The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has constantly been battling die-hard Tolkien fans who claim the series does not follow the canon of the franchise as created by the author. However, co-showrunner Patrick McKay has countered that opinion, noting that the Second Age of Middle Earth was partly chosen as the setting of the series because of Tolkien’s vague and sometimes contradictory writings on the era in his main Lord of the Rings appendices.

In a deep dive into the second season of The Rings of Power with Deadline, McKay and fellow showrunner JD Payne broke down many aspects of the latest season, including why they chose to focus on the Second Age of Tolkien’s epic story.

“We love this world, we love Middle-earth, we love those texts. And we chose to tell a story in this particular era of Middle-earth’s history because he never wrote a fixed version of it. He wrote notes and a little timeline over here and there’s a little article over there, and sometimes they contradict one another. I think we ask for forgiveness more than permission in the sense of we think there could be an epic version of this story in this era that feels like the things you want to feel when you watch Lord of the Rings, that has the adventure and the propulsion and the tension and the set pieces and world-building and also politics and psychology as JD says.”

The Rings of Power Has Divided Fans, but is a Massive Success

While there are some Tolkien fans and scholars who are still unhappy with the way The Rings of Power is progressing, Prime Video will not be disappointed with the publicity around the series, or the huge viewership that the show continues to draw with the debut of Season 2. Having already reclaimed the top spot on the streamer’s platform with Season 1 in the week leading up to the new season, the series is now almost untouchable at the top of the chart for the foreseeable future.

The second season of The Rings of Power has certainly arrived with a more positive reaction to the first, with the audience’s Rotten Tomatoes score almost doubling that of the previous episodes. In addition to this, critics have continued to heap praise on the show, cementing Amazon’s reported $1 billion investment as a shrewd and worthwhile one. While much of Season 1 was dedicated to introducing audiences to this version of Tolkien’s world, leading to several complaints of slow plotting, Season 2 opened with a gruesome flashback detailing Sauron’s return to Middle Earth, and has immediately picked up several storylines, with the promise of much more to come.

In addition to the complete first season, the first three episodes of Season 2 are now available on Prime Video. New episodes will be released weekly throughout September, with the season finale premiering on October 3.