Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power continues production without showrunners, writers amid strike
The road goes ever on and on, without the writers where it began
Following in the footsteps of House Of The Dragon, Prime Videos’ The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power will continue production throughout the writers’ strike sans showrunners or writers. Most visibly, the show’s co-creators, co-showrunners, and co-executive producers, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, will not oversee the show’s final 19 days of shooting. Amazon Studios confirmed to the A.V. Club that Rings Of Power’s creative materials were finished before the strike, so the actual production will not be affected. While Payne and McKay won’t be on set, the show’s “non-writing” executive producers, directors, and crew will oversee the remainder of the shoot.
This story is undoubtedly an easy layup for the show’s detractors (something like “they made it this far without writers,” etc.), but those who do enjoy the show are probably a little worried. Rings Of Power is already challenging to produce even before getting into the weeds of Tolkien’s legendarium. Throughout Rings Of Power’s promotional tour, the two showrunners were touted as Tolkien experts who could speak fluent Quenya from the Comic-Con stage. Will the show’s various “non-writer” filmmakers be able to step into that role?
Of course, the quality of one show matters much less than the wages of all the writers in show business. Any quality dips resulting from the writers’ strike aren’t anyone’s fault but the coalition of monopolistic, multi-billion dollar corporations depriving their workers of a living wage. Though it’s hard to imagine a fellowship of writers getting a fair deal out of Mordor’s leadership, that’s what it will take to hear more Harfoot walking songs.
It probably behooves Amazon to end the strike, so the company can get back to producing its ridiculously expensive series with the show’s leadership intact, but the company is famously not very union-friendly. Earlier this year, a judge found the company guilty of violating labor laws by threatening to withhold wages and promotions from employees who voted in favor of unionizing. One hopes the company learned its lessons, but as we know, the shadow of union busting endures, with its life force bound to the billions of dollars it avoids paying taxes on.