Despite what certain fans have been claiming, the new Rings of Power show won't be woke. According to show-runners, "modern politics" haven't influenced production.
You've probably all seen the controversy surrounding Amazon's Rings of Power. Basically, when the first photos of the show were released we saw black dwarfs, black hobbits, and powerful women. Certain "types" of fans took issue with these characters. They claimed that it was wokeness and not in keeping with the texts as written. But the problem for those critiques is obvious: this is a show set in the second-age, and Tolkien only really describes the era in note-form, so the show's writers were forced to create a lot of the story. It's not like they're deviating from a text, because there is no official text to reference, just an overview of events. Yet, such fans persist.
The controversy reached new heights in recent weeks. In response, one of the showrunners has come forward to speak on the issue, and they claim that the show is not informed by modern politics. Instead, the show aims to be "timeless".
Showrunners Defend Rings of Power
In an interview with Total Film, LotR: Rings of Power showrunner Patrick McKay denied accusations that the show would be informed by modern politics. He claimed that they were trying to be "timeless" with their approach, but he wasn't too clear on what that meant.
In McKay's own words:
[Tolkein] was not commenting on historical events of his time or another time. He was not trying to transmit a message that spoke to contemporary politics. He wanted to create a mythos that was timeless, and would be applicable – that was his word, 'applicable' – the applicability across times.Every single choice we’ve made at every turn of making this show has been to be faithful to that aspiration, because that’s what we want as viewers. We don’t want to adapt the material in a way that might feel dated. We aspire to being timeless. That’s why these books still speak to people so much, because so much of what’s in them has not aged a day. And we aspire to do the same thing. And I think we feel that once people see the show, and see what the stories and characters and worlds are in context, they’ll feel the same way.
We're going to take him by his word on this. The show could be as disappointing as the Wheel of Time, but we need to go in with a positive attitude otherwise it's doomed to fail. And hey, Amazon isn't all bad, they've come out with some great shows this month.
If Netflix is looking for a great fantasy series to compete with LotR, we have a few suggestions...