According to BoundingIntoComics:
With Amazon’s live-action bastardzation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s seminal fantasy works having under performed by practically every metric, a new rumor suggests that the company will be “retooling” The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for its second season – starting with the sidelining of its current showrunners, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay.
Word of this apparent shake-up was first suggested by noted film critic, industry insider, and Film Threat founder Chris Gore during an appearance on the 314th episode of the YouTube livestream show Midnight’s Edge in the Morning.
Discussing the series’ first season finale with that day’s panel, Gore was eventually asked by host Andre Einherjar, “What have you heard from your peers in the industry, is everyone so impressed with The Rings of Power like the showrunners suggests we should be?”, to which the critic admitted back, “Uh, no.”
In fact, said Gore, not only were his industry contacts unimpressed with season one, but the reception to it was so generally abysmal that Amazon has set out to course correct for season two.
“I heard from someone who has a connect at Amazon that – if you wanna know – that effectively, they’re going to be retooling,” he explained. “And [Payne and McKay] are more than likely…they’re not gonna be publicly fired, but their role will be reduced.”
“Potentially just remaining in the writers room,” he added, “but my understanding is they’re looking for more experienced showrunners.”
To this end, Gore detailed that Amazon is “well aware of the problems” before noting that while “there’s what they publicly say,” there’s also “what they’re actually doing behind the scenes”.
“And what they’re doing behind the scenes,” he then asserted, “is they’re freaking out that this was more of a failure than could have been anticipated.”
As to what has caused the company higher-ups to ostensibly sit-up and get their act together, Gore speculated that there were three key reasons for this change.
“I think the quality of the show is the number one thing,” he first opined. “[Audiences are] like ‘Why am I still watching this? This is sleep inducing.’”
