Rings of Power Showrunners Made it Clear Fans Uproar Will Have an Impact on Season 2
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1 wrapped up on October 14. However, even before that date, on October 3, the production of Season 2 has officially started.
The show is planned to have a total of five seasons. But a question arises – can the plans be impacted by the show's controversial reception and various criticisms it received, and if yes, then to what extent?
In an interview with Vanity Fair, showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay made it clear that the criticisms were heard and will have an impact on later seasons. Payne, in particular, said:
"Certainly, you look at audience response, and you see what characters people love, and what kinds of storytelling moves them. I wouldn't say we're over-correcting for any of it, but we're certainly listening to people's responses."
Payne also stated that as filming of Season 2 has already began, the script for it is largely locked down, as is to be expected. But some subtler changes can still be implemented:
"In terms of how it's impacted season two, we wrote most of season two before season one came out. We're refining the last bits of it now as we're starting to shoot. But really, the cake was kind of baked before the audience response came in."
McKay also added in that the bar for what the team intends to achieve is extremely high. He explained, that the showrunners, who see the shape of their upcoming product well in advance, are usually aware of the problems before the audience can even start to notice them:
"…In some ways the audience response, we're a year ahead of that because we saw it a year ago, and we were like, 'Here it's really seeming to work, and here it's maybe not working as well as we might have hoped or thought it would.'"
He summarized the showrunners' position about correcting the course of the show based on the audience's feedback in this way: "So to the extent there's a course correction, it's just us building on the strengths of the show and on the strengths of our actors and our designers."
Merely admitting that a course correction is likely to take place might, of course, mean that not only there is a course correction, but that it is significant. At the very least, it means the showrunners are aware that their show is heavily criticized.