Series showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay are relative unknowns. This is a very weird thing. But Amazon bought the Lord of the Rings rights (supposedly for $250 million) without a script or even a concept in mind. This is also out of the ordinary. Instead, Amazon heard pitches and Payne and McKay won. Their idea, which became The Rings of Power, was to explore the deep history of the Second Age of Middle-earth, which J.R.R. Tolkien reveals in the appendices to The Lord of the Rings.
Smartly, Payne and McKay recruited Simon Tolkien, J.R.R.’s grandson and an author himself, to assist on the production as a consultant. McKay talked about working with a Tolkien with EW:
“The first time we met Simon Tolkien, we had to pinch ourselves — here we were, sitting across the table from the grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien himself,” McKay said. “And that was only the beginning of what has proven to be an extremely enriching and rewarding dialogue. His insights, attention to detail and passion for both the characters and the overall architecture of The Rings of Power are woven throughout the pages of our story. Working with Simon has been the experience of a lifetime.”
