Recreating the feel of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy can only be considered the right move for Amazon's The Rings of Power TV show. When thinking of Middle-earth on the big screen (which we often do), images of a bushy-bearded, bespectacled man trudging around New Zealand come to mind... but there's a new player in town. After Amazon struck a deal with the Tolkien Estate in 2017, JD Payne and Patrick McKay are bringing live-action Lord of the Rings to Prime Video with big-budget TV series, The Rings of Power.
Set over 3000 years before Bilbo and Frodo stained Bag End with the smell of pipe-weed, The Rings of Power is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings (though perhaps it's more accurate to say "a story from an earlier age"). Whether the TV series connects directly to Peter Jackson's movies, however, remains to be seen. Amazon consulted Jackson for The Rings of Power, but the director isn't involved in any real capacity, and since Amazon isn't affiliated with New Line (the company behind Jackson's movie trilogy), The Rings of Power can't officially connect to the Lord of the Rings movies. Morfydd Clark (Galadriel) and Robert Aramayo (Elrond) could feasibly mature into Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving, respectively, but they're more likely playing entirely separate versions of their pointy-eared counterparts.
Regardless of whether The Rings of Power is canonically linked to Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, teaser trailer footage proves Payne and McKay absolutely are continuing the visual style and tonal spirit behind Jackson's movies. The Rings of Power's teaser opens on a shot of Númenor, which interprets Middle-earth architecture and geography very much within the Peter Jackson vein. Sweeping shots over the hills of New Zealand could've been plucked straight from 2001's The Fellowship of the Ring (albeit in higher definition), and the teaser's cave troll is exactly what you'd expect an ancestor of the creature who attacked the Fellowship in Moria to look like. The battle scene depicting Finrod's warriors against Morgoth's orcs then gives overt allusions to how Jackson filmed The Battle of Helm's Deep. Add to that Amazon's decision to film The Rings of Power season 1 in New Zealand, and reportedly approaching The Lord of the Rings' composer Howard Shore to provide music, and it's clear the TV series is intended as a spiritual extension of Peter Jackson's movies.
And that's the exact approach Amazon should be taking with The Rings of Power. Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movies hold such lofty cultural significance, The Rings of Power denying their existence and intentionally trying to stand apart could only backfire. Tolkien purists might shudder at the prospect but, for many, Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy is Middle-earth. His movies set a precedent for what Tolkien's world looks like, what kind of costumes its inhabitants wear, how certain creatures appear, even what kind of music plays when armies gallop across the plains.
Had The Rings of Power fought against that culturally-ingrained mental image of Middle-earth, the show's defeat would've been greater than the Elves during the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. By leaning into the popularity of Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies, The Rings of Power can lean on an established franchise - even if the timeline and cast are completely different. Some Lord of the Rings fans have compared The Rings of Power's CGI-heavy landscapes to The Hobbit, rather than Jackson's more earthy first trilogy that balanced the practical and digital. Though that comparison is understandable, The Rings of Power's CG additions are far more seamless.
Dusting off Peter Jackson's aesthetic and giving it a modern sheen also helps lessen the risk factor for what is already an incredibly risky project. One does not simply bring Middle-earth into live-action, and there's a reason almost 50 years passed before a filmmaker dared try. Amazon is pumping a great deal of money into The Rings of Power, and opting for a totally different look and feel than what audiences expect would likely mean this unfathomably expensive project becoming an unfathomable flop. Adopting a visual flair and tonal balance that already proved hugely successful dilutes just how risky Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will be for Amazon.