With so much television to choose from nowadays, you have to be really invested in a TV show to stick with it and stop your eyes from wandering elsewhere. According to a recent write-up from The Hollywood Reporter, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power struggled to keep its viewers attention week-to-week, with only 45% of people who started it actually making it to the season 1 finale.
While the prequel series, which charts the rise of Sauron during the Second Age of Middle-earth, earned a respectable 83% on Rotten Tomatoes across the rollout of its first chapter, it received criticism for its slow-moving plot and the way it tweaked certain details present in J. R. R. Tolkien's original works – which is presumably why some never finished it. In the US, only 37% of people watched all the way to the end.
As it stands, Prime Video has committed to five seasons of Rings of Power, but the streamer could presumably alter this if it could no longer justify the $1 billion it would spend on that long of a run. For comparison, Netflix outings Resident Evil and First Kill were completed by less than 50% of those who started it, and have since both been canceled. However, there's been no indication that this will happen from Prime Video.
Teasing season 2 back in October 2022, showrunner JD Payne said they want to give Sauron the Galadriel treatment going forward in terms of delving deep into the character's motivations.
"Season one opens with: Who is Galadriel? Where did she come from? What did she suffer? Why is she driven? We’re doing the same thing with Sauron in season two. We’ll fill in all the missing pieces."
Fellow showrunner Patrick McKay added, "Sauron can now just be Sauron. Like Tony Soprano or Walter White. He’s evil, but complexly evil. We felt like if we did that in season one, he'd overshadow everything else. So the first season is like Batman Begins, and the The Dark Knight is the next movie, with Sauron maneuvering out in the open. We're really excited. Season two has a canonical story. There may well be viewers who are like, 'This is the story we were hoping to get in season one!' In season two, we're giving it to them."
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 is available to stream on Prime Video now. If fantasy's not your thing, then check out our guide to the best shows on Amazon Prime for some viewing inspiration.
