Why Apple TV's Stormlight Archive Outshines Tolkien's Rings of Power on Screen
By Published May 1, 2026, 7:00 PM EDT Angel Shaw is a Lead Writer and Critic on ScreenRant's TV team, covering new-release and classic TV shows across all major streaming platforms. She has been a writer with ScreenRant since 2026 and specializes in Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and fantasy.
Angel holds a bachelor's degree in language interpreting and is passionate about all things culture and communication—especially in how it relates to popular media throughout history (from Shakespeare to Friends to Game of Thrones). follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap
Apple TV's is on the way to show Prime Video's how it is done. There's always a lot of excitement around book-adaptation announcements, especially as far as the fantasy genre goes. After all, past successes have shown us that there is a lot of potential for these projects. Of course, there are even more examples of what can go wrong when a popular fantasy book series is brought to the small screen. Rings of Power is one such example, but Apple TV's The Stormlight Archive can stand in stark contrast.
by author Brandon Sanderson. It stands as a part of the author's larger The Cosmere, an absolutely massive fictional universe made up of several different series. Think of it as the high fantasy equivalent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and . The company, along with a hugely involved Sanderson, is starting out by adapting Mistborn into a film franchise and The Stormlight Archive into a TV show, though more projects are all but guaranteed to follow.
Sanderson's Cosmere has become an absolute fixture of the fantasy genre, so the fact that it is finally arriving on both big and small screens is a pretty big deal. The Stormlight Archive is especially intriguing, since this is an epic tale that is perfectly suited for the TV medium—more so than Rings of Power ever was.
The Stormlight Archive Is Better Suited To TV Than Tolkien's Second Age
The decisions to make The Rings of Power and The Stormlight Archive into TV shows were likely made for the same exact reasons. These are two complex stories that need a lot more room to stretch out than a traditional movie franchise can provide. The Lord of the Rings and Mistborn are perfectly suited to the traditional film trilogy approach, but not every story fits that mold.
However, there's a key reason that The Stormlight Archive will likely work out better as a TV show than Rings of Power has. While the source material for both is complex and lengthy, Tolkien's aren't traditional, character-driven narratives. They are grand mythic histories, and Prime Video has struggled to condense them down into a cohesive, episodic TV show. Unpopular creative liberties, especially as far as the characters' emotional stakes go, are unavoidable. It's an issue Apple TV just won't face with The Stormlight Archive.
Apple TV's Success With Book Adaptations Is Promising For The Stormlight Archive
is already set up well, thanks not just to its story format but also to Apple TV's own reputation. Prime Video was a controversial choice for adapting Tolkien's Second Age works, since the streamer had already struggled to find success with adaptations like The Wheel of Time. Apple TV, on the other hand, has a reputation for excellent TV shows across the board and has done particularly well with book-to-screen adaptations like Foundation, Silo, Dark Matter, Lessons in Chemistry, and more.
A lot of Apple TV's success has come from the sci-fi genre, which is notoriously complex and difficult to adapt. The company has yet to really dip its toes into the high fantasy genre, and it seems to have been holding off for the perfectly right story. This only makes the Stormlight Archive TV show even more exciting.
The Stormlight Archive Being Part Of A Larger Universe Gives It An Advantage
There's one additional reason that Rings of Power has struggled while The Stormlight Archive is sure to thrive. J.R.R. Tolkien created a massive timeline for his legendarium, but it's linear and set within the same world. This means that each stage in the story connects intimately to the next, making it very difficult to cut off sections for a self-contained adventure. Rings of Power has been battling with exposition since the very first episode, and the result is something that feels either dull, disingenuous, or downright confusing.
The whole idea of Sanderson's Cosmere is that each individual series can focus on itself. There are tie-ins here and there, but you don't have to know anything about, say, Mistborn, to get the full The Stormlight Archive experience. Apple TV has given itself a whole lot of flexibility, and its viewers will ultimately benefit from it.
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Set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power explores the forging of the iconic rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, and the epic events leading up to the stories in J.R.R. Tolkien's classic novels. The series chronicles the creation of legendary characters and the historic alliances and rivalries that shape the fate of Middle-earth.
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