Elijah Wood Criticizes Branding of Amazon's The Lord of the Rings Series

The Lord of the Rings franchise will forever be regarded as one of the most successful and lucrative fantasy franchises out there and there's a good reason why Amazon is looking to capitalize on it. In case you weren't aware, they're developing a prequel series for LOTR which was supposed to hit Amazon's streaming service this year.

At this rate, we still know very little about the "prequel" series plot but we reported last month that a leaked synopsis for the show seems to indicate that The Lord of the Rings series could potentially be built around the Fall of Númenor. The leak was later confirmed by the show's official Twitter page.

Naturally, fans are thrilled about the show's upcoming arrival but as it turns out, one of the original actors from the LOTR trilogy has his nitpicks about the highly-anticipated series. Frodo actor Elijah Wood recently sat down with Empire Magazine along with Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe in what could be best described as an epic fantasy crossover.

According to Elijah, he's not entirely high on the series branding itself as The Lord of the Rings and before you roll your eyes, he has a good and "geeky" reason behind his criticism. He explains: "They're calling it ‘The Lord of the Rings,' but I think that's slightly misleading. From what I understand, the material they are working on exists chronologically further back in history in the lore of Lord of the Rings or Middle-earth than any characters represented in Lord of the Rings. It sounds more Silmarillion era. Not to get nerdy, but it's the Second Age of Middle-earth."

Of course, if there's anyone who knows the franchise better, it's gotta be Elijah and while I understand where the actor is coming from, I guess Amazon is just going the smart route of calling the show The Lord of the Rings to attract fans of the original trilogy and I don't see anything wrong with that quite frankly.

The official release date for Amazon's The Lord of the Rings TV show has yet to be confirmed.

Also Read: When Does The Lord of the Rings TV Show Take Place? Timeline Explained for Amazon's Prequel Story