As the new Lord of the Rings series prepares for its September release on Amazon, the corporation finds itself navigating dangerous, albeit familiar, seas, and has already sparked a heated controversy over race by adding people of color into JRR Tolkien's fantasy universe.
The tech behemoth has spent a dragon's dungeon's worth of wealth adapting the classic narrative known for its cultish devotees, some of whom are highly involved in the rightwing culture war business. Nonetheless, it is well aware that its final product must reach a large and current audience in order to justify its exorbitant
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is a streaming series set in the world of Tolkien's high-fantasy novels, with characters and battles drawn from the interior history and mythology laid out in the books' extensive appendices. It is co-produced by New Line Cinema and is not part of Peter Jackson's phenomenally successful Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. Although Jackson is not involved, the sets and costumes would be completely at home in one of his films.
Among many others, the new series will star Morfydd Clark as a younger version of Cate Blanchett's Elvish queen Galadriel, Benjamin Walker as valiant Elven-King Gil-Galad, and Maxim Baldry as human king-to-be Isildur. It cost $465 million.to make the first season, making it the most expensive television show in history. Over its projected five seasons, that budget will almost certainly exceed $1bn.
It is the crowning achievement of Amazon's growing investment in licensing and creating movies and TV shows, which increased from $11 billion to $13 billion last year, according to the company's annual report. In general, licensing outdated TV series and movies will become increasingly costly. So it's in Amazon's best interests to create new series and movies in order to entice customers and get some wiggle space when it comes time to renegotiate the price of Parks & Recreation repeats.
The appendices of The Lord of the Rings are more of a ‘show bible’ – the type of instructions you'd provide to teleplay writers – than a story in its own right. As a result, the book's chronology, fairy tales, and genealogical information have been infused with the creators' own stories of romance and palace intrigue.
