'Lord of the Rings' TV Show News: Is Amazon Doing 'The Silmarillion' Prequel?
Amazon's plan to develop "Lord of the Rings" as a multi-season series drew plenty of reactions and speculations. Not much is known about the streaming platform's project apart from the announcement that Amazon is ready to fund a billion dollars to get the show made.
The idea, however, that Amazon wants its "Lord of the Rings" series set before the period that took place in the popular movies director Peter Jackson made has fans speculating on a potential prequel. Could Amazon actually be working on bringing "The Silmarillion" to the small screen?
JRR Tolkien's third novel about Middle Earth isn't easy to adapt to a movie or a series, according to The Ringer. "The Silmarillion" delves on the history and the mythology of Middle Earth, hence it does not have a clear plot or storyline, or standout characters.
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"The Silmarillion" is like the Bible or Atlas for anything Middle Earth. Its chapters separate different stories like an anthology. But as Amazon plans to explore the vast world that Tolkien created, speculations are that this book could be the main source for the planned "Lord of the Rings" series.
Further boosting the speculations is the fact that Tolkien's son, Christopher, is no longer heading his father's estate when he stepped down as the director in August. It's widely known that Christopher isn't a fan of the movie adaptations of his father's work and he kept a tight watch over what can and cannot be adapted on the films and in the video games about Middle Earth.
With Christopher no longer in control, Amazon might very well be able to do anything it wants for the "Lord of the Rings" series and pick up any story from the source material. Besides, Tolkien Estate is actually going to produce the show.
Amazon, however, did not cite if it obtained the rights to "The Silmarillion." More details to the project should be announced in the coming weeks.
