No New Middle Earth Stories Are Being Told, And That's Probably A Good Thing
Suppose
somebody obtained the rights to JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth. For over 40
years, Christopher Tolkien was the head of the estate. He had the right
to do whatever he wished with his father's creation. The Lord of the
Rings and The Hobbit were very popular stories, and Christopher could
have expanded on that. He could have told any story he wanted. He could
have made a sequel to The Lord of the Rings. He could have hired a
qualified writer and approved a story that would become canon in Middle
Earth.
That's not what Christopher did. He
gathered all of his father's notes and put together The Silmarillion .
He didn't attempt to tell his own story. He chose to present his
father's writings to the people. He did the same thing with Unfinished
Tales a few years later. After that, he took a scholarly approach to his
father's works with the History of Middle Earth books. In those books,
he gave insight into his father's thought process. People got to see
story ideas that were later abandoned or altered into what we came to
know in the official books.
Christopher never
chose to tell his own story, and it stands to reason that he could have
made millions of dollars doing that. The Tolkien Estate certainly made
money on book sales and other merchandising. When Peter Jackson made The
Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies, the family made more money.
After watching the movies, many people picked up those books for the
first time. Though Christopher didn't particularly care for the movies,
they did assist the book sales.
Through the
years, people have wondered what if. JRR Tolkien created a rich
universe. Many stories were only hinted at, but a creative writer could
have fleshed them out. There could have been more hobbit tales based on
what was officially mentioned in the books. A story could have been told
about what happened in Middle Earth after the one ring was destroyed. A
story could have been told about what happened in Middle Earth after
the original Dark Lord Melkor escaped from his prison. There's no doubt
that a writer capable of emulating JRR Tolkien's style could have been
hired to tell these stories, but that's not what Christopher chose to
do.
Was he right or wrong about that? From a
business standpoint, some would say he wasn't. He left hundreds of
millions of dollars on the table by not adding to the lore. Some might
say that at about the time that Jackson was beginning production on the
Lord of the Rings movies, Christopher could have commissioned a new
story. Some might say that this would have only served to damage the
franchise, and others might maintain that Christopher more than anybody
else would have had a better understanding of what his father would have
done. Though I would love to see more stories, I can't say I disagree
with Christopher on this.
The thing about
successful stories is they become franchises when they make enough
money. Suddenly, people not involved with the creative process to begin
with get a financial interest in said franchises. This has happened with
Star Trek, Star Wars and Doctor Who, among other creations. In the
process, the canon has been damaged and the fan base has been divided
due to a dislike of the new creations. In the case of Star Wars, Disney
paid billions of dollars to take the franchise and do what they wanted
to it. They completely ignored the outlines drafted by franchise creator
George Lucas when making their trilogy.
Gene
Roddenberry was at the helm of the Star Trek franchise for many years.
He fought to get it back on the air in the 1970s and ultimately
succeeded in bringing the movie franchise into being. He also had
another opportunity to do a Star Trek series, resulting in The Next
Generation. During that run, Roddenberry handed the reigns over to Rick
Berman. At that point, we didn't have the creator running the franchise,
but we did have somebody who understood the spirit of the show. Berman
guided The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager to successful
runs, but things fizzled out during the run of Enterprise. After that,
we have had other people with less understanding of the product determining
what the official canon is.
One could argue
that what is happening with these beloved franchises is they have become
solely about the money now, and the actual product is secondary. Rather
than stick to what has worked for these franchises through the years,
woke political agendas are inserted into them. This has damaged the
overall canon. Some have even argued that the damage being done to the
three aforementioned franchises is so great that they may end up being
destroyed in the process. When you have a franchise that has lasted for
decades a certain way, there are certain expectations. Those
expectations have seemingly been thrown out the window.
This
brings us back to Middle Earth. Christopher Tolkien may ultimately be
proven right by not attempting to make anything new. However, since his
passing, there might be reason to be a little bit nervous. Somebody else
is determining what is best for the intellectual property. They may not
see things the same way Christopher did, and that could ultimately lead
to new stories being told in the Middle Earth universe. They could try
to stay in the spirit of what JRR Tolkien created, but they could also
take things in a different direction that goes against what the author
originally intended.
For years, the only new
content created was fan fiction. Much of that was dreadful, and even
some of the better stuff still lacked the flare that JRR Tolkien had.
The comfort that Tolkien purists had was that none of these stories was
considered official canon. Could the day come when something new is
created and considered official canon in Middle earth? Would that be a
good thing or a bad thing? At the moment, nothing is being discussed,
and that's probably a good thing. We all know that Christopher would
never let that happen, and hopefully the people in charge will continue
to take that approach.
