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Published Nov 1, 2026, 10:15 AM EST
Rohan Naahar is a News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.
He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.
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Now that one of the most iconic franchises in pop culture history, James Bond, is under the Amazon umbrella, it remains to be seen what the company does with its other costly acquisition, Lord of the Rings. Prime Video famously spent hundreds of millions on acquiring rights to the property for a streaming series that hasn't exactly delivered the kind of results that were expected. Amazon reported that the show's first season broke viewership records for Prime Video, but audience drop-off rates have been worryingly steep. While Amazon said that the first season was watched by 150 million people, a report indicated that less than 40% of U.S. audiences finished all eight episodes. Two seasons later, the show is set to return with a brand-new installment that'll cover lore that is central to the entire franchise.
The series has received mostly positive reviews so far, after having premiered in 2022 and returned with a second season in 2024. Research has shown that viewership tends to drop significantly for shows that take longer between seasons. Nielsen reported that the second season delivered slightly lower viewership in its initial few days of release compared to the first season. The reviews, however, remained in the same range. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the show's first season scored 84% while the second season scored 85%. The show has unfortunately been the target of review bombing, with the overall audience score on Rotten Tomatoes now sitting at 48%.
COLLIDER Middle-earth
Personality Quiz
Collider/ Movies/ The Lord of the Rings/ Which Race Do You Belong To
Ten Questions · Five Peoples Which Lord of the Rings Race Do You Belong To? Hobbit · Elf · Dwarf · Man · Orc
Middle-earth is home to many peoples: the courageous, the ancient, the stubborn, the ambitious and the wretched. Ten questions will determine which race truly claims your soul. The answer may surprise you, or it may confirm what you already suspected.
🌿Hobbit
🌟Elf
🪓Dwarf
⚔Man
💀Orc
Find Your Race
Stage 1 of 10Comfort
What does your ideal day look like? How we rest reveals as much as how we fight.AA long meal with good company, a pipe, and absolutely no unexpected adventures. BWalking through ancient forests, composing verse, watching the stars emerge. CDeep underground, the clang of hammer on anvil, crafting something that will outlast me. DTraining, planning, preparing. There is always something that needs defending. ETaking what I want and making sure nobody tries to take it back.
Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext
Stage 2 of 10Time
How do you feel about the passing of time? Our relationship with mortality shapes everything we value.AI have watched ages come and go. Time is a river I observe, not chase. BThe days blur pleasantly. I do not think about it much, and there is always second breakfast. CLife is short. I want to leave something behind: a name, a legacy, a deed worth singing. DTime means little underground. What matters is the work, and the work is never done. ETime is something stronger things take from weaker ones. I intend to be the stronger one.
Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext
Stage 3 of 10Instinct
Danger is approaching. Your first instinct is to: Fight, flight, or something in between.AHide, and hope it passes. I am no hero, and I am fine with that. BStand your ground. Someone has to, and it might as well be me. CFade into the background and observe. Knowledge before action. DCharge straight at it. Hesitation is just fear wearing a sensible hat. EDig in, fortify, and wait. Ground is everything, and you never cede ground.
Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext
Stage 4 of 10Treasure
You stumble upon a great treasure. What do you feel? What we desire, and what we do about it, is the true test.AMy heart swells. This is the work of my kin, and it belongs in my hands. BExcited, but nervous. I would rather it not cause trouble. Can I just leave it? CMine. Obviously mine. Why is this even a question? DBeautiful. Something this ancient deserves to be preserved and admired, not hoarded. EA resource, and resources should serve those with the vision to use them.
Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext
Stage 5 of 10Community
How important is community and belonging to you? No race of Middle-earth is truly alone, but some prefer it that way.AEverything. My neighbours, my village, my people. They are the point of it all. BI cherish my kin deeply, but I feel connected to all living things, not just my own kind. CI will protect my people with everything I have, but I do not need anyone else’s approval. DI prefer a tight-knit clan bound by loyalty and shared toil over any grand fellowship. ECommunity is a pack. You are either dominant or you are used. I know which I prefer.
Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext
Stage 6 of 10Ambition
How ambitious are you, honestly? Ambition is neither virtue nor vice. It depends entirely on what you want.ADeeply. I want to build something great, reclaim something lost, or leave a mark on history. BI seek mastery and perfection, not power over others but excellence in all I do. CHonestly? I mostly just want a quiet life and for things to not go wrong. DCompletely. I want to dominate, and I see no point in pretending otherwise. EAmbitious within my craft. I want to make the finest thing ever made by my people’s hands.
Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext
Stage 7 of 10Nature
Where do you feel most at home in the natural world? Middle-earth is vast, and every race has its place within it.AAncient forests, still pools, places where the world feels oldest and wisest. BRolling green hills, good soil, somewhere you can grow things and watch them thrive. CUnderground. Caves, mines, tunnels. The dark does not bother me. It is where things are made. DOpen plains, mountains, the kind of landscape that makes you feel the weight of history. EBlasted wastelands, smoke, ash. Somewhere harsh enough to keep soft things away.
Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext
Stage 8 of 10Strength
What kind of strength do you most respect? Every race defines strength differently, and they are all at least a little right.AThe strength to carry on when everything is telling you to stop. BThe strength of stone. Immovable, reliable, tested by pressure and time. CThe strength to lead others and bear the cost of that responsibility. DGrace under pressure. Calm, precise, and lethal when it needs to be. EBrute force. Everything else is just philosophy for those who lost.
Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext
Stage 9 of 10Legacy
What do you want to leave behind when you are gone? Legacy is the story we tell ourselves about why any of this matters.ASongs, poetry, beauty. Something that outlasts the memory of who made it. BThe knowledge that my corner of the world was a little safer and kinder because of me. CFear. A reputation that means nobody ever dares come for mine. DA name remembered. A deed that made a difference at a moment that mattered. EA masterwork. Something crafted so perfectly it becomes the standard all others are judged by.
Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext
Stage 10 of 10Truth
Be honest. What do you want most out of life? The truest question always comes last.APeace. Safety. Good food, good friends, and nobody asking me to save anything. BTo matter. To be part of something larger than myself, even at great cost. CEternity. To witness all ages, to remember everything, and never be forgotten. DDominance. To never again be at the mercy of anyone or anything. EMastery of my craft and the respect of those who know great work from good work.
Press 1 to 5 to chooseReveal My Race
Middle-earth Has Spoken You Belong To
A tie. You walk between two peoples.
🌿 The Hobbits The Shire-folk Heroism does not require ambition, and you are the proof.
You are, at your core, a creature of comfort, community and quiet joy, and there is nothing small about that. Hobbits are proof that heroism does not require ambition, that the bravest heart can beat inside the most unassuming chest. You value good food, warm hearths, close friends and a world that stays largely untroubled by dark lords and quests. When adventure does find you, and it will, you rise to it not because you sought it but because the people you love needed you to. That is not ordinary. That is the rarest kind of courage in all of Middle-earth.
LoyalGroundedUnassumingBraver Than You Look
🌟 The Elves The Firstborn They mistake your depth for distance.
Ancient, graceful, and carrying a weight of memory most mortals cannot fathom, you are one of the Elves. You see the world in its fullness: its beauty, its impermanence, the unbearable ache of watching everything you love eventually fade. You pursue perfection not from pride but because excellence is how you honour the time you have been given. Others may see you as remote or melancholy. They are not wrong, exactly. But they mistake depth for distance. You feel everything, which is precisely why you have learned to carry it so quietly.
AncientExactingObservantMelancholy
🪓 The Dwarves The Stone-born Anything worth doing is worth doing properly.
Stubborn, proud, fiercely loyal and possessed of a work ethic that would exhaust most other races before breakfast, you are Dwarf-kind through and through. You do not ask for approval and you do not offer it cheaply. Your loyalty, once given, is given for life. Your grudges last longer. You love deeply and defend ferociously, and the things you build, with your hands and your sweat and generations of accumulated craft, are made to last. Not for glory. Because anything worth doing is worth doing properly, and you have never once done anything by half measures.
StubbornLoyalExactingImmovable
⚔ The Race of Men The Mortal Kind You fall, and you rise, and the rising is what defines you.
Mortal, ambitious, flawed and magnificent, you belong to the most complicated race in Middle-earth, and that complexity is your greatest strength. Men are capable of cowardice and extraordinary bravery, of cruelty and breathtaking sacrifice, sometimes within the same breath. You feel the urgency of your finite years and it drives you. You want to matter. You want to leave something behind. You fall, and you rise, and the rising is what defines you. Tolkien called mortality the Gift of Men, not a curse but a fire that burns bright precisely because it does not burn forever. That fire is you.
AmbitiousMortalDrivenUnfinished
💀 The Orcs The Broken Kind You have made your peace with a world that is not kind.
Brutal, survivalist and contemptuous of anything that cannot defend itself, you answered with the instincts of an Orc, and there is a certain savage honesty in that. You do not dress up your desires in polite language or pretend you want things you do not. You want power, survival, and to never be at the bottom of any hierarchy again. Orcs are not evil by nature. They were made from something that was once good and broken into this shape by forces they did not choose. What remains is fierce, territorial, and deeply aware that the world is not kind. You have made your peace with that. The question is what you do with it.
TerritorialBluntRelentlessUnsentimental
Your Closest Matches
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Quest recorded by COLLIDER Collider.com · Middle-earth
Here's When Prime Video's Epic Fantasy Series Will Return
We're talking, of course, about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's epic series of books, which were previously adapted into six culture-defining movies directed by Peter Jackson, the show is set thousands of years in the past. The third season will focus on a pivotal moment in Middle-earth history, when the Dark Lord Sauron creates the One Ring. Like the second season, the third season was filmed in the United Kingdom. Amazon spent nearly $500 million on the first season, which was filmed in New Zealand, like Jackson's movies. The third season of The Rings of Power will debut with four episodes on November 11, followed by two episodes the next week, and two more the week after that. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Release Date September 1, 2022
Network Amazon Prime Video
Showrunner John D. Payne, Patrick McKay, Louise Hooper, Charlotte Brändström, Wayne Yip
