A few years ago, Amazon announced that they acquired the rights to
the Lord of the Rings and would be doing a new series on their streaming
service. The word was they were committing to five seasons of this
series. The interesting thing is that the Tolkien Estate still retains
the rights to The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and the History of
Middle Earth books, which detail the happenings in Middle Earth prior to
the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
People
were speculating as to why Amazon was looking to remake The Lord of the
Rings so soon after Peter Jackson's three blockbuster movies. However,
this wasn't the game plan. Readers of the Lord of the Rings books will
note that at the end of The Return of the King, there is the appendices.
This is a timeline of the history of Middle Earth, and it also shows
the family tree of some of the important families featured in The Lord
of the Rings.
The appendices serve as the
launching point for stories. The writers of this new series are not
allowed to draw from anything specifically written about in the other
books that isn't mentioned in the appendices. They are also not allowed
to create any story that goes against what is officially considered
Middle Earth canon by the Tolkien Estate. Despite these limitations,
there's still quite a bit to work with when telling a story.
One
shining example is in unofficial fan film that was created about a
decade ago called Born of Hope. This was the story about Aragorn's
grandfather and his father. It's basically a story that tells how the
rangers in the land of Arnor survived after their kingdom fell. It
serves to tell about the birth of Aragorn and how the baby was
ultimately sent to Rivendell to be cared for by Elrond. It doesn't take
away from the official canon and fills in a few of the blank spaces.
Some
important occurrences in the history of Middle Earth are highlighted in
the appendices. Some of those stories link together pretty well. There
are enough story ideas to work with to paint a good picture. Rumor has
it that they will be telling the story about the creation of the Rings
of Power and the Fall of Numenor. This means they are heading into
uncharted territory. There has never been any proper on screen
depictions of these stories.
I am excited about
the possibilities of what this series can bring, but I am also a little
bit apprehensive. Considering how other beloved franchises have been
used for the woke agenda, I am hoping that this will not go down a
similar path. My hope Is that the people writing the scripts have a love
and appreciation for the work of JRR Tolkien and will show it the
proper respect. What I'd really like to see is parts of The Silmarillion
and Unfinished Tales made into proper movies. Christopher Tolkien never
wanted to see that happen, and I can't say I blame him. However, the
Tolkien Estate may see things differently now.
