Frodo Baggins of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings book saga was made ever more popular in mainstream media after Elijah Wood played him in 2001's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The actor would go on to star in the film’s sequels and reprise his role in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Now, Amazon is gearing up to launch a Lord of the Rings series, which is set thousands of years prior to Peter Jackson’s movies. Wood is fascinated by the TV adaptation, though he recently explained why he took issue with one particular thing regarding the Lord of the Rings series.
Following production shutdowns in March, New Zealand’s government has allowed for the cast and crew of Lord of the Rings to re-enter the country to carry on filming Season 1. The series has already been renewed for a second season and finalized its cast in January. As for the story, the Amazon show is still set in Middle Earth, but it’ll follow a completely different era than the one in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings novel. As it turns out, the timeline is part of why Elijah Wood can't wrap his head around the show. Here’s what he told IndieWire:
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. In that sense, I’m just curious what the storytelling is going to be.
For some background, The Silmarillion is a collection of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works that were published posthumously by the author’s son, Christopher Tolkien. The book contains incomplete narratives and has five different parts, the fourth of which details the fall of the land of Númenor in the Second Age that is set to be depicted by Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series.
On one hand, I get why Elijah Wood might take issue with the show retaining a name that may not be indicative of the era in which it’s set. However, I’d wager that the series’ creative team decided to call it Lord of the Rings for the simple reason of having name recognition. Would anyone have watched a show called The Silmarillion? Maybe, but it arguably may not have gotten the same attention. Either way, it’s hard to tell because there aren’t too many details about the show’s plot just yet.
All that said, Elijah Wood is “glad” that the Amazon show is filming in New Zealand, as it’ll maintain “visual continuity” with The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. And, despite Frodo not having been around in the Second Age, the actor says he would definitely be down to make a cameo appearance so long as it made sense to the story being told.
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings does not yet have a scheduled premiere date, but stay tuned to CinemaBlend for updates. In the meantime, be sure to check out our 2020 summer TV premiere guide for more on what to watch.
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