In the wake of the release of the season finale of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” the show’s executive producer Lindsey Weber revealed to Deadline there’s a reason that first season seemed as slow as it did.
Talking with the outlet, she revealed the original plan was altered as several important moments originally written for the first season were deemed ‘too big’ and so were shifted to the second season. She says:
“There are things that we saved that were going to be in the final bit of the season that we thought, oh, just it’s too big right now to do, to fit that in with everything else and let’s save it, and we’re actually doing some of those things now in Season 2.
I think it’s really exciting to be exploring them and have the room to do it the way we really wanted to, so we weren’t giving anything short shrift.”
Co-showrunner Patrick McKay has said the new run will be “bigger and better [on] every level… by an order of magnitude”.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE SEASON FINALE
The first season came to an end with the big reveal of the identity of Sauron. McKay tells THR that was always going to come at the end of the season and was a very deliberate choice on their part:
“We didn’t want to make a show that was about the hunt for Sauron, but we love the idea of Sauron as a deceiver who could, hopefully, deceive some of the audience. We felt Sauron should be a character in his own right. We wanted to study the currents running within him in a way that hopefully would reward audiences as they follow him moving forward as he becomes the Dark Lord.
Sauron can now just be Sauron. Like Tony Soprano or Walter White: he’s evil, but complexly evil… We’re really excited. Season 2 has a canonical story. There may well be viewers who are like, ‘This is the story we were hoping to get in season 1!’ In season 2, we’re giving it to them.”
Shooting began on the second season earlier this month at Bray Studios in the UK. The full first season is now available worldwide on Amazon Prime.
