Ever since Amazon paid a hefty fee to acquire the TV rights to the J.R.R. Tolkien universe, fans have wondered how they will avoid the inevitable comparisons with the two film trilogies. The official Twitter account for the future series has been giving away hints all week and this morning seemingly announced that the series would be taking place during The Second Age. For those who don’t speak Tolkien, I will attempt to explain.
Welcome to the Second Age: https://t.co/Tamd0oRgTw
— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) March 7, 2019
The famous Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books main narrative take place during what is known as The Third Age. The Amazon series taking place in The Second Age would mean the events will be thousands of years before the events of the movies. The rumors that it would focus on young Aragorn seem to have been a red herring, as Elessar has yet to be born. I’m going to go ahead and doubt that Amazon paid what they did for these rights to completely ignore Tolkien’s lore and timelines to put him in this series.
So what exactly happens in The Second Age? The biggest events would be the Númenor, the founding of Gondor, and The War of The Last Alliance, which we see in the prologue of Fellowship of the Ring. This would lead me to believe that this series is gong to be the lead up to that famous battle where Isuldur cut The One Ring from Sauron’s hand.
This gives the series a lead villain, distinguishable heroes with lineage to Aragorn, and distinct differentiation from the film trilogy. As a Ringer, I couldn’t be more ecstatic for this. Stepping outside of the comfort zone and giving us a part of the story that only the biggest Tolkien nerds know is something I cannot wait to see.
The Amazon Lord of the Rings series has no current release date, but estimates are that the streaming giant would like to see the series debut in 2020.
Mike is a Booktuber and the host of Mike’s Book Reviews.
A Constant Reader and Stephen King superfan, he declares himself a movie quotes expert and will fight you if you say anything negative about Frank Herbert’s Dune.
