Rings Of Power Season 2 Update Is Risking A Worrying Release Trend

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 could end up with a summer 2024 release, establishing a risky trend that could cause trouble for the series going forward. The Prime Video series had a successful first season in 2022, allowing Amazon to renew for another few installments. Of course, though the streaming service reported a high viewership for the Lord of the Rings show, Rings of Power has faced heavy criticism from audiences, indicating that season 2 might not do as well. If Prime Video releases the series in the summer of 2024, this could make matters even worse.

Rings of Power season 2 managed to avoid strike delays in 2023, and it was recently announced (via Screen Rant) that this next installment is set for a 2024 release. Though the exact date has yet to be given, season 1’s summer 2022 release indicates that the continuation of this Middle-earth story will hit Prime Video in the summer as well. The problem with this is that another major fantasy series, House of the Dragon, is set to release its second season in June 2024, which could be a problem for The Rings of Power.

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The Rings Of Power Cast & Character Descriptions

Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has known characters and brand new ones, all with familiar faces. Here’s where you know them from.

Rings Of Power’s Season 2 Release May Line Up With House Of The Dragon Again

Rings of Power and House of the Dragon are both fantasy spinoff series based on massively popular IP, and each released their first season weeks apart in the summer of 2022. Both were considered successful, and future seasons are guaranteed for each. Back in November 2023, HBO announced an anticipated June 2024 release window for House of the Dragon season 2, while Rings of Power showrunner Patrick McKay said that season 2 of his Prime Video series could take another couple of years of post-production.

The 2023 news from these two shows seemed to indicate that their second seasons would be released much further apart than their first, but the reveal that Rings of Power would begin streaming in 2024 after all changed this. Now, it’s perfectly possible that House of the Dragon and Rings of Power will overlap with one another again, and while this worked out okay the first time around, the same may not be true for season 2.

Rings Of Power May Not Hold Up As Well Against House Of The Dragon A Second Time

Though Prime Video revealed that Rings of Power was its most-watched series, there has been heavy debate regarding the true success of the Lord of the Rings spinoff. The show has been heavily criticized for its various changes to Tolkien canon, as well as many technical aspects that potentially hindered the audiences’ experience. Though its Rotten Tomatoes critic score is 83%, the audience score is an abysmal 38%, perfectly reflecting the divisiveness of Rings of Power‘s first season. On the other hand, House of the Dragon was a far more definitive success.

The Game of Thrones spinoff has far more consistent Rotten Tomatoes scores, earning 93% from critics and 82% from audiences. Based on this, it will be difficult for Rings of Power season 2 to hold up if it begins streaming too close to House of the Dragon season 2. If Prime Video picks a summer 2024 release date, it would be actively pitting itself against the other fantasy series, and since approval is far higher for House of the Dragon, Rings of Power is unlikely to win this fight.

Why Rings Of Power Season 2 Is Even Riskier Than Season 1

Criticism for Rings of Power was high even before season 1 began streaming, so it was certainly an uphill battle for Prime Video. However, the distributor has regarded the series’ first installment as a booming success and is thus investing an even higher budget into season 2. The problem here is that streaming data indicates that only 37% of Rings of Power‘s viewers finished season 1 (via Screen Rant). Unfortunately for Prime Video, this means that these viewers are unlikely to return for season 2, which means that viewership could be considerably lower in 2024.

Ultimately, this problem will only be exacerbated if fantasy fans wind up having to choose between Rings of Power and House of the Dragon. Prime Video may be better off aiming for a fall 2024 release since this would mean House of the Dragon season 2 would be wrapped up, and audiences would be ready for another fantasy series to take its place. Rings of Power would need to abandon the release window established with its first installment, but this may be the best way to avoid a potentially damning risk.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history for the very first time. Set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power will explore a time in the franchise where kingdoms rose and fell, where The One Ring itself was forged and tells the tale of the rise of the greatest foe in the Lord of the Rings Franchise, the Dark Lord Sauron. Beginning in a time of peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of familiar and new characters as they confront the long-feared reemergence of evil in Middle-earth. From the depths of the Misty Mountains to the forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the island kingdom of Númenor, to the farthest reaches of the map, The Rings of Power promises to condense the extended works of Tolkien in a condensed but all-encompassing TV show format. The first season of The Rings of Power began airing exclusively on Prime Video on September 2, 2022

Cast

Morfydd Clark , Ismael Cruz Cordova , Charlie Vickers , Markella Kavenagh , Megan Richards , Sara Zwangobani , Daniel Weyman , Cynthia Addai-Robinson , Lenny Henry , Lloyd Owen , Nazanin Boniadi , Dylan Smith , Alex Tarrant , Tyroe Muhafidin , Robert Aramayo , Geoff Morrell , Thusitha Jayasundera , Maxine Cunliffe

Release Date

September 1, 2022

Seasons

1

Network

amazon prime video

Writers

Patrick McKay , John D. Payne , J.R.R. Tolkien , Justin Doble , Jason Cahill , Gennifer Hutchison , Stephany Folsom , Nicholas Adams

Directors

J.A. Bayona , Sanaa Hamri

Showrunner

John D. Payne , Patrick McKay , Louise Hooper , Charlotte Brändström , Wayne Yip