[Boromir88]

I haven't had a chance to work my way all the way through the article, but some things that stood out to me from this interview with the show-runners.

There's not an over-reliance on CGI:

Payne promises they will be using “every single trick in the book—old school, new school, everything—in a way that we are told no one has attempted.” Some of the stranger monsters may be digital confections, but when orc-like baddies attack The Rings of Power heroes, it’s guys in suits, not piles of pixels.

Ok, that's a good thing.

Confirmation on what material they had access to:

So what did Amazon buy? “We have the rights solely to The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, the appendices, and The Hobbit,” Payne says. “And that is it. We do not have the rights to The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth, or any of those other books.”

Apparently they can't contradict any known event, even from works that they don't have the rights to, but the 2nd Age material in what they do have the copyright for is very limited.

Perhaps an inkling of what the prior VF article said about Elrond being a politician. My immediate thought was no, because I have in my head Tolkien calling Denethor a politician, and Tolkien commenting that:

...and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.~Letter 52

But it appears young Elrond's storyline is going to be focused on a friendship with Durin IV, which Payne says Elrond is trying to "repair their friendship." Still not quite what I think when I hear "Elrond," but maybe not as bad as when I first heard him described as a "politician."