Ensemble shows like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” tend to come with a built-in disadvantage compared to smaller stories with less sprawling casts.
With so many characters and only so much narrative real estate to go around, J.R.R.
Tolkien adaptations have always had their work cut out for them.Director Peter Jackson navigated around this potential obstacle thanks to the very structure of “The Fellowship of the Ring” — first we meet Gandalf and our primary hobbit protagonists, then Aragorn, and then the rest of the Fellowship organically (and various other supporting characters) after it’s no longer so overwhelming.
For a better comparison within the same medium, “Game of Thrones” began by throwing nearly every major character into one location and then followed their progressively disparate journeys into every corner of Westeros.
In both cases, the respective stories established strong foundations upon which viewers could easily
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