Lord of the Rings fans became extremely excited when it was announced that Amazon had acquired the rights for a future TV series. Instantly, there were dozens of ideas for what the new series could focus on. Some wanted it to be a straight remake of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings with a new cast. The prevalent rumor had focused on an idea the series would follow a Ranger-in-Training Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen). However, Amazon has been extremely cautious about letting details get out. To get into their writer’s room, you would have to be Ethan Hunt. It’s been a crazy group of stories, but today, we may have gotten some great news.
Below is a Tweet from The Lord of the Rings on Prime Twitter account. Click here to check out the interactive map of Middle-Earth.
Just a heads up, this is about to get really nerdy. If you’re a fan of the Lord of the Rings, you’ll enjoy it. If not, it looks like the series will focus on the world at least 900 years earlier. It might even be further than that. this is good news for audiences who thought we were going to get the far less interesting Aragorn origins. For my fellow nerds, proceed.
If you look around, you might not recognize some of the city names. That’s because they never existed in the worlds of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. The most obvious of the cities is Minas Ithil. The city was once a stronghold held by the men of Gondor. However, during the Third Age, it was taken over by the Nazgul. At that point, it was renamed Minas Morgul, a location that Frodo, Sam, and Gollum had to pass as they made their way into Mordor. It was the stronghold of The Witch-King of Angmar, a.k.a. the Big Boss Ring Wraith. The fact it has not been converted into Minas Morgul means the storyline of this world is at least 900 years before the original trilogy.
The second big thing you’ll notice is that Rohan does not exist. Instead, you’ll find Calenardhon. This region was once ruled by Gondor as well. There were a lot of battles and wars against invaders before the region officially split from the rule of Gondor under the stewardship of Cirion. This event occurred about 400 to 500 years before the events of the books as well. This means that Gondor will be a massive empire in these stories, and that should be interesting in its own right.
Altogether, the news bodes well for an original story to be told in the world of Middle-Earth. Considering how long we’ve already spent in the eras surrounding the War of the Ring, changing the time period of the show means new stories. This is great news for fans of the franchise and even better news for fans of fantasy storytelling.
