The Rings of Power Season 2 contains a very precise reference to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the RingAccording to the makers, it is a film adaptation of “The Last Man”.
Speaking to TechRadar ahead of the hit Prime Video series’ return, JD Payne and Patrick McKay confirmed that it’s a very subtle but faithful homage to the first of Peter Jackson’s six Middle-earth-set films. In fact, it’s such a subtle homage that I suspect many people – Tolkien fans or not – didn’t even notice it.
The scene in question can be seen at 0:34 in The Rings of Power official trailer for season 2. It is the shortest excerpt from a much longer sequence in season 2, episode 1, which ends with the elf king Gil-galad, the hot-headed Galadriel and Cirdan – the latter is one of the oldest and wisest elves in Middle Earth – wearing three of the titular rings. The trio were in The Rings of Power season one finale, but this is the first time they have been worn in Amazon’s non-canonical television series.
So what is so special about the elves mentioned above wearing these magical artifacts? As you can see in the picture above, the three rings – Nenya, Narya and Nilya – sit on one of the middle fingers of each figure. This is significant because in The Companions In the film adaptation, Galadriel, Gil-galad and Cirdan are also seen with rings on their middle fingers. Compare The Rings of PowerInterpretation of this key moment with The Companions Scene based on the pictures above and below.
Okay, there is a small continuity error with Galadriel, which Nenya wears on the middle finger of her left hand in The Rings of Power Season 2 in contrast to her right hand in The CompanionsHowever, this does not change the fact that McKay and Payne, the die-hard Lord of the rings Fans have taken due diligence to ensure a certain artistic consistency between the two live-action projects.
When I asked if this was a conscious creative decision or just luck, McKay replied: “How did we decide on the finger? Yes, we looked at the beginning of The community (of the ring),” before Payne interjected, “Yes, we wanted to be absolutely sure we knew where the elves wore their rings.”
So there you have it. The Rings of Power may not be canon within The Lord of the Rings universe created by JRR Tolkien, but that doesn’t mean it ignores what’s in the source material or overlooks how his largely faithful film adaptations were made. So kudos to the showrunners of one of the best Prime Video shows for creating some connection between their production and Jackson’s first The Lord of the Rings Venture. Stay tuned to TechRadar for even more exclusives ahead The Rings of Power Premiere of the second season on August 29th.
