Let’s wildly speculate about the streaming giant’s foray into Middle-earth.
Light the beacons of Gondor: J.R.R.
Tolkien is coming to the small screen.
Credit: Pierre Vinet/New Line
The new show will be set in Middle-earth and will explore new storylines preceding J.R.R.
TolkiensThe Fellowship of the Ring.
Amazon has also already committed to multiple seasons, with the possibility of spin-off shows further down the line.
The biggest news in Amazons announcement is that one little word: preceding.
(Basically, God and the angels sang the universe into existence.
Its a whole thing.)
This announcement, of course, raises more questions than it answers.
Will it draw heavily from Tolkiens canon, or will it create an entirely new story set in Middle-earth?
(Come on, Jeff.
Get it together.)
Bandobras Bullroarer Took, the heroic Hobbit who beheaded goblins and also invented the game of golf!
Cirdan the Shipwright, master shipbuilder and also the only Elf to have a beard!
Below, we round up a few of the Tolkien stories that Amazon may want to consider adapting.
And if Amazon wants its ownGame of Thrones, The Silmarillionmight be a good place to start.
I mean, come on, theres even dragons and accidental incest!
Eat your hearts out, Jon and Daenerys.
Which is pretty rad.
Still, it seems unlikely that Amazon will choose to tackle Tolkiens strangest and most ambitious book.
Instead, its part creation myth, part collection of legends, and part millennium-spanning history book.
Shes a beautiful Elf; hes a rugged outlaw.
And it would make for killer television.
Their tombstones even read Beren and Luthien.
The War of the Ring that most people are familiar with with Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, etc.
takes place at the end of whats called the Third Age.
(Hes been around for a while.)
(Whats Hugo Weaving been up to lately?)
In some ways, this makes the most sense.
So maybe Amazon will draw on existing Tolkien stories that havent been adapted yet.
Either that or a one-season miniseries about the adventures of Tom Bombadils pony, Fatty Lumpkin.
But overall, Amazon has a real opportunity ahead of itself.
Any potential Amazon show will have to navigate the same pitfalls.
