Search icon

Entertainment

03rd Sep 2022

New LOTR series which cost Amazon £50 million per episode is lowest rated in franchise

Charlie Herbert

New LOTR series which cost Amazon £50 million per episode is lowest rated in franchise

The creators were probably hoping for a better reception

Amazon’s new series, The Rings of Power, has become the lowest rated production in the Lord of the Rings franchise.

The much-anticipated prequel was released on Friday (September 2) and is the most expensive series ever made, with each episode costing a reported $50m to make.

Set thousands of years before the events of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, it follows the events of the Second Age and the forging of the famous rings.

Reviews have been coming in for the series over the past few days, but with it having now been released on Amazon Prime, the entire world has been able to judge for themselves.

And so far, it doesn’t look like it’s quite been able to match the lofty heights of its predecessors.

The series currently has a critics rating of 84 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. But it’s perhaps the audience score which is most shocking, standing at just 36 percent at the time of writing,

In comparison The Fellowship of the Ring and The Twin Towers got 95 percent from fans and The Return of The King got 86.

Now, of course, this does come with the pretty major caveat that the Lord of the Rings films are three of the greatest of the 21st century, if not all time.

But creators were probably hoping that the series would have been better received by viewers.

Some of the reviews are scathing. One person described the series as “utter claptrap,” giving it a one-star review.

The Rings of Power has become the lowest-rated in the Lord of the Rings franchise (Amazon)

Another said the sets “feel cheap,” whilst a third labelled the first two episodes as “boring.”

But not everyone was so harsh on the show, with many enjoying the return to Middle Earth.

“Excellent visual presentation. Fantastic dialogue,” one fan said.

Another wrote: “The writing is very Tolkienesque, the cinematography is out of this world, the CGI is fantastic and the acting is top notch.”

And a third said they “can’t understand the hate so far.”

The Rings of Power is currently available to watch on Amazon Prime.

Related links: