The biggest question mark for me is how they will approach it from a storytelling perspective.

The obvious choice would be many parallel storylines interweaved throughout the season, a-la GoT.

But what if they dedicate entire storylines to each season, a-la The Wire?

Season 1 - Young Aragorn
Season 2 - Rohan
Season 3 - Gondor
Etc.

But, I suppose the main problem with that is sustaining each storyline for an entire season. That would be difficult to pull off. You'd have to have several mini-storylines within each season, different sets of characters, etc.

And, you also lose being able to follow one (or several) character throughout the entire series, like we've been able to do with Jon Snow.

Thoughts?

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Don't get me wrong, I am a huge LOTR fanboy. But, isn't it presumptuous to assume this will be a massive GoT-like success? 5 seasons guaranteed???

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The presumptuousness in this case doesn't fall on on Amazon, though. HarperCollins / the Tolkien estate are stipulating that condition as part of the deal. In other words, the only way Amazon gets the rights is if they commit to five seasons up front, which ensures more money for HarperCollins / the Tolkien estate, as these deals are usually done by seasons.

With that kind of commitment, the first couple seasons better be strong as hell, otherwise the thing is going to turn into a running joke.

Goodness. So, between this and Three-Body Problem (another potential $1B project), is Amazon looking to shell out $2 billion for 2 properties and 8 total seasons???

Maybe this is awesome, but I doubt fanboys will get what they want out of it. I'm
Envisioning a ton of new characters that don't really fit in with the books.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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The biggest question mark for me is how they will approach it from a storytelling perspective.

The obvious choice would be many parallel storylines interweaved throughout the season, a-la GoT.

But what if they dedicate entire storylines to each season, a-la The Wire?

Season 1 - Young Aragorn
Season 2 - Rohan
Season 3 - Gondor
Etc.

But, I suppose the main problem with that is sustaining each storyline for an entire season. That would be difficult to pull off. You'd have to have several mini-storylines within each season, different sets of characters, etc.

And, you also lose being able to follow one (or several) character throughout the entire series, like we've been able to do with Jon Snow.

Thoughts?

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I recently re-read FOTR and there are a few things that would be interesting that happen between The Hobbit and Fellowship, but none that I find to be "must-see" television.

1) The dwarves quest to retake Moria - which ends in tragedy. They are also visited by one of the Nazgul who promises them their 3 rings of power back in exchange for knowledge of Bilbo

2) What happens to Gollum after he loses the ring to Bilbo. He ends up going to Mordor, getting captured tortured and interrogated (briefly seen in FOTR). When he is set free, he is then hunted by Gandalf/Aragorn and imprisoned by the Wood Elves, only to be "rescued" with help from an Orc party.

3) The weakening of Rohan with the treachery of Saurman and Grima Wormtongue. Seeing Saruman fall under the spell of Sauron would be cool, but not sure how Sauron plays other than as a giant eyeball.

4) Haldir's bravery in coming out as the first gay elf.


It seems like a really weird decision to make this series when the Hobbit movies got a real 'meh' reaction from most. I saw all three LOTR movies on opening day in the theater and never saw The Hobbit movies at all in the theater. Other than the Dwarves' Misty Mountain song and Stephen Colbert's cameo, there's not a scene in that trilogy of movies that I have any desire to watch again.

Let's be honest here, what initially brought eyeballs to Game of Thrones was **** and dragons (See Ian McShane quote about GoT). Can Lord of The Rings do the same to pull in a neutral audience?

5 Seasons?

If they try to mine specific incidents referenced/ partially told in LOTR/The Hobbit/The Silmarillion they are going to raise the ire of fanboys.

I think they should utilize characters and context, but not emulate Star Wars' 20 year compulsion to devote most "new" content to explaining references and filling in backstory. That's the most boring possible approach.

just build around Aragorn's story has enough in it to run many seasons. First, the the rangers of the north are fighting constantly against the evil that occupied the north. He dad is killed early and he is fostered in Rivendell. As he grows up, falls in love and finds out he has to be one badass dude to win the hand of his love. So he goes and fights with the armies of gondor, he fights with the armies of Rohan, he is fighting in the north, and east, and he goes into the deep south and explores. This is all before he meets gandalf. Hard to work boobs into a Tolkien story but there there will be plenty of betrayal, death and destruction.

There are all kinds of conflict going on to build a story around. The shire was nice and peaceful, but nothing else was.

HBO should pick up "The Black Company" as their post-GOT medieval fantasy show. Would be plenty gritty and nudity (an HBO requirement) could easily be fit in.

Sid said:

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HBO should pick up "The Black Company" as their post-GOT medieval fantasy show. Would be plenty gritty and nudity (an HBO requirement) could easily be fit in.

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that would be a cool story to tell...

Went looking to see who owns the rights and found this.

https://www.tor.com/2017/04/24/glen-cooks-the-black-company-series-coming-to-television-to-star-eliza-dushku/

Hope they're moving forward.

Quad Dog said:

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Let's be honest here, what initially brought eyeballs to Game of Thrones was **** and dragons (See Ian McShane quote about GoT). Can Lord of The Rings do the same to pull in a neutral audience?

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And I don't think it was really the dragons.

If you take the first and last chapters out of GoT, there's no fantasy in it at all. It's a military/political drama set in the Middle Ages (with lots of sex and violence and great characters that mostly die in horrific ways) . There's more fantasy elements in the following books, but it's still really just window dressing for the political drama.

I don't know that the audience for reall high fantasy exists. How many soccer moms that love GoT are going to sit through 10 hours of wizards, dwarfs, orcs, and hobbits?

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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The biggest question mark for me is how they will approach it from a storytelling perspective.

The obvious choice would be many parallel storylines interweaved throughout the season, a-la GoT.

But what if they dedicate entire storylines to each season, a-la The Wire?

Season 1 - Young Aragorn
Season 2 - Rohan
Season 3 - Gondor
Etc.

But, I suppose the main problem with that is sustaining each storyline for an entire season. That would be difficult to pull off. You'd have to have several mini-storylines within each season, different sets of characters, etc.

And, you also lose being able to follow one (or several) character throughout the entire series, like we've been able to do with Jon Snow.

Thoughts?

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This was my first thought when I read multi season.

They could honestly even just do completely contained story lines each season, based off of the stories in the Silmarillion I think. Some characters can cross over, from my memory, I only read it a couple times.

The big key, of course, is just making sure to cast great actors in as many roles as possible. I don't think it needs to be dark/gritty like Game of Thrones either.

ja86 said:

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just build around Aragorn's story has enough in it to run many seasons. First, the the rangers of the north are fighting constantly against the evil that occupied the north. He dad is killed early and he is fostered in Rivendell. As he grows up, falls in love and finds out he has to be one badass dude to win the hand of his love. So he goes and fights with the armies of gondor, he fights with the armies of Rohan, he is fighting in the north, and east, and he goes into the deep south and explores. This is all before he meets gandalf. Hard to work boobs into a Tolkien story but there there will be plenty of betrayal, death and destruction.

There are all kinds of conflict going on to build a story around. The shire was nice and peaceful, but nothing else was.

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Yea, that could be 2-3 seasons for sure, and would need to nail the casting for Aragorn..and probably the other rangers/Dunedain. Wonder how long we will have to wait.

Quad Dog said:

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Let's be honest here, what initially brought eyeballs to Game of Thrones was **** and dragons (See Ian McShane quote about GoT). Can Lord of The Rings do the same to pull in a neutral audience?

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It would be really interesting to see the reaction of the Tolkein family and the legions of Tolkein's fans to a show, based on his work, with the kind of violence, language and nudity of Game of Thrones. I can't imagine that would sit real well.

There have been so many book series that exist in the LOTR universe I can see them just going all different ways. Truthfully the best part of what Tolkein did was the detailed world he created, not the story or characters. As long as they are true to the world they have a chance. Kind of like the Dragonlance Chronicles. You have infinite possibilities with Elves, Humans, Wizards, Orcs, Hobbits, Dwarves, Giants, Dragons and any other creature you want to throw in. In GOT you are limited to mostly Human interactions with a few Dragons and White Walkers thrown in. While here you have whole cultural clashes of different species to add in.

30% chance awesome
30% chance just bearable
40% chance awful

As expected, the series will follow young Aragorn.

https://nerdist.com/lord-of-the-rings-tv-series-young-aragorn-amazon-viggo-mortensen

Looks like I was on the money with this.

Quote:

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What is also fascinating about this report is that it specifies that only the show's first season will focus on Aragorn. Previous reports confirmed that the show will have at least five seasons -- hence the billion dollar price tag -- which, as Slashfilm notes, seems to indicate that it could be taking an anthology-style approach to exploring the rich fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien. We'll continue to update this story as it develops, but in the meantime we'll just be rewatching the extended edition of The Two Towers on repeat.

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Doubt I will be watching a show about some ranger from the north

This doesn't need to be GoT. The Hobbit and LotR books are slower. They spend more time walking than any other book I've read. And there's nothing wrong with a show having something other than sex and bad language, though I'm sure producers will find a way to manufacture them into this story line.

This is one I'd like to be different than every other tv show out there where every episode is high drama. Have some episodes building up to the drama, then have several in a row that are highly intense. That would follow the books and set it apart from all the other shows. That wont happen, though. Tv is too much like soap operas now.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Looks like I was on the money with this.

Quote:

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What is also fascinating about this report is that it specifies that only the show's first season will focus on Aragorn. Previous reports confirmed that the show will have at least five seasons -- hence the billion dollar price tag -- which, as Slashfilm notes, seems to indicate that it could be taking an anthology-style approach to exploring the rich fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien. We'll continue to update this story as it develops, but in the meantime we'll just be rewatching the extended edition of The Two Towers on repeat.

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Which Aragorn will we get? The grim, motivated Aragorn who has been working towards the downfall of Sauron his entire life so he can become the king of Gondor simply so he can be allowed to marry Arwen? Or the self-doubting Aragorn of the movies who seems primarily to be motivated by guilt due to his ancestors failing, does not desire the throne and considers himself unworthy of Arwen?

The latter, most likely. Full-on Jon Snow.

And not a bad thing really. Will make for a better arc and is in line with the films.

I'll definitely give it a watch but if they try to turn it into GoT, then it's really not Lord of the Rings at all. Kids should be able to watch this.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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The latter, most likely. Full-on Jon Snow.

And not a bad thing really. Will make for a better arc and is in line with the films.

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I was expecting more the Thorongil version of Aragorn. Where he's traveling to Gondor, Rohan, etc. serving different lords.

So the official twitter account for the show just unveiled a map of middle earth. Let the countdown begin! I'm excited to revisit this world!

#1 said:

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So the official twitter account for the show just unveiled a map of middle earth. Let the countdown begin! I'm excited to revisit this world!

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An interactive map with place names if you want to compare.

http://lotrproject.com/map/