Middle-earth Is Coming to Amazon Studios

As television networks and streaming services scramble to fill the void that Game of Thrones’ end will inevitably create in 2019, Amazon has taken their first steps to do so—by bringing one of the original fantasy behemoths to the small screen, The Lord of the Rings. In the beginning of November, Amazon announced that they had acquired the television rights for the book series and have a multi-series commitment. While many fans may be worried that this is an effort to remake the well-loved The Lord of the Rings movies from director Peter Jackson, Amazon assures fans that the television series will focus on events that took place before Frodo ever stumbled upon Bilbo’s cursed ring. The deal reportedly is priced somewhere between $200 and $250 million.

It may seem like a typical trick of Hollywood, taking a property like J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved series shoving it down our throats until we are sick of it, but the beauty of Tolkien’s world is that it is so rich and vast that they could conceivably create new and different stories that are still set in the same universe and make them feel new and different. The love and admiration for the series is still alive as well. According to Scott Mendelsen of Forbes magazine, the recent Hobbit movie trilogy made $2.916 billion worldwide. The last movie in that trilogy came out at the end of 2014 and it grossed $956 million, clearly demonstrating that Middle-earth still has fans in the real world.

In a completely different medium, Monolith Productions is still coming out with video games that stem from Middle-earth to include its latest release, Middle-earth: Shadow of War. These video games are prominent features in the gaming market, even though the content of these games stems from novels written over 60 years ago unlike many of their competitors.

In the convention world, The Lord of the Rings is still an attraction with booths selling art, toys, and more that are inspired by the series, and stars from both the original movie trilogy and The Hobbit movie trilogy still make their rounds as media guests for these events. Middle-earth has a huge fan base worldwide, so it is no wonder Jeff Bezos and Amazon would want to pursue this entity. It will, no doubt, enhance their Amazon Studios’ content with a product that has more prestige and global appeal— something on which Bezos has reportedly asked them to focus.

As a fan of the books, I am looking forward to seeing my favorite fantasy world on the small screen. Just as Tolkien has expanded upon the world in subsequent novels like The Silmarillion, there is a lot of potential with Middle-earth to create something new and expand upon the world to which I hold so dear. For example, we might get to see more of what had occurred down in the Mines of Moria before the Fellowship arrived to ruins and tombs. We may get to see how Wormtail arrived in Rohan and started to poison the mind of King Theon, or see more of the life in Rivendell. In fact, Peter Jackson even created an entirely new character, an elf named Tauriel, to create a romantic side story in The Hobbit films. The great thing about this television series is that the creators will be able to make new story lines that do not interfere or change how the original stories’ plots played out.

My only hope is that the creators of the show keep true to Tolkien’s vision of his world and the themes that often draped over the content. I, like all fans of Tolkien’s work, will be waiting impatiently for more information as the deal finalizes and Amazon Studios takes its next steps into story development and casting.