https://ew.com/tv/2019/04/17/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-show-second-age/

brilliant series of movies for me

BenFiasco14 said:

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I still have a gut feeling this is gonna be a horrendous show/undertaking - also JW Fallen Kingdom was terribad.

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Is that the writing or direction? The story for Fallen Kingdom was lame. A lot of the action was entertaining.

Only other thing I've seen by this guy is Penny Dreadful. I enjoyed that show.

Yeah, I'm interested but I stand by what I said on pg1. It's going to take a miracle for this not to come off as a PG game of thrones knockoff.

I'm prob gonna like Flip it Like Disick way better.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LOTR_on_Prime/comments/ciityb/hi_rlotr_on_prime_we_wanted_you_to_have_the_first

John Howe

Shife said:

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This gets more interesting.

Unless the timeline is totally screwed up, I'd guess this begins with the forging of the 3 elvish rings, 7 dwarf rings, 9 rings of men and finally the one ring in some sort of prologue. For example the rings of power were forged almost 2000 years before Elendil and sons set foot in Middle Earth.

So this probably begins with backstory then moves to present day -- being very late Second Age -- when Arnor and Gondor battle the forces of Mordor. We see the three chief cities of Gondor on the map with their original names and the capital in the north, Annuminas, but not the second capital of the north, Fornost. The season probably ends around the last alliance.

Keep in mind how long these damn Numenoreans live so it would not be uncommon from a pure Tolkeinist perspective to have multiple 10+ year jumps forward until something worthwhile happens. Another example: There are over 100 years between Elendil coming to Middle Earth and Isildur taking the ring from Sauron.

Would not be surprised if time spans are shortened since human viewers tend to not like processing extra long lifespans given our own 70-100 year range.

EDIT: The three Hobbit races had not yet migrated over the Misty Mountains yet either so there is no Shire if we believe the map.

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I think Tolkien would find it ironic that so many people obsess over his world building yet ignore the deeper themes that were the reasons he wrote the dang books to begin with.

It'd be ironic to him because it perfectly reflects the story in LOTR: men are easily tempted by the ring and do not see the deeper threat in it.

Tom Shippey, the Tolkien Scholar for the show was just interviewed by one of the various Tolkien societies.

Here is the link to the interview.

Highlights:

• Amazon has a free hand to add and flesh out the series, as the amount of material for the second age is limited. The main action must remain the same: Sauron tricks the Elves into forging the Rings, he forges the One, manages to reclaim most of the other great Rings through warefare, is driven back by Numenor, he distributes Rings to the future Nazgul, eventually Sauron is captured by the Numenorians and orchestrates their destruction from within, and the surviving Numenorians and Elves forge the last alliance and eventually defeat Sauron. Whether Amazon plans to adapt this how it plays out in Middle-Earth history (over 2,000 years) or condense it to a single generation is unkown.
• The Tolkien Estate reserves the right to veto any extraneous changes and subplots.
• The first age (The Silmarillion core narrative) and the third age (Lord of the Rings narrative) are off-limits. Events could only be mentioned insofar as they explain the events in the Second Age. But if it is not described or mentioned in the Lord of the Rings or in the appendices, they probably can not use it. The legal situation is not one hundred percent clear.
• According to his information, Brian Miller is the overall director, but it may have changed again
• The release should be 2021. That's why he does not expect a production start this year because there is still a lot to do.
• The exact locations are still uncertain and it could well be several.
• The first season will have 20 episode, which seems high so I personally don't know how accurate that is, but the overall lore is somewhat dense.
• Tom Shippey emphasizes that he himself does not know much. He is also subject to secrecy requirements of Amazon. He has not yet met the showrunners personally.

Sucks about the First Age being excluded. It's full of such great stories.

I have no problem with enjoying the world building. I simply found it humorous that on a 8 page thread, with many self-professed Tolkien super-fans, there hasn't been a single person commenting about how they'll adapt Tolkein's themes.

His work is brimming with deeper stuff. For example, did you know the Ring was cast back into Mt. Doom on March 25? This date has traditionally been assigned to the Crucifixion.

Also, what did Frodo and Sam eat during their journey to Mordor? Lembas bread, which means "life bread".

"Eat little at a time, and only at need. For these things are given to serve you when all else fails. The cakes will keep sweet for many many days, if they are unbroken and left in their leaf-wrappings, as we have brought them. One [God] will keep a traveler on his feet for a day of long labor."

Tolkein is saying lembas bread is something more, and in fact, One (God) is physically in the bread. Tolkien is talking about the Catholic teaching of the Eucharist.

There's lots of other subtle stuff that make Tolkien's work much richer and enjoyable for knowing it.

But he didn't write the books because of those themes. He wrote them to have a story for the languages he'd created.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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But he didn't write the books because of those themes. He wrote them to have a story for the languages he'd created.

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Uh huh

Edited to add: Tolkien created his stories for many reasons, I'll grant you that. But for some reason people always seem to overlook the deeper -- and ultimately more important stuff -- in his stories. And that's my point.

Render said:

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Brian Earl Spilner said:

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But he didn't write the books because of those themes. He wrote them to have a story for the languages he'd created.

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Uh huh

Edited to add: Tolkien created his stories for many reasons, I'll grant you that. But for some reason people always seem to overlook the deeper -- and ultimately more important stuff -- in his stories. And that's my point.

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Man vs Man, man vs nature, nature vs rings

He was the perfect Cousin Eustace

Sine poena nulla lex.

My only request is that they don't make Orcs absolute pushovers like in the hobbit. Unarmed civilians were even slaughtering them in the battle of the five armies. I'm likely hooked otherwise.

Ema Horvath joins the cast of LOTR on Prime:

https://deadline.com/2019/12/ema-horvath-cast-the-lord-of-the-rings-amazon-series-1202806025/

Some other interesting news in the article:

Quote:

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As pre-production on the Lord Of the Rings TV series is gearing up in New Zealand, the streamer recently moved ahead with an early Season 2 renewal for the sprawling adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy novels. As part of that, Amazon commissioned the reassembling of the writers room to break the second season.

In conjunction with the early renewal, the LOTR series will go on a 4-5-month hiatus after filming the first two episodes from Season 1, directed by J.A. Bayona. The writing team of the series, led by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, will use the time to map out and write the bulk of Season 2 scripts

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Is this normal?

Young Galadriel cast, gives new meaning to The Lady of the Golden Wood.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/amazons-lord-of-the-rings-show-just-cast-a-young-versio-1840445320

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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For real.

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I couldn't even finish the hobbit because the chi was so ****ing terrible after LOTR