'The Rings of Power' showrunners explain Show's connection to Tolkien: 'This story is not ours'

Few upcoming shows have higher expectations than "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power." Amazon's upcoming fantasy epic isn't just the most expensive TV show ever made, it's also based on one of the most popular book series of all time. On top of that, Peter Jackson's first 'Lord of the Rings' movie trilogy set the standard for fantasy cinema, so 'The Rings of Power' will inevitably be compared to that as well.

It's a lot of pressure for showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne. They cope with high expectations by placing all their trust in J.R.R. Tolkien, focusing on making the show as faithful to the books as possible. When a reporter from the Television Critic Association's press tour noted on Friday that the show was "loosely related" to Tolkien's books, the showrunners pushed back (vi).

"I just want to quibble with the 'loosely connected'," said Patrick McKay. "We don't feel that. We feel like the deep roots of this show are in the books and in Tolkien. And if we didn't feel like that, we'd all be terrified to sit here. We feel that this story is not ours. It's a story we're dealing with that was here before us and waiting in these books to be on Earth. We don't feel 'loosely connected'. We feel deeply, deeply connected to these people and work every day to be even more connected. That's really how you think about it."

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"We think of [Tolkien], his life's work was to create this world. This is Tolkien's Middle-earth and the regions beyond Middle-earth and we just wanted to be true to that," he added. "Tolkien's work is endlessly applicable across cultures and across time, and we are truly grateful to be able to bring it to life in our time."

The comments come after Peter Jackson recently revealed he was asked to consider working on the series, but never received the scripts that Amazon offered to send him. At the time, THR reported that his ghosting may have had something to do with Tolkien's estate being closely involved in "The Rings of Power." Tolkien's children were notoriously opposed to Jackson movies, so many felt it made sense that they didn't want the Oscar-winning director working on the project. All signs point to the series having an even stronger Tolkien influence than previous films.

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