The Tales That Really Matter
A review/deep dive of Season 1 of Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
“There was a time when the world was so young, there had not yet been a sunrise. But even then, there was light.” This first line from Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power isn’t being read from a history book; Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) was actually there. She remembers when Valinor, home of the angelic Valar and the mighty Noldorin Elves, was actually part of the physical world, when two trees of Silver and Gold gave light to the whole world, and when the Elves lived forever in joy and bliss and didn’t even have a word for death. But that Paradise has been lost for thousands of years, ever since the satanic Dark Lord Morgoth made a bid to be king of the world, destroying the Two Trees of Valinor and unleashing an unholy army of orcs, trolls and other monsters upon Middle Earth. He also unleashed war, a catastrophic war pitting the Noldor and their allies the Edain, the First Men of Middle Earth, against the literal powers of Hell. Evil would finally be defeated but at a terrible cost. And no one would lose quite so much as Galadriel; as she later tells a mortal character, “It would take longer than your lifetime even to speak the names of all those who have been taken from me.”
But Rings of Power isn’t the story of the First Age, but of the time that came after and would be portrayed in the prologue of Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning trilogy of films. The world is at peace, but Galadriel is decidedly not. All the trauma and sorrow of the Elder Days has made her driven and relentless to ensure that evil does not rise again as it did back then. For although Morgoth was defeated, many of his hellspawn have escaped the wrath of the West, most importantly the fallen angel Sauron who was Morgoth’s mightiest servant, and who was directly responsible for the death of Galadriel’s beloved brother Finrod (Will Fletcher). Unfortunately it seems to Galadriel that she is a voice crying in the wilderness, for most of her fellow elves wish to put the darkness of those days behind them; the High King of the Noldor, Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) seems particularly adamant that the days of war are over. Only the gifted courtier Elrond Halfelven (Robert Arramayo), heir of a mighty legacy and Galadriel’s best friend, seems willing to even listen to her warnings, although he is deeply worried about the toll that her quest and her past are taking on her soul. Eventually Galadriel’s single-mindedness sends her into exile, where in the middle of the vast Sundering Seas she ends up meeting a mysterious Southron castaway named Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) who is clearly hiding…something. But it turns out that Gil-galad actually takes Galadriel’s warnings more seriously than he lets on, even if he would prefer to deal with the problem differently. Elrond is thus sent on a special mission to the court of the ambitious elven smith Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) and from there to the mighty Dwarvish kingdom of Khazad-Dum, there to reunite with his old friend Prince Durin (Owain Arthur) and attempt to forge an alliance between Elves and Dwarves. And it turns out that Galadriel’s fears and Gil-galad’s concerns are well founded, for evil is indeed stirring in the Southlands (a region that will include lands that will in future become Gondor); healer, mother and village leader Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) and Silvan Elvish ranger Arondir (Ismael Cruz-Cordoba) do their best to rally the people of these lands and defend themselves, but they may well be outmatched.
Meanwhile Galadriel and Halbrand end up in Numenor, the mighty island kingdom of the heirs of the Edain. Their presence ends up being a lightning rod for controversy among a proud people who have largely forgotten how their ancestors fought alongside the Elves; Galadriel in particular prompts some serious soul-searching on the part of Elendil (Lloyd Owen), a naval officer and minor noble going through personal tragedy of his own, and Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) the princess-regent of Numenor who struggles to balance the needs of her kingdom with the memory of past devotion. Finally, in the wide plains of Rhovanian, Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) an inquisitive and adventurous Harfoot (one of three ancestor breeds for the Hobbits that Tolkien writes about) encounters a mysterious celestial traveler known only as the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) who desperately needs help in some way, and she struggles to balance her altruism and sense of responsibility with the needs of her community of Harfoots. All these threads move forward inexorably, if somewhat unevenly, towards the reveal of Sauron’s identity, the first steps in the forging of the Rings of Power, and the next chapter in the eternal struggle between good and evil.
Showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McCay join a long line of illustrious artists who, ever since Tolkien’s death in 1973, have been fulfilling the words that he wrote to Milton Waldmen: “I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama.” The mission that they signed up for and which Amazon approved? To bring to life the Second Age of Middle Earth, a truly important time in that world’s history which Tolkien sketched a historical outline for, but didn’t write as much material for as he did for the First and Third Ages. They had some advantages going in. Both of them are lifelong fans of Tolkien’s, and they both had religious backgrounds personally and academically that would be of good use interpreting the work of the devout Catholic Tolkien. The Tolkien Estate was behind their endeavor, something not even Peter Jackson could boast of; in particular Tolkien’s grandson Simon worked alongside them as a consultant. The source material being only in outline form, or at most in dry historical form, allowed for imagination to fill in the blanks. And of course, close to a billion dollars from lifetime Tolkien fan Jeff Bezos would help ensure that this was less a TV show and more of an epic movie shown on TV.
But there were some significant hurdles too. The source material being only in outline form, and there simply not being all that much of it, meant that the Professor’s dialogue and visual descriptions that enriched the Trilogy wouldn’t be available to them. And the Second Age spans nearly 3500 years; there are vast stretches where basically nothing happens, and that length of time would involve a revolving door of every character who wasn’t Elf or supernatural, making it hard to emotionally connect with them; There were also some fairly stringent legal restrictions from the Estate, chiefly that they could only explicitly use material from the Appendices found at the end of The Return of the King. There was also McCay and Payne’s relative inexperience to consider; they had been writing scripts for 10 years but this was their first big project that they were overseeing from the story’s conception to the red-carpet premiere. And the reverence in which Tolkien is held by so many people was a double-edged sword, and the long shadow cast by the Peter Jackson trilogy and the exacerbation of culture wars would only add to the problems posed by mistrust of modern Hollywood and a belief in the almost-sacred nature of Tolkien’s lore. These concerns would be vividly brought to life in early 2021 when news leaked that the show was hiring an intimacy coordinator; the internet exploded with alarm that Amazon was going to inject Game of Thrones-style softcore pornography into Tolkien. Lastly, their worldview and vision for the show is ultimately one of optimism and hope, and it was an open question whether that message would resonate with audiences who have grown accustomed to the nihilism and cynicism unleashed upon the fantasy genre by the success of Game of Thrones.
Could McCay and Payne do what they had set out to do? Could they provide a worthy addition to Tolkien’s legendarium and inject a spark of hope into a grim entertainment landscape?
Short answer: yes. Yes they could.
Dostoyevsky once said “Beauty will save the world,” and Tolkien put this into practice throughout his writings. Peter Jackson’s original trilogy achieved this wonderfully with Howard Shore’s score, New Zealand landscapes, lovingly crafted costumes, and a healthy mix of practical effects and CGI; so wonderfully, in fact, that when the time came to replicate this feat for The Hobbit trilogy, it couldn’t be done. Rings of Power is firmly in this tradition. Not for this show the ugly overuse of CGI that tarnished the Hobbit trilogy, the medieval grunge that pervades The Witcher, or the muted palate and choice of fog, smoke or rain that literally darkens House of the Dragon. This show is truly beautiful both visually and audibly. Who would have thought that we'd be able to see for ourselves on screen the Blessed Realm of Valinor with the Two Trees, until this year only depicted in still pictures? Khazad-Dum, which we have only seen so far in its ruins as the mines of Moria, is shown in all its glory as the greatest of all the Dwarven Kingdoms. Numenor, the direct “ancestor” of Gondor, is steeped in majesty and ancientry; not since New Kingdom Egypt of 2014’s Exodus: Gods and Kings have we seen a mighty and ancient civilization brought to life so convincingly and so beautifully. And as a history major, I was excited that so many visual cues were taken from the Byzantine Empire, a great civilization which has not gotten the film treatment that other great realms have received. The wide wilderness of Rhovanion on the borders between Middle Earth and the Southlands provide numerous opportunities full advantage of being able to shoot outside in New Zealand, which helps provide a sort of “spiritual” continuity with the Jackson films and thus a sense of reassurance for more casual fans.
So too does the work of concept artist John Howe, dialect coach Leith McPherson, and costume designer Kate Hawley, all veterans of the Jackson films (in addition Howe is a Tolkien artist of great experience and umimpeachable excellence and respect). Costumes and sets are realized with great care and love; in particular, after the overuse of CGI in the orcs for The Hobbit trilogy, a return to practical effects courtesy of Weta Workshop ensures that these creatures are just as terrifying as they were in the original trilogy so long ago. And once again, as a history major I was excited to see numerous examples of plate armor that could have walked off the pages of a Graham Turner painting of the Wars of the Roses. Numerous set decorations are made with an eye towards the larger lore; from a memorial grove in the elven realm of Lindon featuring many heroes of the Elder Days carved into trees, to the various artifacts in Celebrimbor’s workshop, to several treasures in the royal palace of Numenor hearkening back to the Fall of Gondolin, this is Tolkien’s world. And Bear McCreary’s score deserves to win all the awards; it is spiritually the heir of Howard Shore’s work on the original trilogy while still being something new, and offers distinct themes for each civilization and each main character that evoke perfectly what they represent.
But a world is nothing without people to inhabit it, and Rings of Power is well served in this category. Be they a legendary character first seen in the Jackson films, a hero from the books who for whatever reason didn’t make it into those movies, or an original character, everyone in front of the camera gives their all, and their passion for the work they do here is transparent. Lloyd Owen brings a human touch to the legend of Elendil the Tall, whose name would be used as a battlecry by Aragorn centuries later, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Miriel invests us in her story, even though book readers know it will end in tragedy. Owain Arthur’s Durin and Sophia Nomvete as his wife Disa provide pathos, gravitas, and emotional depth to their Dwarvish royals, a race that has to a certain extent been considered as comic relief even in the previous films. Ismael Cruz-Cordova is excellent as the stoic Silvan elf archer Arondir who nevertheless wears his heart on his sleeve, and Nazanin Boniadi as Bronwyn breathes life into the idea of heroic “low men'' that Tolkien introduced in The Silmarillion. Markella Kavenagh as Nori is truly wonderful as a member of a race that many people, even those looking forward to the show, were questioning the need to be in this story; she and her fellow Harfoots, in particular Megan Richards as Nori’s best friend Poppy, more than justify their existence. Even in the cases of villainous or otherwise ambiguous characters like Charlie Vickers’ Halbrand, Charles Edwards’ Celebrimbor, Daniel Weyman’s Stranger, Trystane Gravelle’s Machiavellian politician Pharazon, Tyroe Mufahadin’s troubled teenager Theo, and Joseph Mawle’s dark elf Adar, we understand their motivations, genuinely fear them and are concerned about where they will go next, and even in some cases sympathize with them a bit.
But perhaps the greatest burden is borne by the actors who play the legendary heroes Galadriel and Elrond, roles that have become synonymous with Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving’s performances for nearly 20 years. How could anyone hope to compete with Blanchett and Weaving? Nobody could, so Morfydd Clark and Robert Arramayo didn’t even try. Instead they went back to the books and started essentially from scratch, and they succeeded wonderfully. Morfydd shines as an unexpected and somewhat controversial vision of Galadriel that is still firmly based on how we meet the character in The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and Tolkien’s letters: an athlete, warrior, rebel and tomboy, proud, ambitious, driven, vengeful, occasionally clueless, but still brave, wise, perceptive, and capable of great kindness, humility and joy when circumstances and she herself give her the opportunity. Meanwhile, Robert makes a serious argument for becoming the definitive Elrond; he truly embodies Tolkien’s description from The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring as “wise as a wizard, strong as a warrior, kind as summer…” And both of these characters have meaningful character arcs that move them closer to the blissful queen and wise loremaster respectively that we know and love from the Third Age. I am looking forward to seeing how their stories continue over the next four seasons.
Considering the scarcity of the source material for the Second Age (even including materials from Unfinished Tales, Tolkien’s letters and the History of Middle Earth, what we have only amounts to a single book, and is written as an academic history rather than a novel) it would be fair to call Season 1’s storyline “fan-fiction.” Indeed, many have done so as a pejorative. But that approach is unfair. Fan-fiction this may be, but it’s fan-fiction made with a great love and awareness of Tolkien’s work. From that opening shot of Valinor with the Two Trees, to the intricate symbolism of the opening title sequence hearkening to the Music of the Ainur that brought the world into being, to the previously mentioned set designs, to Bronwyn’s story very likely being inspired by heroic women of the First Age such as Haleth, even to a few throwaway lines from Harfoot elder Sadoc (Sir Lenny Henry), this story is without question set in Tolkien’s Middle Earth in the Second Age.
Many of Tolkien’s deeper themes are actually addressed in the course of the story, both in the overall narrative and in the specific journeys of characters like Galadriel, Miriel, Elendil or Nori. These include not just general heroic ideals like courage, friendship, prudence, honor and self-sacrifice but also ideas informed by Tolkien’s Catholicism, such as free will, original sin, divine providence, the sacred nature of leadership and stewardship of creation, eucatastrophe, and the importance of the three theological virtues. While the Jackson trilogy certainly touched on many of these same themes, the show actually embraces them and engages with them in surprising ways. The compression of time is real, but the problems it presents regarding the length of the Second Age, the longevity of the Elves, and the history of Numenor is heavily mitigated by various story choices and set designs. In many cases, actual quotes from the books are incorporated into the narrative in clever and meaningful ways. Even when there aren’t actual quotes, some of the dialogue genuinely feels “Tolkienian”. Lines like “I have pursued this foe since before the first sunrise bloodied the sky”; “Faith may bind one heart...but it is too fine a thread upon which to hang a kingdom”; “Dwarven anger outlives even Elven memory”; “I have been awake since the breaking of the first silence”…while nobody can truly replicate Tolkien, there are many instances when the show comes close. Above all, Rings of Power swings the “moral pendulum” back from the cynicism, nihilism and brutality which Game of Thrones made so popular in the fantasy genre. Evil is clearly evil, corrupting and odious; good is radiant and beautiful; and there are actual heroes who are clearly on the right side of the story, who are not defined by their flaws and shortcomings but by how they work past them and improve despite them.
Is the show perfect? Of course not. None of what I’m going to talk about below does irreparable harm to the show, but these are all valid concerns that I hope will be addressed in later seasons.
Owing to the limited source material and its format as a collection of notes and dry historical entries, McCay and Payne employ a few different strategies for keeping a broad audience engaged. The execution is somewhat uneven. For example, they somewhat rely upon a “mystery box” formula, most notably with the identities of Sauron and the Stranger, and only one of those mysteries is resolved completely by the series’ end. In addition there are numerous visual and dialogue callbacks to the Jackson trilogy; while they never stray into the realm of plagiarism, they are frustrating to those of us who want to see McCay and Payne’s unique vision. Throughout the series there are moments where it is painfully obvious that the show is working around not having the rights to certain things; for example, in one scene Arondir and Bronwyn are discussing the Valar, but since most of them are not named in the appendices Arondir has to use evasive terms that had many book readers rolling their eyes. Sometimes the writing is a bit clunky; one instance that comes to mind is how the hostility and racism of the later Numenoreans against the Elves and the Men of Middle Earth is portrayed. While this concept is definitely found in the lore, it is executed in a rather…modern fashion, using rhetoric that caused some commentators to cry “woke leftism!” and others to just cringe.
A few lore choices are questionable, not only when compared to the source material but also within the show’s own logic. Perhaps most infamously, the mythical ore Mithril is given restorative powers and an epic (albeit possibly apocryphal) backstory that reaches back into the Elder Days. In addition, while Galadriel’s characterization definitely draws upon a lot of material from the lore, some aspects of her character have not been heavily addressed; while we have Galadriel the Amazon and Galadriel the flawed yet striving individual, we are missing Galadriel the Would-be Queen who first came to Middle Earth seeking glory and empire. And given how the death of her brother Finrod is a strong catalyst for her arc, it’s covered in a fairly superficial fashion in the show’s prologue, especially given how more depth could easily be gotten from the Appendices.
There are some visual and audible design choices that are somewhat confusing. Why does Gil-galad have a luxurious black mane that goes down to his waist while Arondir has a buzz cut? Why do the Numenorean troops on the island itself consist of infantry equipped in a similar visual style to Peter Jackson’s Gondorian infantry, but the cavalry force that is sent to Middle Earth is outfitted like Byzantine cataphracts? While filming in New Zealand definitely helped to ensure a spiritual continuity with past depictions of Middle Earth, it ended up being a somewhat two-edged sword. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic triggered draconian measures from the NZ government, including limitations on crowd sizes; this resulted in some scenes in Rings of Power that involve large crowds feeling somewhat smaller-scale than they perhaps should have been.
But perhaps the worst problem is the length of the season, only 8 episodes. This results in some issues with pacing and characterization. Episode 8, the finale, feels somewhat stuffed, as two very important storylines reaching their conclusion have to share a single episode where they probably should have each had their own focus. A similar issue dogs the entire Harfoot storyline, which although it’s independent from the main storyline sometimes swings between dragging and moving too fast so as to keep up. While themes like the fading of the Elves and the Numenoreans’ fear of death are addressed, much more could have been done with these ideas if only there was more time. Gil-galad can on occasion come across as a somewhat antagonistic figure, and he simply isn’t allowed enough time to make a case for his own defense. Similarly, despite how crucial he is to the creation of the titular Rings of Power, Celebrimbor doesn’t really get a chance to show the true range of his emotions, motivations and skills until the finale. And while Elendil has plenty of opportunity to build a strong foundation for his story, the same can’t necessarily be said for his two on-screen children, Isildur (Maxim Baldry) and Earien (Ema Horvath). And his second son Anarion isn’t even depicted in season 1, although unlike in the Jackson films he actually does exist in the show.
All these are legitimate criticisms, and I certainly hope that they are addressed in later seasons. Unfortunately they have to compete with many others which come from a place of hypocrisy, racism, misogyny, elitism and excessive possessiveness regarding the source material, and a blind nostalgia for the Jackson films. Go anywhere with an internet connection and you will find hysterical content claiming the show is "Woke", "Pushing a Liberal Agenda" “Inserting modern politics into a timeless story”; or that it is "desecrating Tolkien's legacy,” or that it “has no relationship with the source material.” Engage with any of these claims for any length of time at all, and you’ll find none of them hold water.
What proof is there for the show being woke or pushing a liberal agenda? While one could perhaps make an argument that Addai-Robinson, Nomvete, Cruz-Cordoba, and Sir Lenny were chosen to fill some sort of “diversity quota”, such arguments end up failing utterly in the face of their performances and their commitment to their characters and the world they are populating. In particular, Nomvete’s Disa is in my opinion a far superior dwarf to Richard Armitage’s very white, very Aragorn-shrunk-down-to-dwarf-size Thorin Oakenshield. Galadriel’s depiction as a bold and brash warrior has triggered many accusations of her being a “Mary Sue”, “girlboss”, “strong female protagonist”, or “betrayal of the character”. But these criticisms ignore both the show’s story, where Galadriel is clearly shown to be a flawed character who makes mistakes and has to learn from them, and the source material, where Tolkien clearly describes her as a warrior and a tomboy, a flawed and complex character on a lifelong journey of growth in virtue. Perhaps most laughably of all is the outcry that arose after those clunky lines from a Numenorean crowd that I mentioned earlier. Clunky they indeed were, especially given a subsequent speech by Pharazon. But not only were they incredibly short, they expressed a theme that absolutely appears in the source material, namely the racism and elitism of the later Numenoreans towards the Elves and the “Low Men” of Middle Earth. Indeed, if these throwaway lines of dialogue are enough to make people uncomfortable about “contemporary politics being brought into Tolkien”, these people are going to have a hard time when in later seasons we deal with Numenorean imperialism, materialism, political corruption and genocide…all of which are found in The Silmarillion. And those concerns about an intimacy coordinator? Completely overblown, as it turns out. Not only is this now a near-universal practice in the film industry in the wake of #MeToo, but to this day fans are struggling to see where, exactly, Rings of Power comes close to the adult content of Westeros or The Witcher.
What about the claims that the show doesn’t show respect to the lore and Tolkien’s themes, separate from any political or culture-war concerns? Again, absolutely not. Many of these “lore purists” treat Tolkien’s work as some sort of sacred text which cannot be tampered with in any way, even to help tell a good story for television. Ironically, Tolkien himself didn’t view his work as set in stone in this way. He rewrote sections of the original trilogy in the 1950s to help facilitate it being adapted into a radio show by the BBC. In the 1960s he began to rewrite The Hobbit in an attempt to forcibly retcon it to tonally fit with the trilogy; he was eventually talked out of it around chapter 3. And of course, the vast collection of supplemental materials that his son Christopher dedicated his life to organizing and editing, which we know as Unfinished Tales or the History of Middle Earth? It doesn’t only include initial drafts of his various stories, but also later additions and retcons to existing lore, including to the original trilogy. So it is likely that Tolkien would not have shared in the outrage found on some corners of the internet when Rings of Power in E7 offered a new version of the relationship between Galadriel and her husband Celeborn, especially since he himself wrote at least 3 versions of it…including one where Celeborn was called Teleporno. And this is only one example where a lot of the outrage over lore changes is either misplaced or manufactured. Nowhere is irreparable damage done to the core themes or to what little we know of the characters of the Second Age.
What’s even worse is how many of these critics of Rings of Power’s fidelity to the events of the lore are perfectly willing to ignore or actively support the numerous changes that Peter Jackson brought to his trilogy, in some cases with even less justification since he actually had source material. Thus we see people complaining about the time compression in the show to mitigate the centuries of nothing happening, while ignoring how Peter Jackson shrank 17 years between Bilbo’s birthday party and Frodo departing the Shire down to maybe 6 months. Or they’ll take issue with how the show changes the sequence of events such as the forging of the Rings of Power or the discovery of Mithril in Khazad-Dum, but Jackson rearranging numerous events in the books causes no problems for them (for just one example, Gandalf’s final confrontation with Saruman takes place in The Two Towers while Frodo, Sam and Gollum are at the Black Gate, but Jackson places it during The Return of the King while the three hobbits are heading for the crossroads). For all the outrage over stuff like the qualities of Mithril or the spiritual implications of the fading of the Elves, there are plenty of similar decisions in the Jackson trilogy: the Witch King breaking Gandalf’s staff, Arwen slowly dying as long as the One Ring remains intact, Sauron being depicted as a literal flaming eye, the complete erasure of the House of Anarion…And with regard to characters, there is far more justification for the show’s depiction of Galadriel than there is for the films depicting Aragorn as reluctant to pursue the kingship, Denethor as a glutton and a madman, Merry and Pippin as straight-up buffoons, or Frodo being younger and somewhat more passive.
And finally, the criticism that the show is a bit too free with the callbacks to the Jackson films is a valid one, but there’s another side to this argument; there are those who insist that the show should have been more of a direct prequel to the films, not just spiritually connected. And frequently the people making these arguments are one and the same. Case in point: people complaining about how Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel should be more like Cate Blanchett's. Assuming for the sake of argument this is how Morfydd actually did choose to play her, then these bad-faith actors would STILL not be satisfied; they'd either say she's ripping off Blanchett or that the show is not showing any imagination and isn't engaging with the source material. The Jackson films get more right than they don’t, and deserve their cultural status, but to let them off the hook for things that get Rings of Power skewered on the internet is dishonest and hypocritical. And to assert that Jackson has a monopoly on adaptations of Middle Earth is reductive and stupid; indeed, after the very mixed results of his second foray, The Rings of Power is a welcome reset.
So at the end of the day, what are we to make of Season 1 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power? At the end of the day, everyone has to make up his or her own mind. So here is my assessment, based on the source material and the show itself. It is good. Very good. Top 3 of this year for me. Is it perfect? No. But the clear love for Tolkien and his world that is on display from everyone involved, the grasp of many of his core themes and ideals, the high quality of the acting, and the visual and audible craftsmanship on display more than balance out some of the issues with writing, pacing, and rights. Above all, much like Tolkien’s original works the show takes a firm stand for good over evil, for light over shadow, and for hope over despair. And in our age of grimy, cynical and nihilistic fantasy entertainment, that is something that is worth celebrating. Here’s to four more seasons to continue the celebrations.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is currently streaming all 8 episodes on Amazon Prime.
All images © 2022, Amazon Studios.