Amazon’s The Rings of Power series is doubling down on its wokeness by hiring an all-female directing team for season two, the filming of which is already underway in the U.K.
Rings of Power‘s second season will be directed by Charlotte Brändström, who is returning after helming two episodes in season one, as well as Sanaa Hamri and Louise Hooper who are new to the series, according to a Deadline report. No release date has been announced for the new season.
Amazon shelled out an estimated $1 billion for the new series in the hopes of building a must-see, blockbuster show on the order of HBO’s Game of Thrones. But the series, which serves as a prequel of sorts to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, has failed to make much of a cultural impact despite a massive promotional push by Amazon.
Social media was flooded with negative reactions while reviews have ranged from unenthusiastic to downright negative, with critics faulting the lack of interesting characters, poorly conceived action sequences, and absence of a compelling story. The show has also so far been ignored by the Hollywood awards machinery. Still, Amazon has promised us at least a total of five seasons.
The first season embraced wokeness by casting actors of different ethnic backgrounds to play characters inspired by Tolkien’s Euro-centric vision of Middle Earth. It also turned its main protagonist, the elf-queen Galadriel, into a Mary Sue who is all virtue and no depth.
Amazon has played coy with the show’s viewership numbers, releasing selective figures that are vague and potentially misleading. Nielsen figures indicated the show experienced a sharp drop-off in viewing time after the first week, with a decline of about 18 percent — an ominous sign for a series just getting started.
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