It's right kind of hard: 'Rings of Power' creator on bringing Tolkien's vast imagination to screen

Singapore: The world of Middle Earth, the fictional setting of JRR Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" book series, is vast and presenting it on screen is akin to trying to fill a lake from a waterfall by using just a teacup, says JD Payne, the co-creator of fantasy series "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power".

Payne developed the ambitious Prime Video show, which returns with its second season on Friday, with Patrick McKay.

"You always want your storytelling to just be getting better. I would say everything about it is hard. Middle Earth is so vast. JRR Tolkien's imagination is so huge. It's like going to a rushing waterfall with a teacup and then trying to fill up a lake with it.

"You're just trying to do justice to the magnitude of the source material, and there's no department store where you can go and buy Middle Earth off the shelf things... It's all hard, but it's the right kind of hard because it's a joyful thing to create such a world," Payne told PTI in an interview.

In Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" books, which he wrote in the 1950s, Middle Earth is a vast continent with diverse landscapes and home to various races and cultures such as elves, dwarves, humans, hobbits and orcs.

"The Rings of Power" is primarily based on the appendices of Tolkien's famed book series, specifically the description of Middle Earth's Second Age, and includes younger versions of some of the key characters from the books, which were earlier translated for the screen by Peter Jackson in two trilogies -- "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit".

The series, which launched on Prime Video with its first season in September 2022, is one of the most ambitious projects to be greenlit in the last one decade. And that's why the challenges were many for first time showrunners Payne and McKay but they took it up for their love for the source material.

"Every single costume that you see, every single prop, set, it's all bespokely created by our wonderful artists that we work with to bring Middle Earth to life. So all that is challenging," Payne said When the first season came out, some reactions to the show were mixed from die-hard Tolkien fans as well as critics.

Though many praised "The Rings of Power" for its lavish storytelling scope and performances of few main characters, the show was also criticised for straying away from the source material and the creative liberties taken by the writers.

Asked if the team took note of the criticism, Payne said they couldn't as they had started working on the sophomore instalment just after the premiere of the first season.

"We had sort of an interesting situation where because of COVID, we stopped production of season one and worked on the writing of season two for quite a bit. So we had written all of season two before any of season one was released, we really didn't have much of an opportunity to take the world's reaction into account as we were telling our story," he said.

As the reaction rolled in, Payne said he noticed that people responded to the timeless themes that made Tolkien's works classics to begin with whether it's fantastical imagination, worlds and settings.

"You tend to get a sense when you're reading a piece of criticism, you know where the person's coming from. And if they're coming from a really thoughtful, well considered point of view, even if they're not a fan and if they didn't like the show, then you take that into account because that's a really good point and it's really well-argued.

"But if it's someone (critic) who just has an axe to grind or if they're just, like throwing mud just to kind of stretch their muscles, that's not going to be that productive. It's just going to drag us in the showdown or whatever. So we try not to let that affect our storytelling." In season two, Sauron (Charlie Vickers), the dark lord, has been banished. Without any allies or army, he aims to regain power and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will enable him to subjugate the people of Middle Earth.

Payne teased the new season as a psychological thriller that will play out between Sauron and Celebrimbor, the Elven-smith who forges the Rings of Power. The character is played by Charles Edward.

According to the showrunner, the first season saw Sauron deceiving Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), an Elven warrior whose older version in Jackson's movie series was played by Cate Blanchett, by taking on the alias of Halbrand.

"That was the one time we felt like we were able to do that, and really sort of like, have the audience have the experience that the characters were going to have, by not knowing who he was. Now in season two, he's going to deceive Celebrimbor," he said.

In season two, he will be seen in another avatar of Annatar, the "Lord of gifts", to deceive Celebrimbor into creating the Rings of Power.

"What is scary about Sauron is that other villains see your weaknesses and exploit those. Sauron sees your strengths. He sees the things you want to do that are good, and he works them to his own evil. That's exactly what he does with Celebrimbor. He sees his ambitions, and so he seduces, manipulates, and ultimately drives him to insanity.

"So it's a pretty harrowing psychological thriller between the two of them this season," Payne added.

The second season of "The Rings of Power" also features Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Benjamin Walker, Peter Mullan, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Trystan Gravelle, Maxim Baldry, Markella Kavenagh and Megan Richards.