We are close to the premiere of the long-awaited series of The Lord of the Ringswhich will come september 2 and the closer it is, the more details will be revealed about its history and characters, that is why we take the opportunity to introduce you to the Harfoot’swhich would be something like the ancestors of the hobbits of the Second Age of Middle-earth in the series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerof Prime Video.
So depending on how J. R. R. Tolkien specifically noted that the hobbits did not play a major role in the events of Middle-earth before they Bilbo Baggins find the One Ring, that left the writers of The Rings of Power in trouble, because they had a program based on Middle-earth without somehow presenting the most beloved creations of Tolkienbut, after all, Middle-earth began in a book called The Hobbit.
That’s why the show’s writers found an escape in the Harfoot’swho are the ancestors/cousins of the hobbitsand while they are technically different from the hobbits that appear in The Hobbit and the trilogy of The Lord of the rings at the cinematographic level, lenny henrywhich interprets Zadok Burrowssays they fall into an archetype familiar to what we know:
“We are Tolkien’s traditional little man”He tells Henry to Empire magazine. “Traditionally, the little people of this world provide comedy, but they also get to be incredibly brave. You’ll see us run the full gamut of emotions and actions in this adventure.”
To which Henry also commented on joining Middle-earth as a person of color, adding diverse representation to a franchise and genre where such roles are often rare: “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it”He says Henry. “Finally, in this show, kids will see people of color taking center stage in a fantasy series. We’re very visible in this world and that’s very exciting.”
On the subject, the co-showrunner of Rings of Power, patrick mckaypreviously referred to the role of Harfoot in the series: “One of the very specific things the texts say is that hobbits never did anything historical or notable before the Third Age.”said McKay in an interview with Vanity Fair. “But really, does it feel like Middle Earth if you don’t have hobbits or something like hobbits in it?”…
“They may not live in The Shire, but they are satisfyingly hobbit-adjacent. McKay and [el co-showrunner JD] Payne have built a hard-footed pastoral society that thrives on secrecy and evading detection so they can play a kind of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead story on the sidelines of the bigger missions. Two lovable and curious harfoots, played by Megan Richards and Markella Kavenagh, encounter a mysterious missing man whose origin promises to be one of the series’ most tantalizing conundrums.”