Amazon recently announced that it will be officially producing a “Lord of the Rings” series that is expected to run for five seasons.
Peter Jackson’s interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s series “The Lord of the Rings,” proved to be a cultural phenomenon in film form, sweeping 17 Academy Awards out of 31 nominations. The final movie to the trilogy, “The Return of the King,” won the award for Best Picture, setting a record as the only fantasy film to ever receive the award.
Building on this previous acclaim and support, Amazon’s show will be about events preceding the storyline of the trilogy. However, the series will not be based off of Tolkien’s, “The Silmarillion,” which is a collection of mythopoetic works about the lore of Middle Earth. The exact plot is still unknown but because it will not be based off of any of Tolkien’s texts. Instead, fans will experience a new side of Tolkien’s universe with hopefully a few familiar characters.
Considering the fact that the television series will be a prequel to “The Lord of the Rings,” fans anticipate the possibility of Gandalf having an onscreen appearance, which means a possibility exists for Ian McKellen to return to his role as Gandalf, though that has not been confirmed.
There has been talk of the show being filmed in New Zealand, the home of the original set of the “Lord of the Rings” series and “The Hobbit” films. No final decisions have yet been made for the set location.
Amazon Studios will be working closely with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins and New Line Cinema in order to produce the show. Its expected air date is 2021.
The Plaid Press 