FanFare
The ‘Lord of the Rings’ TV Series is Doing What ‘Star Wars' Never Could
Avoiding the same old tired ground
When Amazon bought the television rights to The Lord of the Rings in 2017, fans were elated, skeptical, and more than a bit nervous. The question on everyone’s mind: would the new series complement the cherished Peter Jackson films, or run counter to them?
It seemed almost unthinkable that Amazon would just recast and retell the story of the One Ring. But studios like to play it safe, especially with the amount of cheese Amazon had on the line (one billion over five seasons). And there was the name of the enterprise itself, which seemed to signal a resuscitation of Sauron, Gandalf, and a certain squad of furry-footed Hobbits.
Such misgivings were finally put to bed this week as Amazon released a series synopsis. Excerpting the relevant bit here:
This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness.
This series – which will hopefully be renamed, being as it really has nothing to do with vindictive jewelry – will be a prequel of sorts. We can therefore expect to see some familiar characters. We will likely witness the rise of Sauron and the forging of the rings. But by and large, this will be unexplored territory.
Obviously this history isn’t entirely unknown – The Silmarillion covers the ages of Middle Earth in great detail. But only a tiny fraction of the people who’ve seen The Lord of the Rings films have even read the trilogy they are based upon, much less its ancillary material. As far as the bulk of the viewing audience is concerned, the second age isn’t on the map yet.
Which brings us to Star Wars.
In all the time we’ve had Star Wars – 43 years in May – it has continually circled around the same 40-year window. The Skywalkers are like a narrative gravity well, sucking everything back toward them. Nothing can exist without referring to them. Not even my precious Mandalorian, which literally put a Skywalker in the story (yes it was cool, and makes sense, but for once I’d like a star war without any Skywalkers thank you).
Somehow, despite millennia to play in and thousands of galaxies to explore, Star Wars has principally come to mean a story about Skywalkers or concerned with the fallout thereof.
By going back to the second age, The Lord of the Rings series is doing what Star Wars never could – avoiding the same old tired ground. Yes, the TV series is still technically a prequel. But The Lord of the Rings isn’t about Sauron any more than it’s about the One Ring. It’s about honor and bravery in the face of death. It’s about accepting what fate offers you and making the best of it. It’s about the bonds of friendship and the power of love.
Star Wars, on the other hand, has almost exclusively been about one messed up family and their daddy issues.
There is hope on the horizon. Disney announced a slew of new shows last month, of which The Acolyte (and potentially Rangers of the New Republic) won’t have anything to do with Skywalkers. Finally, we may be getting something new. It’s only taken 40 years to get there.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s new series has already one-upped Star Wars by dipping way back into its history and giving us something completely new, if still familiar. And I for one am stoked to see it play out.
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