Amazon Developing The Lord of the Rings Multi Season Television Show

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before Game of Thrones David Benioff and Dan Weiss hadn't really done a lot but they nailed it (the first 4 seasons)...plus Amazon is spending $400 million on the first season alone...that number includes the sum paid to the Tolkien estate but it's still the most expensive TV show ever made...no way will it tank...it might disappoint after all the years of buildup and hype but it won't fail...I think this is going to be Amazon's version of Game of Thrones in terms of buzzy watercooler series
You do know why GoT first seasons were good, right? My guess is it has something to do with a certain author of said books.
After they couldn't follow George R.R Martin's books the tv series started plummeting real hard.

I think you are misunderstanding what people actually want. They don't want another GoT.. they want a tv series that's faithful to the source material and similar in style to the first 3 LOTR movies.
 
You do know why GoT first seasons were good, right? My guess is it has something to do with a certain author of said books.
After they couldn't follow George R.R Martin's books the tv series started plummeting real hard.

I think you are misunderstanding what people actually want. They don't want another GoT.. they want a tv series that's faithful to the source material and similar in style to the first 3 LOTR movies.

the Amazon series uses The Silmarillion as somewhat of a template but it's not based on any 1 Tolkien book...they are creating new characters and storylines...so there are no built in expectations like with Game of Thrones...

Secrets of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Teaser Trailer

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/02/the-lord-of-the-rings-teaser-trailer-amazon
 
Deathloop...you said: "I'm tempted to get this just so I can tear it a new one" weeks before the game was even released...meaning you made up your mind before even playing it
So where is my review of deathloop then? Oh yeah, it doesn't exist, because I didn't review it.

It's funny, how you don't understend the difference between expecting something to suck, vs saying it actually sucks after the fact.
 
the Amazon series uses The Silmarillion as somewhat of a template but it's not based on any 1 Tolkien book...they are creating new characters and storylines...so there are no built in expectations like with Game of Thrones...

Secrets of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Teaser Trailer

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/02/the-lord-of-the-rings-teaser-trailer-amazon
I've read The Silmarillion many years ago and it's impossible to make everything in that book into a tv series, so yes I understand, but everything they have shown is so far from the source material that they really shouldn't have named this LOTR and I'm pretty damn sure Tolkien would turn in his grave if he saw what is happening here, considering how protective he was on his lore and material.

I really have nothing else to say other than you are going to get extremely disappointed if you are getting this hyped with what they have shown us.
 
I really have nothing else to say other than you are going to get extremely disappointed if you are getting this hyped with what they have shown us.

sounds like your main issue with the Amazon series is the "people of color diversity bullshit"...you have to remember the time when Tolkien wrote his books compared to now...I think Tolkien would approve of adding more diversity
 
sounds like your main issue with the Amazon series is the "people of color diversity bullshit"...you have to remember the time when Tolkien wrote his books compared to now...I think Tolkien would approve of adding more diversity
Why is it a written law that movies nowadays has to have people of every color even if it doesn't make any sense from a historical point of view or because regional differences.
The lore to LOTR are based on Celtic, Scandinavian, Finnish, galic and Icelandic tales/beliefs.
Now the Haradrim has a place in middle earth and that could definitely be explored more as the world is obviously bigger than the maps we have seen.
Casting people of color for the sake of diversity has nothing to do with the books or lore and it's made purely for political reasons and I prefer my epic fantasy adventure movies without real world political bias of ANY kind.

Now I understand that LOTR is pure fantasy with a lot inspiration from the real world, especially northern Europe and you could definitely have people of other color in it, but I think most people will notice when it's done with political motives in mind and I think this is exactly what is happening here. LOTR is already an established high fantasy and changing the lore etc will not be taken kindly by most fans and I think you need to accept those facts.


Would you have preferred a movie like Apocalypto with white, black and asian people in it instead of indigenous people? And if so, please explain me why.
What about Pixar Moana, but with people of color instead of Polynesian ethnicity?
Sometimes it's best to stay true to the source material in the real world and fantasy.
 
Why were there no black or asian elves and hobbits in the Lotr and Hobbit movies? If it makes so much sense to have that, does that mean Peter Jackson is a racist? And they deliberately erased diversity from Tolken's work? No, that type of diversity doesn't exist in those movies because they were making a faithful adaptation.

The only way they can reconcile this is if they flat out say this is a different universe that is only inspired by the silmaliron and has nothing to do with the one depicted in the Peter Jackson movies or the original books.
 
I want this to be good but I don't have a whole lot of faith in it after watching Wheel of Time. It would be nice to have another show to look forward to on Prime other than The Boys and Invincible.
 
I think that a confirmation bias/selective memory, if Captain Marvel/Force Awaken/Fury Road/Ocean 8/Us-Get Out would have failed they would go into the woke failure column of some, if they become a giant success it is forgotten.
The Force Awakens, Fury Road, Us, and Get Out were not woke.
 
Why is it a written law that movies nowadays has to have people of every color even if it doesn't make any sense from a historical point of view or because regional differences.
The lore to LOTR are based on Celtic, Scandinavian, Finnish, galic and Icelandic tales/beliefs.
Now the Haradrim has a place in middle earth and that could definitely be explored more as the world is obviously bigger than the maps we have seen.
Casting people of color for the sake of diversity has nothing to do with the books or lore and it's made purely for political reasons and I prefer my epic fantasy adventure movies without real world political bias of ANY kind.

Now I understand that LOTR is pure fantasy with a lot inspiration from the real world, especially northern Europe and you could definitely have people of other color in it, but I think most people will notice when it's done with political motives in mind and I think this is exactly what is happening here. LOTR is already an established high fantasy and changing the lore etc will not be taken kindly by most fans and I think you need to accept those facts.


Would you have preferred a movie like Apocalypto with white, black and asian people in it instead of indigenous people? And if so, please explain me why.
What about Pixar Moana, but with people of color instead of Polynesian ethnicity?
Sometimes it's best to stay true to the source material in the real world and fantasy.

I'm sorry, but while Tolkien did base his fantasy on cross-European lore... where in his books did he say all the elves, humans and hobbits must be white? Do you really think he'd have turned pale if Merry and Pippin were Black?

More importantly... like you said, it's fantasy. And it's fantasy set in a world that isn't our own. Apocalypto and Moana are set in very real cultures and are meant to tell stories about those cultures; LOTR is a rough allegory. If you can't distinguish between the two storytelling methods and insist on 'cultural authenticity' in stories where it clearly isn't required... well, that's on you, not a show's creators.

And to touch on M76's question: no, I don't think Peter Jackson was racist when he made the LOTR movies. But he was also producing the movies at a time when white people were the "default" for casting and no one stopped to ask if the characters needed to be white. I'd be curious to know how Jackson would cast now, assuming no pressure from outsiders; don't presume he'd do the same thing all over again.
 
And to touch on M76's question: no, I don't think Peter Jackson was racist when he made the LOTR movies. But he was also producing the movies at a time when white people were the "default" for casting and no one stopped to ask if the characters needed to be white. I'd be curious to know how Jackson would cast now, assuming no pressure from outsiders; don't presume he'd do the same thing all over again.
If he had no pressure from the outside he'd cast exactly the same way he did 20 years ago. There was no pressure from the outside to only cast white people in films in the 2000s. Do you remember the academy defining quotas on how many white people needs to be cast in a movie to be eligible? I sure don't.

It is so ridicilous that hollywood is trying to shift the blame to fans for their own casting choices 20 years ago.
 
If he had no pressure from the outside he'd cast exactly the same way he did 20 years ago. There was no pressure from the outside to only cast white people in films in the 2000s. Do you remember the academy defining quotas on how many white people needs to be cast in a movie to be eligible? I sure don't.

It is so ridicilous that hollywood is trying to shift the blame to fans for their own casting choices 20 years ago.
I struggle to think of any other actors who would have done those roles better, there was far too much money tied up in those projects to leave anything to chance so they made sure they got who they wanted where they wanted and if they thought for an instant that somebody else could have done a particular roll better I am sure they would have pounced on it in a heartbeat.
 
The Force Awakens, Fury Road, Us, and Get Out were not woke.
True for the first 2, but would have been put on that tablet by the go woke go broke would they have failed.

I cannot think of popular culture movie more woke than Us and Get Out (maybe I could if I would take a lot of time to think about it), the for your consideration award campaign material was called Stay Woke by Universal Picture:



https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/28/get-out-box-office-jordan-peele

Get Out: the film that dares to reveal the horror of liberal racism in America​



Woke: a state of being aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality:
 
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Do you remember the academy defining quotas on how many white people needs to be cast in a movie to be eligible? I sure don't.
It only really kick-in in 2024 and the quota is much more flexible than that.

They will to meet only 2 of the 4 requirements
  • Diverse Cast or story
  • Diverse team behind the movie (writer, costume, make up, casting director, composer, etc....) or the crew team
  • Paid internship for minorities
  • Representation among the marketing-ads-distribution team
Section 3 and 4 make it sure that it will never be an issue for an American studio production
 
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sounds like your main issue with the Amazon series is the "people of color diversity bullshit"...you have to remember the time when Tolkien wrote his books compared to now...I think Tolkien would approve of adding more diversity
I'm sorry, but while Tolkien did base his fantasy on cross-European lore... where in his books did he say all the elves, humans and hobbits must be white? Do you really think he'd have turned pale if Merry and Pippin were Black?

More importantly... like you said, it's fantasy. And it's fantasy set in a world that isn't our own. Apocalypto and Moana are set in very real cultures and are meant to tell stories about those cultures; LOTR is a rough allegory. If you can't distinguish between the two storytelling methods and insist on 'cultural authenticity' in stories where it clearly isn't required... well, that's on you, not a show's creators.

And to touch on M76's question: no, I don't think Peter Jackson was racist when he made the LOTR movies. But he was also producing the movies at a time when white people were the "default" for casting and no one stopped to ask if the characters needed to be white. I'd be curious to know how Jackson would cast now, assuming no pressure from outsiders; don't presume he'd do the same thing all over again.
https://www.tolkienestate.com/en/writing/letters/letter-milton-waldman.html
1644863882080.png


He created the world of LOTR to be distinctly English because he lamented the lack of distinctly English mythological tales in his studies. I'd like to know how one can infer from the above letter that Tolkien would approve of DEI for the sake of it in his own work.
 
I've read The Silmarillion many years ago and it's impossible to make everything in that book into a tv series, so yes I understand, but everything they have shown is so far from the source material that they really shouldn't have named this LOTR and I'm pretty damn sure Tolkien would turn in his grave if he saw what is happening here, considering how protective he was on his lore and material.

I really have nothing else to say other than you are going to get extremely disappointed if you are getting this hyped with what they have shown us.
Yo, reread the Silmarillion. It was almost entirely the first age and before. From what it did mention about the second age, the Lord of the Rings probably mentioned more about the second age if memory serves.

So this tv series has a lot of options and new material. Almost blank slate level. They have an overarching plot template to follow for sure but other than that, there isn't much canon to break. Maybe notes from Tolkien's son?
 
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If he had no pressure from the outside he'd cast exactly the same way he did 20 years ago. There was no pressure from the outside to only cast white people in films in the 2000s. Do you remember the academy defining quotas on how many white people needs to be cast in a movie to be eligible? I sure don't.

It is so ridicilous that hollywood is trying to shift the blame to fans for their own casting choices 20 years ago.
Really? You know the way Jackson thinks? I'm sure he'd like to hear it. He might have done the same thing, but I wouldn't guarantee it.

I didn't say anything about fans or quotas. And you're missing the point, here. It's not that movie producers actively excluded non-white cast members a couple of decades ago, it's that they would tend towards white actors whether or not the roles strictly needed them. For goodness' sake, there was still a practice at the time to create movies and books where helpful non-white people were singled out as strange or exceptional, such as the "magical Black character" (I'm using the polite version here) that helps an otherwise white-dominated cast solve its problems (see: The Green Mile, The Legend of Bagger Vance). I wouldn't expect a film industry like that to even stop and think whether or not cast members in a fantasy movie needed to be white.
 
I'm sorry, but while Tolkien did base his fantasy on cross-European lore... where in his books did he say all the elves, humans and hobbits must be white? Do you really think he'd have turned pale if Merry and Pippin were Black?

More importantly... like you said, it's fantasy. And it's fantasy set in a world that isn't our own. Apocalypto and Moana are set in very real cultures and are meant to tell stories about those cultures; LOTR is a rough allegory. If you can't distinguish between the two storytelling methods and insist on 'cultural authenticity' in stories where it clearly isn't required... well, that's on you, not a show's creators.

And to touch on M76's question: no, I don't think Peter Jackson was racist when he made the LOTR movies. But he was also producing the movies at a time when white people were the "default" for casting and no one stopped to ask if the characters needed to be white. I'd be curious to know how Jackson would cast now, assuming no pressure from outsiders; don't presume he'd do the same thing all over again.
I mean if you read The Silmarillion or any of Tolkiens works you'll find that he is very good at descriping the characters and different beings living in middle-earth.
It would not make any sense for Merry and Pippin to be different than anybody else as the region they live in is quite small, so either all the hobbits are black or nobody is. Most people in the same tribe, region etc obviously share similar ethnicity and if there is a migration of people they will assimilate as has been done in Europe through thousands of years.
Now I get where you want to go with this and yes LOTR is purely fantasy, but you have to understand that J.R.R Tolkien was a scholar, a professor in middle-age literature and languages and there are things in the lore that is based in the real world and to me it seems like he has a good grasp on ethnicity and populace in his books. Having Merry being played by an ethnic asian actor and Pippin played by an actor with white or black ethnicity would not seem realistic at all. Even though the books/movies are fantasy it's still based on the real world in many aspects.

I believe Tolkien wrote his epic to also include different cultures and people, but it needs to be done the right way to seem believable, at least to me.
 
Really? You know the way Jackson thinks? I'm sure he'd like to hear it. He might have done the same thing, but I wouldn't guarantee it.

I didn't say anything about fans or quotas. And you're missing the point, here. It's not that movie producers actively excluded non-white cast members a couple of decades ago, it's that they would tend towards white actors whether or not the roles strictly needed them. For goodness' sake, there was still a practice at the time to create movies and books where helpful non-white people were singled out as strange or exceptional, such as the "magical Black character" (I'm using the polite version here) that helps an otherwise white-dominated cast solve its problems (see: The Green Mile, The Legend of Bagger Vance). I wouldn't expect a film industry like that to even stop and think whether or not cast members in a fantasy movie needed to be white.
He already shown how he thinks without outside influence when they made the triology. Now there is outside pressure, so if you'd get a different result it would be because of that.

What does "tending towards white actors" even means? You read the books and you imagine the character in your head. I'm sorry, but when I'm thinking medieval Europe I can't help but think Caucasian. Why would you need to consider anything else? Would I also have to consider other ethnic groups when picturing feudal Japan?
 
He created the world of LOTR to be distinctly English because he lamented the lack of distinctly English mythological tales in his studies. I'd like to know how one can infer from the above letter that Tolkien would approve of DEI for the sake of it in his own work.
Pretty simple: because what defines "English" has changed, and was arguably changing in Tolkien's time. If he were alive now, would he tell someone who's the third-generation descendent of Caribbean immigrants that a ground-up English fable shouldn't include them? How about Indians who've been there for several generations? If he thought even Arthurian legend was British but not truly English... well, he's not chained to existing mythology as rigidly as you might think. And even if he was, I don't know that he'd be terribly upset if some of the characters were no longer white.
 
Pretty simple: because what defines "English" has changed, and was arguably changing in Tolkien's time. If he were alive now, would he tell someone who's the third-generation descendent of Caribbean immigrants that a ground-up English fable shouldn't include them? How about Indians who've been there for several generations? If he thought even Arthurian legend was British but not truly English... well, he's not chained to existing mythology as rigidly as you might think. And even if he was, I don't know that he'd be terribly upset if some of the characters were no longer white.
I guess that means it's open season on everything from Gilgamesh to Beowulf to Odysseus. Let's just replace all established myth in history with <current year> because "times have changed."
 
He already shown how he thinks without outside influence when they made the triology. Now there is outside pressure, so if you'd get a different result it would be because of that.

What does "tending towards white actors" even means? You read the books and you imagine the character in your head. I'm sorry, but when I'm thinking medieval Europe I can't help but think Caucasian. Why would you need to consider anything else? Would I also have to consider other ethnic groups when picturing feudal Japan?
That is, when casting a movie or show, the tendency was to pick white actors. Not necessarily consciously, but just because the first instinct was to pick people who shared producers' cultural circle... and of course, the producers were predominantly white.

And LOTR isn't medieval Europe... it's Middle-earth. There's more freedom for interpretation than there would be for a story set in feudal Japan. Besides, if we can see more varied casting for adaptations of Shakespeare plays without an uproar, I think we can loosen up a bit on a story about elves and dwarves.

I'm curious: if you've read the Wheel of Time novels, what ethnicities did you picture in your head? Robert Jordan only rarely specified ethnicity in his books (certainly in the books I've read so far) and didn't have cultural allegories in mind, but I wouldn't be surprised if you objected to the casting for the Amazon show.
 
Simmer down, there's more important things than getting race right. If all the hobits and elves are black yet this series works out better than Game of Thrones then I would call it a great success.
 
ime "woke" is more often used as a derogative, like calling someone "woke" means they have a big stick up their butt about some social issue and won't shut tf up about it.

the new word for being "aware" is "based", but surely if it hasn't happened by now it'll also be used as a derogative, like "look at that based fool thinking he's so important, smh"

words are.... annoying
 
Would you have preferred a movie like Apocalypto with white, black and asian people in it instead of indigenous people? And if so, please explain me why.
What about Pixar Moana, but with people of color instead of Polynesian ethnicity?
Sometimes it's best to stay true to the source material in the real world and fantasy.

Apocalypto was based on real life Maya history...LOTR is a fantasy story...the only limits are the writer's imagination...if you're doing a story about a real-life group of people or actual historical time period then yes you should adhere to the rules of that time...and like I stated earlier, Tolkien wrote the books in the late 1930's so it reflects the time period he was living in...if he were still alive today the stories he wrote would have a more diverse group of characters

Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ TV Show Reacts to Diversity Backlash From Tolkien Fans

“It felt only natural to us that an adaptation of [author J.R.R.] Tolkien’s work would reflect what the world actually looks like,” executive producer Lindsey Weber told Vanity Fair, which also published several new photos from the series. “Tolkien is for everyone. His stories are about his fictional races doing their best work when they leave the isolation of their own cultures and come together.”

added Tolkien scholar Mariana Rios Maldonado, “Who are these people that feel so threatened or disgusted by the idea that an elf is Black or Latino or Asian?”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/amazons-lord-of-the-rings-tv-diversity-1235090283/
 
I am disgusted at the fact that humans are portraying elves. Stop having a different species play another. I bet you don't see a cat playing as old yeller if they do a remake of that.
 
I am disgusted at the fact that humans are portraying elves. Stop having a different species play another. I bet you don't see a cat playing as old yeller if they do a remake of that.
by their rules that is true.


all the woke arguments should be in soapbox though....
 
ime "woke" is more often used as a derogative, like calling someone "woke" means they have a big stick up their butt about some social issue and won't shut tf up about it.
Which again, not sure who would fit that more than Jordan Pele production around that time

Get Out - Blackkklansman- Us

I think that often it includes either not done well (which become a bit trivial, bad attempt are bad) or added into something that was not woke from the start, either in an interesting way or not, not that people mind a woke artist realizing a woke project from the ground, for people interesting in it to see, they just have issue when it is added to something already existing or if it is really good it stops be (which again would make statement enter the trivial zone quick).
 
I'm glad I can watch pretty much anything without being upset or trying to find nazi or communist dogwhistles in everything. I saw a commercial that looked pretty cool and with a budget far beyond what I expected from an Amazon program.
 
The main characters are their own creation... I'm seeing clean shaven female dwarves... a loved character from the book who is being written into events the author didn't put her in, with traits he never wrote her. (I'm pretty sure they are gender swapping Galadriel lol) I don't get it... why spend 100s of millions to get the name if your just going to make your own thing ?

This is going to piss off Rings fans... while probably not drawing anyone new, probably. Who knows perhaps their is a huge waiting fan base for a lotro like streaming show that feels like very expensive fan fic.
 
More importantly... like you said, it's fantasy. And it's fantasy set in a world that isn't our own. Apocalypto and Moana are set in very real cultures and are meant to tell stories about those cultures; LOTR is a rough allegory. If you can't distinguish between the two storytelling methods and insist on 'cultural authenticity' in stories where it clearly isn't required... well, that's on you, not a show's creators.

Even fantasy has some grounded in universe reality. If a work is based on a fantasy version of ancient Japan, I still expect there to be overwhelmingly Japanese people and many cues from ancient Japan.
 
The problem with the 'it doesn't matter because it's fantasy fiction' argument is that it's pretty easily grounded that things like high-elves and dwarves are white as can be. In particular with dwarves, it's a bunch of people living underground.. They're gonna be white.

Further, there are plenty of other colored races in LOTR lore that they could use, but are just ignoring that.

IMO, it's pretty self-evident this thing is going to bomb. When you start ignoring the source material to push an agenda people notice, and people don't watch.

And again, i'll point out, why not give us something more original in the LOTR universe? If they wanted more colored races there are plenty to choose from. Why can't we see the perspective of the other middle-earth races instead of just the same shit we've already seen in the masterful LOTR trilogy?
 
sounds like your main issue with the Amazon series is the "people of color diversity bullshit"...you have to remember the time when Tolkien wrote his books compared to now...I think Tolkien would approve of adding more diversity
Yes, Anglo-Saxon European based mythology just craves more diversity.
 
Trailer sure isn't very inspiring even if you ignore all the political drama.
IMO, the entire western entertainment industry is generally incapable of making good stuff, and it's been that way for over a decade. You occasionally get brilliant stuff like There Will Be Blood, but the industry is just so compromised with pushing agendas that there isn't much left. The fact that awards are directly tied to diversity quotas being met now is all you need to know.
 
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