Lord of the Rings Amazon Series Information from IndieWire

[Peter_Brosdahl]

It was announced nearly two years ago that Amazon had purchased the rights to J.R.R. Tolkein, Lord of The Rings. It would be an understatement to express how that news would seem shocking to the many who thought big, or little, screen adaptions were done, at least for a little while. The wait may soon be over to see what fruit this endeavor will produce.

IndieWire has put together an interesting story listing many facts of this little known project. Today it was announced that Will Poulter would need to leave the series due to scheduling conflicts which in turn has sparked some discussion of the series progress. Here’s a few facts to gleamed about the new forthcoming series.

• Rights were purchased in Nov. 2017 for $250 million dollars with requirement the series go into production within two years of purchase
• Series will actually be a prequel taking place in the 2nd age(about 1000 years before the Lord of the Rings most are familiar with)
• The 2nd age spans roughly 3,441 years(plenty of time to develop stories)
• 1st Season will comprise of 20 episodes
• Will be written by JD Payne and Patrick McKay
• First 2 episodes will be directed by J.A. Bayona
• Creative Team will include people from notable series such as: Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Stranger Things, to name a few.
• Filmed in New Zealand
• Confirmed for a 2nd Season
• After first two episodes there will be a 4-5 month break

Obviously there’s still many unknowns and Amazon has intentionally made it so. Reports of security guards and locked doors requiring fingerprints around the writers room might seem nonsensical but rumors are still abound about cast and other details.

 

[Nanobot]

So is any of this based on actual Tolkien writing or did they just find a time frame that was empty so they can make up whatever?

 

[Riccochet]

what's up with the 4-5 month break after 2 episodes? WTF?

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

So is any of this based on actual Tolkien writing or did they just find a time frame that was empty so they can make up whatever?

Nothing confirmed but I'd speculate it's likely to draw at least some material from The Silmarillion. Kind of like how Netflix drew from J.Lee's books for their Dark Crystal series. Just a guess.

what's up with the 4-5 month break after 2 episodes? WTF?

IndieWire reported that it was "in order to map out and write the bulk of the second season. "

 

[pek2000]

I'll hazard a guess it's about Numenor, either the rise or the fall, or both. With a little bit about the Elves making the Rings? Lots of creativity to mine.

 

[SmokeRngs]

There's a lot they can do regarding the Second Age but they will be limited on exactly what they can and cannot do depending on the material they have access to. If they have access to the Silmarillion then we could see just about anything which happened in the Second Age since that's where the majority of it is told. However, if they don't have access to the Silmarillion they're going to be in a bit of trouble. For one, names are going to be a huge issue. As an example, the Lord of the Rings Online game has access to only the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit. Because of that they cannot use the names of the Nazgul simply because they weren't mentioned in those books. They have to use titles instead.

Even if they don't have access to the Silmarillion they can still do plenty but they'll have to avoid known events and people which weren't mentioned in the content they have access to. Not having major characters and events which are familiar can have a dampening effect on the show.

Something about the announcement doesn't make any sense at all.

Series will actually be a prequel taking place in the 2nd age(about 1000 years before the Lord of the Rings most are familiar with)

That simply doesn't add up. First of all, the Lord of the Rings everyone is familiar with takes place at the end of the Third Age and the Third Age is well over 3000 years long. A thousand years prior would be in the Third Age. It's a little different if they mean specifically a thousand years prior to the earliest part which takes place in the movies. The earliest part then would be the War of the Last Alliance which was at the end of the Second Age. This is when Gil-galad and Elendil were killed at the foot of Mt Doom and Isildur cut the One Ring off the hand of Sauron.

I was going to go on about what happened about a thousand years before the end of the Second Age but after looking up a timeline I realized I badly need to brush up on my Second Age timeline. Truth be told, I have no clue what thousand years they are talking about with regards to major events. In the 2400s Second Age nothing much went on so what they're doing could be anything.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

There's a lot they can do regarding the Second Age but they will be limited on exactly what they can and cannot do depending on the material they have access to. If they have access to the Silmarillion then we could see just about anything which happened in the Second Age since that's where the majority of it is told. However, if they don't have access to the Silmarillion they're going to be in a bit of trouble. For one, names are going to be a huge issue. As an example, the Lord of the Rings Online game has access to only the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit. Because of that they cannot use the names of the Nazgul simply because they weren't mentioned in those books. They have to use titles instead.

Even if they don't have access to the Silmarillion they can still do plenty but they'll have to avoid known events and people which weren't mentioned in the content they have access to. Not having major characters and events which are familiar can have a dampening effect on the show.

Something about the announcement doesn't make any sense at all.



That simply doesn't add up. First of all, the Lord of the Rings everyone is familiar with takes place at the end of the Third Age and the Third Age is well over 3000 years long. A thousand years prior would be in the Third Age. It's a little different if they mean specifically a thousand years prior to the earliest part which takes place in the movies. The earliest part then would be the War of the Last Alliance which was at the end of the Second Age. This is when Gil-galad and Elendil were killed at the foot of Mt Doom and Isildur cut the One Ring off the hand of Sauron.

I was going to go on about what happened about a thousand years before the end of the Second Age but after looking up a timeline I realized I badly need to brush up on my Second Age timeline. Truth be told, I have no clue what thousand years they are talking about with regards to major events. In the 2400s Second Age nothing much went on so what they're doing could be anything.

It occurred to me just now they might even draw upon material that was in the Mordor games.

 

[Dogsofjune]

Not holding my breath. The Shannara series sucked, the Dark Crystal series didn’t keep my interest. I have hopes for the Witcher, but we will see with this.

Though I enjoyed the movies, they butchered the original story and the Hobbit was even worse

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

The Shannara series sucked, the Dark Crystal series didn’t keep my interest.

I have to completely agree on Shannara. At first I was excited but that didn't last beyond a few episodes once I noticed how they we're blending things and mixing it up. Finished the first season, barely. Only watched one episode of the 2nd and decided that was enough.

With Dark Crystal we both enjoyed it but I admit towards the end I was getting burnt out. Relived too many of the same formulas with streaming shows as this point and even good eye candy can't keep me hooked when I can identify all the story arcs in 1 or 2 episodes. I've got high hopes for the Witcher. For this project, I'm still very much on the fence. Just have to wait and see.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Was doing a little follow up on this and clicked on the IndieWire source link to see if anything was new. Noticed they said that filming should start next month and table reads were already underway.