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Amazon's The Lord of The Rings Series "Cannot Use Much of Tolkien's Plot"


Amazon's upcoming The Lord of the Rings TV series will need to follow guidelines laid down by the Tolkien estate, and a J.R.R. Tolkien expert working on the multi-series adaptation has claimed that Amazon has been refused permission by the estate to use the bulk of the book's plot.

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Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey, who is supervising the development of the series, told German fansite, Deutsche Tolkien, that the estate has refused to allow the Amazon series to be set during any period other than the Second Age of Middle-Earth, so the series is not allowed to cross over at all with the events from the Third Age, which were dramatized in Peter Jackson's trilogy of Lord of the Rings films.

"The Tolkien Estate will insist that the main shape of the Second Age is not altered," Shippey said. "Sauron invades Eriador, is forced back by a Númenorean expedition, and returns to Númenor. There he corrupts the Númenoreans and seduces them to break the ban of the Valar. All this, the course of history, must remain the same."

The restrictions will ensure that the creators of Amazon's adaptation cannot change the history as-written, to prevent them from telling their own version of Tolkien's epic.

The Second Age spans 3,441 years, and it begins after the banishment of the dark lord Morgoth and ends with Sauron's first demise. There's a lot of interesting events that happen during that period such as the forging of the One Ring, the Last Alliance against Sauron, the birth of Ringwraiths, and various wars among men of the realm, elves, and dwarves. The creators have a lot of content to draw from, and while the show may not be able to alter the history as Tolkien wrote it, they will have the freedom to populate the series with new characters and flesh out details that Tolkien didn't get the chance to show.

"You can add new characters and ask a lot of questions, like: What has Sauron done in the meantime? Where was he after Morgoth was defeated?" Shippey explained. "Theoretically, Amazon can answer these questions by inventing the answers, since Tolkien did not describe it. But it must not contradict anything which Tolkien did say. That's what Amazon has to watch out for. It must be canonical, it is impossible to change the boundaries which Tolkien has created, it is necessary to remain ‘Tolkienian.'"

The scholar also said that the Amazon series is only allowed to show the Second Age, so the First and Third Ages are completely "off-limits".

"Events could be mentioned at the most if they explain the events of the Second Age. But if it is not described or mentioned in the ‘Lord of the Rings' or in the appendices, they probably cannot use it," Shippey explained. "So the question is to what extent they may hint at events that took place, for example, in the First Age, but still continue to affect the Second Age."

Shippey said that the creators of the series have a bit of a "minefield" to explore when trying to figure out what they can and cannot use for the show. "You have to tread very carefully, but at the same time there is quite a lot of scope for interpretation and free invention," he concluded.

Production for Amazon's The Lord of the Rings series is expected to start in 2020, and the retail and streaming giant has already confirmed multiple seasons for the show but no release date has been announced yet.

Related:Amazon's First Season of Lord of the Rings to Have 20 Episodes, More Details Revealed

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