The Lord of the Rings may live again as an Amazon TV series

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

I had serious doubts that J.R.R. Tolkein's "The Lord of the Rings" series could ever successfully make the transition to the big-screen, but what Peter Jackson was able to achieve with THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, THE TWO TOWERS, and THE RETURN OF THE KING was absolutely astounding. It would certainly be tough to follow up that achievement, even Jackson himself wasn't quite able to replicate it with THE HOBBIT trilogy, but it seems that we haven't seen the last of THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

Variety reports that Warner Bros. Television and J.R.R. Tolkein's estate are in talks with Amazon Studios in develop a TV series based upon "The Lord of the Rings" novels. According to Variety's sources, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is said to be personally involved in the negotiations, which are still in the very early stages. No deal has been set yet, but Amazon has clearly emerged as the front-runner. This development falls in line with a mandate Jeff Bezos laid down several months ago, which would see Amazon Studios move away from shows like Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle and towards "big shows that can make the biggest difference around the world." At the time, the now former Amazon Studios President Roy Price said that he saw Game of Thrones as an inspiration:

I do think ‘Game of Thrones’ is to TV as ‘Jaws’ and ‘Star Wars’ was to the movies of the 1970s. It’ll inspire a lot of people. Everybody wants a big hit and certainly that’s the show of the moment in terms of being a model for a hit.

It's hard to imagine anyone other than Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Elijah Wood as Frodo, Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, or Andy Serkis as Gollum, but it's not hard to see why Warner Bros. would want to keep the franchise going, seeing as the six films have amassed close to $6 billion at the box-office. A television series would provide the opportunity to dive into areas of Tolkien's novels which Peter Jackson wasn't able to cover in his movies, but is it a good idea? I honestly don't know.

Would you folks be onboard for a Lord of the Rings TV series? Let the fan-casting begin!