In January 2021, Polygon – one of the most popular pop culture-focused websites in the world – embarked on a year-long campaign to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Branded “The Year of the Ring” and spearheaded by Polygon’s entertainment editor Susana Polo, this ambitious series of 52 articles covered an impressive range of topics by a diverse line-up of writers, including me!

Published on 13 October 2021, my Year of the Ring article explored how Peter Jackson’s portrayal of Lord of the Rings baddie Sauron represents a drastic departure from how the character is depicted in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. Along the way, it covered everything from symbolism to Middle-earth marketing and explained how Jackson won fans over with his radically different take on this iconic villain.

This was my first article for Polygon, but it wouldn’t be my last. Since then I’ve penned:

• A news story covering the controversy surrounding Amazon’s overhaul of the ComiXology digital comics platform. Published on 17 February 2022, the article outlined how Amazon’s changes made it harder to read, shop, and publish on the most popular source of digital comics in the US.
  

• An interview with Respeecher CEO Alex Serdiuk about how the tech start-up’s technology de-aged the voices of Star Wars veterans like Mark Hamill on hit series such as The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The interview was notable for highlighting the overlooked human element behind the synthesised vocal performances Respeecher produces and was published on 22 June 2022.
  

• A feature that explored how the Thor films sum up the entire history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe itself. The article unpacked all four entries in the franchise – from 2011’s Thor through to 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder – spotlighting how each movie shares the same storytelling traits as the MCU phase in which it was released, and was published on 25 July 2022.
  

• Weekly reviews of Amazon Studios’ streaming series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. These reviews covered the Middle-earth adaptation’s entire first season and kicked off with an article summarising my impressions of the first two episodes, which was published on 31 August 2022. Alongside my reviews, I also wrote an explainer article that summarised all the key information casual fans needed to know about Númenor, the island kingdom shown on screen for the first time in The Rings of Power.
  
  
• An explainer article for The Mandalorian Season 3. Focused on the mythosaur introduced in the third season’s second episode, the explainer rounded up everything viewers need to know about these legendary creatures, including their biology, history, ties to Star Wars lore, and significance to The Mandalorian‘s overarching narrative to date. It was published on 15 March 2023.

Check out my Polygon articles below!

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