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Amazon Prime Video has a feather in their cap in the form of Lord of the Rings, and the streaming service plans to bring fans back to Middle Earth with a full-on fantasy series. We have some new information about the show thanks to Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey, and he gives us a few details about the upcoming LOTR.
Talking to Tolkien Gessell-Schaft, Shippey reveals that the Amazon series will take place during the Second Age of Middle Earth, hundreds of years before the events of Lord of the Rings. Shippey explains:
“Amazon has a relatively free hand when it comes to adding something […] very few details are known about this time span… The Tolkien Estate will insist that the main shape of the Second Age is not altered… Sauron invades Eriador, is forced back by a Númenorean expedition, is returning to Númenor. There he corrupts the Númenoreans and seduces them to break the ban of the Valar. All this, the course of history, must remain the same.”
He also talks about the episode count which is said to be a staggering 20 episodes. If Amazon is planning to make these episodes an hour a piece, I’d say I would prefer they just cut the seasons in half. I mean, even Netflix series that go on for 13 episodes can be a bit dragging. I can only imagine what the writers are going through.
If anything, the LOTR franchise is known for taking its time, and maybe this 20-episode count is the best way that Amazon gets to tell the story. We can’t really know for sure until it comes out.
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings has no release date yet, but it’s expected to come out sometime in 2021.
