When Amazon brought the television rights to "The Lord of the Rings" for $250 million in 2017, it made the eventual show, in theory, the most expensive television program ever made. The trailer for that daunting venture, "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" ignited a firestorm of internet commentary, speculation and excitement. It is a prequel, set thousands of years before the familiar tale, and based on author J.R.R. Tolkien's history of the world of Middle-earth — a wise route, both building on Tolkien's extensive imagination and breadth of work as well as possibly avoiding a problem with the story: we know it well. And we love it in the capable hands of a few.
For many people, "The Lord of the Rings" will be forever linked with several performers, joined to the story as if by a ring themselves. Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd breathed life into hobbit characters Merry and Pippin respectively, so much so, they nearly replaced a seminal interpretation from my childhood: Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version.
