After some time of speculation and talks about a Lord of the Rings television series, Amazon has officially secured the rights to do it. In a press release, Amazon announced they will be bringing the epic saga from J.R.R. Tolkien to the small screen. The full statement can be found here, and it reads in part:
Amazon today announced it has acquired the global television rights to The Lord of the Rings, based on the celebrated fantasy novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, with a multi-season commitment. The upcoming Amazon Prime Original will be produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment.
“The Lord of the Rings is a cultural phenomenon that has captured the imagination of generations of fans through literature and the big screen,” said Sharon Tal Yguado, Head of Scripted Series, Amazon Studios. “We are honored to be working with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins and New Line on this exciting collaboration for television and are thrilled to be taking The Lord of the Rings fans on a new epic journey in Middle Earth.”
“We are delighted that Amazon, with its longstanding commitment to literature, is the home of the first-ever multi-season television series for The Lord of the Rings,” said Matt Galsor, a representative for the Tolkien Estate and Trust and HarperCollins. “Sharon and the team at Amazon Studios have exceptional ideas to bring to the screen previously unexplored stories based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s original writings.”
Set in Middle Earth, the television adaptation will explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. The deal includes a potential additional spin-off series.
A Lord of the Rings television series is obviously a huge get for Amazon, and it cost them about a quarter of a billion dollars, according to multiple reports. The show will be on Amazon Prime Video, so you’ll need to be a Prime member—though the show shouldn’t be available for a couple years.
This early in the process, there haven’t been any cast revealed yet, but it’s likely to be mostly unknown/underrated actors—similar to when HBO’s Game of Thrones first started. Not that this series from Amazon will be close to perhaps the greatest show of all time, but actors would probably be wise to try and get on this upcoming fantasy series from one of the greatest stories ever told.
Won’t be Game of Thrones but it should be great.