As the epic first season of Lord of the Rings prequel Rings of Power comes to a close, many questions were answered while others have just been raised. Writer and Executive Producer Gennifer Hutchinson brings a life of fandom and plenty of talent to this season and the ones to come.

Rings of Power had a long road to the small screen and an interesting reception once it got there. The series brings some new and incredible high fantasy spectacle to one of the most beloved franchises of all time.

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Gennifer Hutchinson cut her teeth on the works of Vince Gilligan. As a writer on Breaking Bad, she has her name on stellar episodes of TV, including, "I See You," "Confessions," and "Salud." She continued on to write for Better Call Saul, for which she contributed eight episodes. Hutchinson climbed the ranks on the show, eventually becoming an Executive Producer. Her work was nominated for an Emmy in 2015, 2016, and 2017, and she won the Writers Guild of America in 2013. Despite attaining fame in the gritty world of Walter White, she was inexorably drawn towards the fantastical realm of Middle-earth.

Game Rant spoke with Hutchinson about her history with the franchise, the differences in experiences across shows, and the approach to working under such unique circumstances.

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GR: What drew you to the material?

Hutchinson: Well, I've always, since I was a kid, been a fan of Lord of the Rings. It's my dad's favorite series of books, so he introduced them to me pretty early on. Then obviously, when the movies came out they kind of solidified my love for the world and I revisited the books and watched the movies so many times so just I've always kind of been steeped into it. So, you know, obviously, when you get the call to come maybe hang out in Middle-earth a little bit, it's really hard to resist.

Game Rant: How does the Rings of Power writer's room differ from that of Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul?

Hutchinson: You know, it's interesting. It does, but there's a lot of stuff that's foundationally the same. One of the things that's nice about doing a TV show in this world is that you can spend a lot more time with your characters and do a deep dive on them and their psychology and where they're coming from, which is really kind of the wheelhouse of the Vince Gilligan camp. So much about deep character study. But, also, this is a giant sweeping big fantasy show, so there was also this attention being paid to the scope and telling this huge story and balancing five different worlds and so many different characters. So there was that need to kind of really be mindful of so many different moving parts at the same time, as opposed to an intimate character study that you get on something like Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul. Here it was like you were doing smaller intimate character studies but having to make sure that you're juggling all of them and honoring all of them throughout.

Game Rant: You've spoken before about your love of writing normal people in extraordinary situations, how does that gel with fantastical characters?

Hutchinson: I think the thing that I like to do is just try to sort of come down to what is the fundamental grounded emotion or emotional arc that they're going through. You know, Galadriel being this amazing warrior and this great elf, but really, she's dealing with grief and loss and trauma and this feeling that "I've failed and I have to make this right," and I feel like that's a very relatable emotion for so many people. So with stuff like that, it's just finding what's the fundamentals here. And then, obviously, you have characters like the Harfoots, which are, I think the most grounded and relatable. Them and the Dwarves feel more of our world with their sort of domestic life and issues. So I think it's just finding those beats and those moments and ways to ground those more fantastical characters.

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Game Rant: As a longtime fan, how does it feel to put your words in the mouth of these characters like Galadriel and Elrond who have such a pedigree behind them?

Hutchinson: It's a lot of things. It's obviously intimidating because these are such well-established and well-loved characters who have been played in the movies by such amazing actors who really defined them in so many ways. But, it also gives you a really rich background to draw from the texts. We have an idea of who these characters are and who they become and that really helps center you in them. So it's just really wonderful to be writing such archetypal, well-known, almost eternal characters. So, yeah, it was really scary and intimidating, but really gratifying at the same time.

Game Rant: Speaking of characters, what was it like having people online point and shout "Sauron" every time a new character was introduced?

Hutchinson: It was actually really fun, and people made some very funny memes about it, which I absolutely love and enjoy. I mean, I love fan engagement like that, and I think if you can get people guessing, especially if they're having fun with it and like making memes, that's really a great part of the job. We write shows to connect with people and to get people to feel things and ask questions, and so, if everybody's like "that's Sauron, that's Sauron," great, we did our job! And I'm sure a lot of people did guess correctly, so then you get that thing of like "oh, I got it right." I love that stuff; I think it's a fun part of the job.

You know, it's funny, because it's hard not to be like "oh no, it's not that," and I don't want people to be disappointed or be like "no, I wanted it to be this person," but then there are people who are excited, so it all kind of balances out.

Obviously, I didn't tell anyone in my life anything, so they're finding it out in real-time, which is fun.

Game Rant: Were you surprised by the reaction to the show, positive or negative?

Hutchinson: I had no idea how people would react. I know, obviously, it's such a beloved property and there was so much talk about it before it even premiered. So, I didn't really know what to expect, and I feel like the reaction has been so overwhelmingly positive in so many ways and that's been really wonderful. So it wasn't necessarily a surprise, it was more a thing of like "okay, we worked really hard on this thing, and we love it, and we hope that people do." So actually having people react, and we've been working on it for four years, so having waited so long to share it with people and to actually get how people feel has been really kind of wonderful and to have so much positive reflected back at us has been really great. So, it's less a surprise and more like I've been waiting for four years like "I don't know, what's gonna happen, guys?" So, to actually get the response is like "good, we made it, we did it."

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Game Rant: There was some backlash in the early episodes. Was that expected?

Hutchinson: I think with any adaptation, and especially such a significant well-loved adaptation, I think there's always going to be people who it's not exactly the way that they would see it. And obviously, in TV and movies, you have to make some sort of changes for the story. TV is a different medium than a book for the way that the story is going to play out. So we really did focus on making sure that we were doing the best that we could for the story itself while also keeping Tolkien present in the room and all the major points that are established in his works are imbued as much as possible in everything that we were doing, even if the literal events are not in the books. So, kind of that balance. It can be a little challenging, so we really focused on telling the best story we could while remembering whose story we're telling and really making sure we were remaining true to that spirit.

Game Rant: Fans have noticed elements of the source material that appeared in slightly different ways than they might have in the books. How did you go about reincorporating material without directly adapting?

Hutchinson: Again, I think it's the pace of the show and the way the story unfolds by its nature are going to have different requirements than the source material. But, that source material is still informing so much of what we're doing that finding where we can make sure it's coming through, even if it's at a slightly different time or in a slightly different context, was so important to us. Any time we could ground what we were doing in source, in the original story, we wanted to. It's about that sort of flexibility of "what's the core of what we're doing here?" rather than the specific detail of it. So really just making sure that that core was coming through. Any time we could bring in the source, of course, that's why we're here

Game Rant: How do you go about adding original characters to the world of Middle-Earth? How does it feel to introduce your own figures and have them interact with characters like Galadriel?

Hutchinson: It's such a privilege to be able to bring new characters into this world. Really diving into the books and kind of immersing ourselves in that world and those characters and finding the feel of those worlds. Especially with the Harfoots, obviously so much of what we know of the Hobbits goes into their dynamics and their relationships. You know, Nori and Poppy, the Hobbits have very deep friendships in the books that we definitely were drawing from to build those characters here. Just asking ourselves these questions because we know where the world ends up in the Third Age. The Second Age has these signposts, but there's a lot that's not filled in. What would it look like in these spaces to the people who live here, and how can we enrich these worlds? We have Durin and Durin and Durin. Bringing in Disa and asking what kind of wife would best suit this sort of story and their relationship and this world and seeing Khazad-dûm at its height is really just imagining the world that could be while also remembering and looking at the source material of what Tolkien established these worlds felt like.

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Game Rant: How does having a 2nd season in place before the first episode airs change the writing process? How much of the years ahead to you have planned in advance?

Hutchinson: You know, obviously, we talk about at least the broad strokes of where we're going, and then it's just figuring out the right pacing for reveals. You don't want to rush a story, you don't want to try to answer too many questions at the end, but you also want to make sure you are answering questions at the end. So it's just figuring out the most important character arc that you need to close out here, where do we wanna be at the end of the season going forward? So much of about it was Galadriel and Hal and Nori and the Stranger and wanting to make sure that we were at least answering the question of the season with them so that could then open up branches of where they could go from here and finding the right pacing for that. We spent so much time with them through the season building their relationships, so to have those big reveals felt really good, as far as pacing and making sure we know going into season 2 and beyond what's gonna happen now.

Obviously, we set everybody on a path, we have a lot of people taking new steps and you can just assume that we're going to keep exploring those storylines. If we set someone on a path, we're definitely diving into continuing with them on that journey

Rings of Power is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

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