The Rings of Power season 2 contains a very precise reference to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring's movie adaptation, according to its creators.
Speaking to TechRadar ahead of the hit Prime Video show's return, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay confirmed that there's a very subtle but faithful call back to the first of six Middle-earth-set films directed by Peter Jackson. In fact, it's such an understated homage that I suspect many people – Tolkien fanatics or otherwise – won't have even picked up on it.
The scene in question can be seen at the 0:34 mark in The Rings of Power season 2's official trailer. It's the briefest of clips from a much longer sequence in season 2 episode 1, which ends with Elven High-king Gil-galad, the hot-headed Galadriel, and Cirdan – the latter being one of Middle-earth's oldest and wisest elves – wearing three of the titular rings. The trio was forged in The Rings of Power season 1 finale, but this is the first time they'll be worn in Amazon's non-canonical TV series.
So, what's so special about the aforementioned elves wearing said magical artifacts? As you can see in the image above, the three rings – Nenya, Narya, and Nilya – sit on one of each character's middle fingers. That's significant because, in The Fellowship of the Rings movie adaptation, Galadriel, Gil-galad, and Cirdan are seen wearing the rings on their middle fingers, too. You can compare The Rings of Power's interpretation of this key moment with The Fellowship of the Ring's scene via the above and below images.
Okay, there's a minor continuity error with Galadriel, who's seen wearing Nenya on her left hand's middle finger in The Rings of Power season 2 as opposed to her right hand in The Fellowship of the Ring. Still, that doesn't take away from the fact that McKay and Payne, who are diehard Lord of the Rings fans, performed due diligence to ensure some artistic consistency between the two live-action projects.
Responding to my question about whether this was an intentional creative decision or just blind luck, McKay said: "How did we decide on what finger? Yeah, we did look at the beginning of The Fellowship [of the Ring]", before Payne interjected: "Yeah, 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 that J.R.R. Tolkien created, but that doesn't mean it eschews what's written in the source material, nor overlooks how its largely faithful movie adaptations were filmed. Kudos, then, to the showrunners of one of the best Prime Video shows for ensuring some connective tissue between their production and Jackson's first The Lord of the Rings venture. Stay tuned to TechRadar for even more exclusives in the run-up to The Rings of Power season 2's debut on August 29.
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