Lord of the Rings TV series lands at Amazon with a multiple-season commitment

The Hollywood Reporter

Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV show, which includes the potential of spinoff series, will be produced with J.R.R. Tolkien's Estate and Trust, publisher HarperCollins and Warner Bros. Entertainment's New Line Cinema. “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, Amazon's new head of scripted programming, in a statement. Still, as James Hibberd points out, “there’s a catch, creatively speaking: The series will explore storylines set before the events in the first LOTR novel, The Fellowship of the Ring. In other words: The war to destroy the One Ring as chronicled in Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning trilogy of films will not be told in the TV version. So this story is either set before The Hobbit or in between The Hobbit and LOTR.” Also, Amazon didn’t name a writer/showrunner for the series. As The Shield creator Shawn Ryan notes: “Protip: When you see a network announce a big commitment to a new show with no writer/showrunner to guide vision, prepare for bumpy waters.”