to sideline irredeemably flawed male ones. Overcorrection from a perceived prior imbalance does no one any favors.
Anyway, on September 2, we will begin to see how this all unfolds.