Movies News Talk
The Rings Of Power from Amazon Prime is poised to bring a pivotal scene from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings to the screen—a scene that Peter Jackson's darling film trilogy conspicuously lacked. Cut from the original movies, this scene shows the Barrow-wights—terrible undead creatures. With Tom Bombadil added, staying faithful to Tolkien's original work, the show is already attracting viewers.
Reviews of The Rings Of Power have been conflicting; some viewers find perplexity over some story and design decisions, including the look of Elves like Elrond and Círdan the Shipwright. Notwithstanding these complaints, the show presents a special chance to investigate uncharted territory of Tolkien's mythology. Season 1 brought the kingdom of Númenor to life for the first time, and Season 2 promises to introduce legendary franchise creatures even absent from the most watched films.
The Barrow-wights will endanger the main characters in The Rings of Power season 2. The show gains a horror component with the release of pictures showing Galadriel confronting one of these terrifying undead creatures. This fresh component will offer a fascinating counterpoint to the conventional fantasy components that have thus far been seen.
How the Barrow-wights will fit into the general story of The Rings of Power still begs questions. The undead menace of the Ringwraiths had not yet developed in the years preceding The Lord Of The Rings. Like the Ringwraiths, the Barrow-wights are creatures of darkness with shapeshifting ability, but their presence poses a different difficulty for the whole story of the production. The Barrow-wights show up in the Lord of the Rings when Frodo and the other hobbits pass across an old burial ground dedicated to Men of the First Age. Only to be foiled by Tom Bombadil, the Barrow-wights catch the hobbits with intentions to kill them in a ritual.
Many of Tolkien's book's elements were omitted from the Lord of the Rings adaptation either for time or consistency. Though a major component of the book, the hobbits' meeting in the Barrow-downs has little bearing on the general plot. But their absence from the movie version has more to do with Tom Bombadil's exclusion. Saving the hobbits from the Barrow-wights depends much on Tom Bombadil. Jackson would have had to drastically change the scene without him, thus it would be more sensible to just cut it totally.
The showrunners of The Rings of Power season 2 have a difficult work ahead of them, and the Barrow-wights' look is a daring decision. The Rings of Power has stayed true to its creative vision even while many viewers have voiced criticism on the show's decisions. Time will tell whether this strategy turns out to be successful finally.