Amazon Studios' The Rings of Power deviates from Tolkien due to rights limitations

The Amazon Studios series ‘The Rings of Power’ has deviated significantly from J.R.R. Tolkien’s original texts due to specific legal and narrative constraints. A primary reason for these creative departures is that Amazon does not hold the rights to all of Tolkien’s works. While the production has access to ‘The Lord of the Rings’, its appendices, and ‘The Hobbit’, it lacks the rights to key texts such as ‘The Silmarillion’, ‘Unfinished Tales’, and ‘The History of Middle-earth’.

These missing texts are essential for detailing the Second Age, the period in which the series is set. Because the Second Age spans over 3,000 years and is often presented in Tolkien’s writings as a collection of dates, reigns, and wars rather than a continuous narrative, the showrunners have had to compress the chronology. This compression brings events separated by centuries closer together and requires the invention of new elements to create a coherent, continuous story suitable for modern television audiences.