Lord of the Rings is coming to the small screen and we have everything that you need to know for all of the upcoming series.
HBO’s long-running series, Game of Thrones, departure from the scene left a big void to fill on the small screen. A number of studios and streaming services have been turning to fantasy literature to provide them with their own Game Of Thrones-sized hit. Netflix has recently experienced huge success with the first season of The Witcher, proving that fantasy is no fluke, and that a sizable market still wants more stories with dragons, elves and monsters.
Netflix also has projects based on The Chronicles Of Narnia and Shadow & Bone series in the works. While HBO has green lit at least one Game Of Thrones spinoff and will likely produce more. But it’s Amazon Prime, still an underdog in the streaming wars, that will likely capture the fantasy audience with two epic series in development.
So Many Rings, So Little Time
The first series, The Wheel Of Time, is based on author Robert Jordan’s fourteen-book saga. While the second series, unofficially titled The Lord Of The Rings On Prime, could begin filming as early as this week according to Redanian Intelligence.
While Amazon Prime has the rights to all of the material in J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved classic novels, they’re going to be focusing their attention on the stories to be found within The Lord Of The Rings‘ appendices. Along with any accompanying posthumously-published works, focusing on the period of The Second Age of Middle-earth, which takes place in a time when that has only been briefly glimpsed on-screen.
For comparison, Tolkien’s novel takes place at the very end of the Third Age in his fictional world’s chronology. The Second Age is the time when the Rings of Power were forged. Sauron betrayed the Elves and crafted his One Ring to dominate all others, before being temporarily defeated during the War of the Last Alliance. These highlights have all been seen in the opening prologue of Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship Of The Ring, but they’re only the tip of the iceberg. The Second Age spans three-thousand, four-hundred and forty-one years – there’s a lot there that audiences have never seen before.
AMAZON PRIME’S SERIES COULD BE HOBBIT-LESS
The Second Age of Middle-earth series will likely be very different from what audiences are used to seeing from this franchise. For one thing, don’t expect to see any Hobbits in the Amazon Prime series, because the fan-favorite characters don’t show up in Tolkien’s timeline until well within the Third Age. That could be a blessing, since it allows for more focus on the other people of Middle-earth, such as Elves, Dwarves, and Men. Or it could be a curse, since Hobbits have always served as the audience’s eyes and ears into the wonders of Tolkien’s world. Middle-earth might even feel generic without them, with too much sword-and-sorcery and not enough warm, cozy scenes in The Shire.
It’s also possible that the Elves could act as the most Hobbit-y characters in this series. In the Second Age, the Elves are at the height of their power and should seem more peaceful, content, and happy. Compared to the regretful, pessimistic characters have come to know in The Lord Of The Rings, both book and film trilogy. Although that happiness surely won’t last long, as this series will follow them on the long, slow path towards their own downfall.
FAMILIAR CHARACTERS RETURNING TO MIDDLE-EARTH IN LORD OF THE RINGS SERIES
Many of the most important players in Middle-earth’s history happen to be immortal, which means we will undoubtedly see characters like Elrond Half-Elven, Galadriel, and Sauron in the series. In fact, Welsh actress Morfydd Clark has already landed the role of Galadriel.
Sauron, despite being little more than a floating eyeball in Jackson’s trilogy, could easily become the most interesting character in this adaptation. During the Second Age, the Dark Lord of Mordor took many shapes, including that of a beautiful Elf named Annatar. The master manipulator even brought about the downfall of Númenor, the ancestral homeland of Aragorn’s people. Isildur, Aragorn’s many-times-removed great grandfather, will probably play a large role in the later seasons of the series.
What do you want to see in Amazon Prime’s The Lord Of The Rings On Prime? Do you think this series has a chance of becoming the next big thing in the fantasy genre? Let us know in the comments below.
