The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power may have wowed the critics, but there have been numerous reports that the series failed to quite pull in the audience reviews scores that the creators and Prime Video had hoped. However, it looks like the season 1 finale of the Tolkien adaptation led to a spike in interest for the show. As per The Wrap, Parrot Analytics reported a peak of 55.7 times in the U.S. which was higher than any other time during the run.

With season two of The Rings of Power already in production, and Prime Video committed to a five season run unless something goes drastically wrong with a future season, this will be an encouraging sign that there are some viewers who simply chose to wait for the entire season to be available before they dipped into the story. While most series would see a drop in viewer interest over time, many people seem to have listened more to the positive reviews of the show and decided to see what all the fuss is about for themselves.

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Season one of The Rings of Power spent its first episodes setting out its stall, with introductions to lands, peoples and some events that will go on to shape the future of the series and the story of Middle Earth it is telling. This has included the enigmatic appearance of The Stranger, a character who by the end of the season has been revealed to be “a wizard”, the emergence of Sauron and the creation of the land of Mordor. While there have been some Tolkien fans who have not appreciated the interpretation of the source material, on the whole the viewership of the show has been enough to keep most people at Prime Video happy.

How Will The Rings Of Power’s Second Season Develop the Story?

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When it comes to fantasy TV shows, a first season of any new series has to spend a lot of its time creating and explaining the world in which it is set. While Middle Earth is well-known to some, there are many who only know the world of Tolkien through Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, and although The Rings of Power is set in that same world, it is set many years before those movies and there have been some minor changes made to the lore of the land.

According to the series showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, there will be more Tolkien canon included in the second season, and it would be expected that as the story heads towards the better known events that Tolkien created, things will likely begin to feel a little more familiar. The pair previously told THR:

The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power is now streaming on Prime Video.

PAYNE: “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.”

MCKAY: “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.”