Middle Earth is coming to the small screen, Mr Frodo. Amazon Prime this week announced it bought the rights to JRR Tolkien's fantasy world and will be hosting a new series and some potential spin-offs.
The TV adaptation is set to tell new stories from the time before The Fellowship of the Ring, which was the novel Peter Jackson originally based his film trilogy on.
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The famous Lord of the Rings films came out between 2001 – 2003, and won 17 Academy Awards before Peter Jackson returned to Tolkien's universe for three Hobbit films from 2012 – 2014.This will be the first time Tolkien's world has come to the small screen, and with what is rumoured to be a totally fresh cast – although we've also heard that it's possible Viggo Mortensen will be reprising the role of Ranger of the North / future King of Gondor, so we'll have to wait and see.
Tal Yguado, Amazon's new head of scripted programming said: '
The Lord of the Rings is a cultural phenomenon that has captured the imagination of generations of fans through literature and the big screen.'
Matt Galsor, a representative for the Tolkien estate and trust, and the publisher HarperCollins, said: 'We are delighted that Amazon, with its longstanding commitment to literature, is the home of the first-ever multi-season television series for The Lord of the Rings. Sharon and the team at Amazon Studios have exceptional ideas to bring to the screen previously unexplored stories based on JRR Tolkien’s original writings.'
The news about Lord of the Rings arrived days after it was announced that Disney is working on a Star Wars TV project featuring completely new characters in different corners of the universe Star Wars has never been before. So franchise fans, no need to mourn the end of Game of Thrones – TV has never been hotter than now.
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