J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay were set to develop the series in July 2018, and a second season was ordered in November 2019. Filming began in the United Kingdom in October 2022, with Hooper and Hamri joining the series to direct multiple episodes. Production on the season wrapped in June 2023.
"Eldest" premiered on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video on September 5, 2024. It was estimated to have high viewership and received generally positive reviews, though the depiction of Tom Bombadil and other characters from Tolkien's works received mixed responses.
Plot
Elrond and Galadriel set out for Eregion with a company of Elves. They come to a bridge that has been destroyed by lightning and are forced to take a different path. Galadriel receives a vision from her Ring of Power that danger lies on their new path and believes this to be a trap set by Sauron. Elrond dismisses the ring's warning.
Separated from his Harfoot companions, the Stranger comes across a mysterious man who introduces himself as Tom Bombadil. After rescuing the Stranger from being consumed by a tree, Tom explains that he is "eldest" and remembers a time before there were stars. He came to Rhûn to see what had become of the once beautiful land, which is now a wasteland ruled over by the Dark Wizard. Tom explains that the Stranger has been tasked with stopping both the Dark Wizard and Sauron.
Nori Brandyfoot and Poppy Proudfellow meet a community of halflings called Stoors who live in a desert canyon. Gundabale Earthauler, the leader of the Stoors, plans to turn them away due to them being hunted by the Dark Wizard. She realizes that the Harfoots are descended from a Stoor who left in search of the Sûzat, a place of green hills that he dreamed could be the home of halflings. Two of the Dark Wizard's Gaudrim riders come searching for the Harfoots and are turned away by Gundabale.
Arondir deduces that Estrid is one of the Wild Men. She earns back Isildur's trust when he and Arondir are sucked into a mud pit inhabited by a nameless creature and she helps free them. They are confronted by two Ents who captured Theo and the Wild Men in retribution for the felling of trees by Wild Men and by Adar's Orc army. Arondir promises to protect the forest and the Ents free their prisoners; one of the Wild Men is Hagen, Estrid's betrothed. Arondir leaves Theo in charge of Pelargir and follows the Orcs' trail.
After fighting off Barrow-wights—spirits inhabiting the corpses of long-dead humans—the Elves find Adar's army and one of their group, Camnir, is hit by an arrow. He is healed by Galadriel's ring. She gives the ring to Elrond and tells him to return to Lindon to warn High King Gil-galad. Galadriel stays to hold off the Orcs and is captured by Adar.
Production
Development
Amazon acquired the television rights for J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954–55) in November 2017. The company's streaming service, Amazon Prime Video, ordered a series based on the novel and its appendices to be produced by Amazon Studios in association with New Line Cinema.[1] It was later titled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.[2] Amazon hired J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay to develop the series and serve as showrunners in July 2018,[3][4] and Glenise Mullins joined as a writing consultant by the following July.[4] The series was originally expected to be a continuation of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014) film trilogies, but Amazon later clarified that their deal with the Tolkien Estate required them to keep the series distinct from Jackson's films.[5] Despite this, the showrunners intended for it to be visually consistent with the films.[6] A second season was ordered in November 2019,[7] and Amazon announced in August 2021 that it was moving production of the series from New Zealand, where Jackson's films were made, to the United Kingdom starting with the second season.[8] The season's all-female directing team was revealed in December 2022: Charlotte Brändström, returning from the first season; Sanaa Hamri; and Louise Hooper.[9]
The series is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings.[10] Because Amazon did not acquire the rights to Tolkien's other works where the First and Second Ages are primarily explored, the writers had to identify references to the Second Age in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and its appendices, and create a story that bridged those passages.[6] After introducing the setting and major heroic characters in the first season, the showrunners said the second would focus on the villains and go deeper into the "lore and the stories people have been waiting to hear".[6][11] The season's fourth episode, titled "Eldest", was written by Mullins and directed by Hooper and Hamri.[12]
Filming for the season began on October 3, 2022,[25] under the working titleLBP.[26] Episodes were shot simultaneously based on the availability of locations and sets.[27] Directors of photography included Laurie Rose and Jean-Philippe Gossart.[28] The production wrapped in early June 2023.[29]
Visual effects
Visual effects for the episode were created by Rodeo FX, Outpost VFX, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), DNEG, Midas VFX, Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies, Untold Studios, Atomic Arts, and Cantina Creative.[24][30] The different vendors were overseen by visual effects supervisor Jason Smith.[30]
A soundtrack album featuring composer Bear McCreary's score for the episode was released digitally on the streaming service Amazon Music on September 5, 2024.[31] McCreary said the series' episodic albums contained "virtually every second of score" from their respective episodes.[32] It was added to other music streaming services after the full second season was released.[31]
All music is composed by Bear McCreary:
Season Two, Episode Four: Eldest – Amazon Original Series Soundtrack
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Elves Embark"
2:28
2.
"Meeting Tom Bombadil"
3:18
3.
"Concerning Stoors"
5:11
4.
"The Dark Wizard"
2:26
5.
"Eldest"
5:36
6.
"Lair of the Barrow-wights"
3:17
7.
"Mud Beast"
2:54
8.
"The Sûzat"
4:24
9.
"Snaggleroot and Winterbloom"
6:52
10.
"Galadriel Stands Alone"
3:48
Total length:
40:14
Release
"Eldest" premiered on Prime Video in the United States on September 5, 2024.[33] It was released at the same time around the world,[34] in more than 240 countries and territories.[35]
Reception
Viewership
Luminate, which gathers viewership data from smart TVs,[36] said the series was watched for 764.7 million minutes in the week ending September 5. This placed it second on the company's chart behind Netflix's Worst Ex Ever and was described as a "soft start" for the season considering it included several days of viewership for the first three episodes in addition to the fourth episode's debut.[37]Whip Media, which tracks viewership data for the 25 million worldwide users of its TV Time app, again listed the series second—behind Hulu's Only Murders in the Building—on its US streaming chart for the week ending September 8.[38]Nielsen Media Research, which records streaming viewership on US television screens, estimated that The Rings of Power had 1.02 billion minutes viewed in the week ending September 8. This was even with the previous week and made it the second biggest original streaming series of the week behind Netflix's The Perfect Couple.[39]Samba TV, which also gathers viewership data from smart TVs, listed the series fifth on its chart of top streaming programs for the week ending September 8.[40]
Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes calculated that 92% of 12 critics reviews were positive and the average rating for the episode was 6.8 out of 10.[41]
Reviewing the episode for Polygon, Leon Miller said it was the most focused and satisfying of the season so far. He discussed the theme of mistrust in the episode's storylines and felt this was most effective in scenes between Galadriel and Elrond, finding the Pelargir storyline to be "a bit bland by comparison". Miller also discussed the episode's "fan service", saying its depictions of Tom Bombadil and Ents were contrary to Tolkien's descriptions and believing they were included "to score cheap clout with viewers". In contrast, he found the Barrow-wight sequence and the mud creature to have genuine purposes in their respective storylines.[42]
James Whitbrook of Gizmodo said the episode did not move the overall story forward much and most of the character work, despite being "perfectly good", just continued the season's theme of all the characters other than Sauron being "really miserable". He thought the impacts of the growing darkness on the natural world—seen in the tree that consumes the Stranger, the Barrow-wights, the mud creature, and the Ents—was more interesting and "maybe the most Tolkien-esque idea that Rings of Power has put on screen".[43] Matt Schimkowitz at The A.V. Club graded the episode a "B". He said some of Kinnear's charm as Tom Bombadil was lost when the character is used to provide exposition for the Stranger, and found the Barrow-wights to be "kind of cool" but also "a touch too Disney. I was getting hints of Haunted Mansion and Pirates Of The Caribbean". Schimkowitz said the Ents were the best of the episode's cameo appearances and provided an opportunity to take a break from the plot when Arondir apologizes to Winterbloom. He felt the Stoor scenes aligned with the levity of the Hobbits in Jackson's films.[44]
Collider's Arezou Amin gave the episode 8 out of 10 and said it picked up the pace for the season with more action and new, interesting characters. She highlighted Kinnear's portrayal of Tom Bombadil, the Harfoots getting more to do, and said the action sequences were effective, but missed the Númenor and Dwarf storylines after the previous episode's cliffhanger ending.[45] Giving the episode three stars out of five for Vulture, Keith Phipps said it was busy but managed to "balance pretty well" between action sequences and smaller character moments. He added that the many references to Tolkien's books and Jackson's films made the episode "a good example of The Rings of Power's ability to recycle creatively".[46] Samantha Nelson at IGN gave the episode 6 out of 10 and described it as a "creature feature, with some fun fights and worldbuilding but little progress in the main plot". Nelson praised the scenes where the halflings discuss the Sûzat and Winterbloom discusses forgives, but found Isildur's romance with Estrid to be tedious and missed the season's main Sauron and Celebrimbor storyline.[47]
Further discussing the episode's portrayal of Tom Bombadil, Phipps believed some fans would dislike the changes to the character but he felt "casting Rory Kinnear and letting him play [Tom] as a warmhearted weirdo goes a long way".[46] Laura Miller at Slate criticized the decision to give Tom a role in the story, finding this to be antithetical to the character and blaming the series' supposed need to give each character an easily understood defining purpose.[48] Writing for Screen Rant, Angel Shaw agreed that this is "not Tolkien's Tom Bombadil" but said the changes were effective for the series and created a new character for audiences to enjoy without taking away from the book version. Shaw particular liked the idea that this Tom is a mentor to the Wizards, feeling that it connected to the Wizard Gandalf's decision to spend time with Tom at the end of The Lord of the Rings.[49]
Companion media
An episode of the aftershowInside The Rings of Power for "Eldest" was released on September 5, 2024. It features actress Felicia Day, the host of The Official The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Podcast, interviewing the directors and cast members Córdova, Baldry, and Kinnear about the making of the episode, with some behind-the-scenes footage.[50][51]
