Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power creators address scene that ‘fixed’ decades-old ‘plot hole’

Issue dates back to 2003’s ‘Return of the King’

One of the creators of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has addressed a scene which seemed to “fix” a longstanding plot hole.

The season premiere, entitled “A Shadow of the Past”, featured a moment that many viewers interpreted as a callback to a moment in Peter Jackson’s original film trilogy.

The third of Jackson’s films, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, has long been nitpicked by fans for introducing an apparent plot hole into the continuity.

Towards the end of the film, Frodo and Sam are carried by giant eagles to Mount Doom, raising the question of why they didn’t just utilise their feathered friends’ help at the beginning of the saga – instead choosing to embark on a lengthy and dangerous trek across Middle Earth.

While fans have previously devised all sorts of plausible explanations for the plot oddity, the eagles remain one of the most well-known plot holes in cinema.

“A Shadow of the Past”, however, appeared to offer its own in-canon explanation for the incongruity.

An early scene in the episode features a huge battle between warring armies. During the carnage, we can clearly see a giant eagle be obliterated by a fellbeast, one of the creatures the Nazgul mount in Lord of the Rings.

Asked whether this was, as some fans had theorised, a deliberate attempt to address the old plot hole, Rings of Power executive producer JD Payne said: “I wish we were that smart.”

Patrick McKay, another of the series’ executive producers, added to Insider: “I love that, and I don't want to say anything that disagrees with it. But...” He then broke into laughter.

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While it may have been unintentional, The Rings of Power may have nevertheless finally put this issue to bed.