The Rings of Power: Peter Jackson was asked to be involved in the Lord of the Rings series, but Amazon ghosted him

We’re now less than a month away from the release of the upcoming Lord of the Rings series on Prime Video. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will focus on the forging of the original rings of power during the Second Age of Middle-Earth that allowed Sauron to spread his evil across the land. While The Rings of Power has several connections to the Oscar-winning trilogy from Peter Jackson, it doesn’t have any involvement from the man himself, but that wasn’t always the plan.

While speaking with THR, Peter Jackson reveals that Amazon had actually asked him to be involved in The Rings of Power during its development. Jackson agreed on the condition that he was sent some scripts for the series… only for Amazon to ghost him.

About four, five years ago they asked if I would be interested in it… So I said, ‘Have you got the scripts yet?’ Because I know how hard the scripts were to write for the films and I didn’t know the people writing their scripts. They said, ‘Oh no, we haven’t got the scripts yet, but as soon as we do, we’ll send you the scripts.’ So I was waiting for the scripts to arrive and they never did.

Although Peter Jackson never heard anything from Amazon regarding The Rings of Power, he doesn’t have any hard feelings towards the series and is excited to finally see it as a Tolkien fan. “I’ll be watching it,” Jackson said. “I’m not the sort of guy who wishes ill will. Filmmaking is hard enough. If somebody makes a good film or TV show, it’s something to celebrate. The one thing I am looking forward to is actually seeing it as a perfectly neutral viewer.” As for why Amazon never sent any scripts, it seems to come down to a rights situation. In a response to Jackson’s comments, Amazon said:

In pursuing the rights for our show, we were obligated to keep the series distinct and separate from the films. We have the utmost respect for Peter Jackson and The Lord of The Rings films and are thrilled that he is looking forward to watching The Rings of Power.

In addition to the obligation to keep the movies and TV series separate, sources have also suggested that J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate wasn’t keen on having Peter Jackson onboard, as they weren’t exactly a fan of his trilogies.

The official synopsis of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power:

Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will debut on Prime Video on September 2, 2022.