The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is just lurking around the corner, and that means that we are about to see one of the most epic series on television. But, of course, The Rings of Power is based on an entirely large literary world that JRR Tolkien created, as we have seen how big and vast this world is in the original The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and even in the books that Tolkien wrote. This means that everything in that world is interconnected, and it might be difficult for those who want to watch The Rings of Power to understand what’s going on unless they have some prior knowledge about the Tolkien literary universe.
Ordinarily, we would recommend that you read the books if you want to understand the entire world created by Tolkien. But we know that not everyone loves reading books or has enough time for reading. That is why it is best that you watch the prior LOTR movies first before you watch The Rings of Power. In that regard, we are here to guide you regarding everything you need to binge your way through before you watch The Rings of Power.
What To Watch Before The Rings Of Power?
The release of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set to become one of the biggest releases in television history, especially because of how popular the Tolkien novels and the LOTR movies are. Of course, the release of the series was also quite highly publicized, as the entire world is ready to once again dive into the massive world created by Tolkien.
But because not everyone has read the JRR Tolkien novels and because there is a two-decade gap between the original Peter Jackson LOTR movies and the release of The Rings of Power, not everyone probably has prior knowledge of the Tolkien cinematic world. On top of that, some of us here might have already forgotten some of the details that happened in the LOTR trilogy. So, what do you need to watch before The Rings of Power?
There are only six movies that you need to watch if you want to learn more about what The Rings of Power will dwell on or if you’ve forgotten what happened in the LOTR movies or even The Hobbit movies. These movies will allow you to understand more about what the rings in the LOTR world are and how they were able to help shape Middle-Earth.
Of course, you will get to understand more about the One Ring and what it is and what it can do, as it is the very subject matter of the LOTR trilogy. It is needless to say that its creation and the creation of the other rings of power will be explored in The Rings of Power series.
First off, it might be best for you to follow the LOTR chronological watch order of the six movies based on JRR Tolkien’s novels. That means that you may want to start out with The Hobbit trilogy before you jump into the LOTR trilogy because the events of The Hobbit occur decades before LOTR.
However, we do recommend that you watch LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring before you dive into The Hobbit trilogy because you won’t understand who Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf are without watching the first LOTR movie.
Of course, the opening scene of Fellowship of the Ring also allows you to understand what happened thousands of years ago before the events of both The Hobbit and LOTR. The opening scene allows you to learn a bit about the rings of power, which include the three rings that the elves have. We also see these rings once more in The Hobbit trilogy. After that, you can finish the rest of the LOTR trilogy.
We also recommend that you watch the extended versions of the movies because they allow you to have more information regarding the different characters. And the scenes that never made it to the theatrical versions are quite nice as well.
Do You Need To Watch The Lord Of The Rings And The Hobbit Before The Rings Of Power?
The reason why you need to watch The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings before The Rings of Power is the fact that Amazon Prime Video decided to streamline the entire world to the already established movies when they decided to create an Amazon Original based on the beloved Tolkien movies.
That’s why Amazon worked not only with Warner Bros. but also with New Line Cinema to potentially use footage from the previous films and to make sure that everything in the cinematic world of LOTR gets streamlined. And trust us when we say that streamlining was important for Amazon because this is the most expensive show ever made.
You also need to understand that The Rings of Power is not based on a book but on the appendices written by JRR Tolkien. In a sense, the writers of the series expanded on the appendices that Tolkien wrote to create a series that has already been given the go signal for five seasons. And the six LOTR movies also served as important source materials for the writers when they were writing a storyline for The Rings of Power.
Because of the fact that Amazon tried to streamline things between The Rings of Power and the six movies, it is important for you to understand the entire cinematic world by watching The Hobbit and LOTR. Appreciating the six movies will give you a better perspective regarding the events and the overall atmosphere of The Rings of Power.
