The Rings Of Power Is Fixing HBO's Harry Potter Mistake
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Published Aug 22, 2026, 11:30 PM EDT
Dhruv is a Lead Writer in Screen Rant's New TV division. He has been consistently contributing to the website for over two years and has written thousands of articles covering streaming trends, movie/TV analysis, and pop culture breakdowns.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has had its own share of issues, but it is hard not to see how it avoided making the same mistake as HBO's Harry Potter. Many iconic fantasy franchises are gradually shifting to the small screen. The Lord of the Rings has already taken the leap and even managed to prove that a sprawling fantasy world can work surprisingly well as a television series.
However, long before The Rings of Power premiered, it was hard not to be a little skeptical about it. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy had already set an incredibly high bar, making it hard not to wonder if a TV extension of the franchise would come close to being equally good. While the show is still finding its feat in more ways than one, it has had a strong two-season run so far.
HBO's Harry Potter is another similar show that follows up a series of widely successful and critically acclaimed movies. Unlike The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, though, the Harry Potter show is taking a massive risk. It is seemingly repeating the same mistake that has previously harmed many TV adaptations.
Amazon Was Right To Resist Adapting The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy Into A TV Show
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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is not bereft of issues. Many viewers and critics have noticed how it condenses thousands of years of the Second Age into a short timeframe, which has caused pacing issues. Despite having a massive production budget, the show also feels far less lived-in and immersive than the movies.
Even some of its original character beats and storylines, including the Harfoot subplots, have not landed too well.
However, as flawed as The Rings of Power may seem, the show is at least not a forced rehash of J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Since Peter Jackson has already delivered a near-perfection movie series adaptation of the iconic fantasy novels, it would not have made sense for Prime Video to directly adapt them for the screen again.
The prospect of delivering a three-season small-screen take on the books probably would have been tempting, given how it would have been a lot more marketable and commercially safe. Prime Video still decided to bring something new to the table instead of competing with the brilliant movie trilogy.
Many viewers and critics still draw comparisons between the show and the movies. It is still hard not to appreciate how the show tries to give Middle Earth a fresh new identity instead of retelling the same story for the small screen.
HBO's Biggest Challenge With Harry Potter Is Living Up To The Movies
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HBO's take on Harry Potter could have had the same approach as The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. After all, the Harry Potter universe is packed with many hidden stories and character beats that have neither been explored in the books nor the movies. Unfortunately, HBO's Harry Potter is going down the more predictable route of directly re-adapting the books for the small screen.
The show's serialized format and longer runtime will certainly allow it to cover many details from the books the movies were forced to delete. Not to mention, the show will also likely benefit from the advancements in VFX over the years and HBO's high production value. However, since the movies have set a high benchmark, the show is doomed to be compared with them.
Another big challenge the show faces is that it will adapt one book per season. Owing to this, it will have to last for at least seven seasons to be able to complete the original book series' story. In this day and age, it is rare for a TV show to last for seven seasons.
It may be too soon to dismiss the Harry Potter show or compare it with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powers, but the upcoming series already faces a difficult balancing act.
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