Amazon’s sure-to-be epic Lord of the Rings series is still in the works and promises to be unlike anything we’ve seen on the small screen. This thing HAS to be huge, it’s being financed by the world’s richest man — who just so happens to be a dedicated Tolkien fan. Yes, this LOTR will show you where all your Prime subscription money is going.
And now the Lord of the Rings show has nabbed a talented director to lead it. J.A. Bayona, best known for his Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, A Monster Calls and The Orphange, will direct the first two episodes of the show, then will stick around as a producer.
Bayona’s work is always a nice mix of beauty and spectacle. I think he’s a good fit for the LOTR show and actually quite different from Peter Jackson. That’s a smart call from Amazon. They’d be dumb to try and mimic Jackson’s LOTR trilogy. Firstly, no one can do Jackson like Jackson and, secondly, I think we all want something new with this show. Unlike others, I’m not completely burnt out on Tolkien adaptations but I sure as hell would be if we got another epic adaptation that feels just like the others. If Amazon really wants to expand this universe they need to try something different and, while Bayona and Jackson have similarities, they certainly are different.
Here’s J.A.’s comment about joining the series:
“I can’t wait to take audiences around the world back to Middle-earth and have them discover the wonders of the Second Age, with a never-before-seen story.”
We know who will direct the first couple of episodes and we have an idea of who will be part of the writers room but we don’t know much else about the show. It’ll definitely take place before the Lord of the Rings books and movies but we’re in the dark about everything else. It’ll be heavily influenced by Tolkien’s work and appendixes — the story won’t be created out of thin air — but it promises to explore aspects of Middle-earth that we haven’t seen on screen before. Again, this is a good thing.
I can’t wait to learn more about the show. Let’s see what Jeff Bezos’s money can create.