Payne and McKay recently addressed the criticisms at the Television Critics Association’s semi-annual press tour (via The Hollywood Reporter). When a reporter called The Rings of Power only “vaguely connected” to Tolkien’s writings compared to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was “based on actual printed materials,” Patrick McKay replied:

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“I just want to sort of quibble with the ‘vaguely connected.’ We don’t feel that way. We feel like deep roots of this show are in the books and in Tolkien. And if we didn’t feel that way, we’d all be terrified to sit up here. We feel that this story isn’t ours. It’s a story we’re stewarding that was here before us and was waiting in those books to be on Earth. We don’t feel ‘vaguely connected.’ We feel deeply, deeply connected to those folks and work every day to even be closer connected. That’s really how we think about it.”

The Rings of Power Showrunners Also Discussed The Game of Thrones Comparisons

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has been compared to HBO’s Game of Thrones for some reason, even though its source material precedes GoT by half a century. McKay says he understands where the comparisons come from, but they are just trying to honor Tolkien rather than outdo another popular fantasy series.

HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon, is another hotly anticipated show of the year and is set to premiere two weeks before The Rings of Power. Neither party is concerned about the so-called “rivalry,” and it’s only the fans who’ll benefit from two amazing fantasy shows playing on television at the same time.

“We talked about this a lot. It comes up and and we totally understand where where the question comes from. We don’t think of the show in terms of what genre or other shows that might be out there. We think about [Tolkien], his life’s work was creating this world. This is Tolkien’s Middle Earth and regions beyond Middle Earth and we just wanted to be true to that and sort of drown out and forget about what might be happening in another realm someplace else”

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will debut on Prime Video on September 2, 2022.