Spoilers Lord of the Rings TV series

[The Nth Doctor]

A bit repeating familiar territory, but hopefully it'll still be refreshing with Númenor being part of the focus.

I also hope that considering the focus on the rise of Sauron that we'll see plenty of the rings of power and not just the Nine. That was always my favorite aspect of the trilogy and I always wanted to learn more about them, especially since The Silmarillion provided so little information on them beyond the Nine.

 

[Skywalker]

This is definitely starting to sound like it will cover the forging of the Rings and Sauron's subsequent war on the Elves, leading to the Númenóreans coming in and spanking him. Those are events that took place over a couple of centuries, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're condensed in the show, similar to how the timeline was condensed in the movies.

I wonder if the show will also cover Sauron then being taken to Númenor and poisoning them against the Valar, leading to the Downfall, or if that will be the focus of a later show or movie.

 

[fireproof78]

Amazon has released their official synopsis for the series. Nothing much in there, but it does reveal some of the locations we'll be visting, including The Misty Mountains, Linden, and Numenor.
Amazon Studios’ forthcoming series brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.

That sounds very epic while saying very little.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

This is definitely starting to sound like it will cover the forging of the Rings and Sauron's subsequent war on the Elves, leading to the Númenóreans coming in and spanking him. Those are events that took place over a couple of centuries, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're condensed in the show, similar to how the timeline was condensed in the movies.

I wonder if the show will also cover Sauron then being taken to Númenor and poisoning them against the Valar, leading to the Downfall, or if that will be the focus of a later show or movie.

I'll be very surprised if the show doesn't show the Downfall.

 

[Skywalker]

I'll be very surprised if the show doesn't show the Downfall.

Yeah, same. If they want to add more intrigue into the show, I can see them really condensing things. By that I mean, like, the forging of the Rings of Power, the War of the Elves and Sauron, Sauron being taken back to Númenor as a prisoner, the tension between the Faithful and the King's Men, and Ar-Pharazôn seizing the throne for himself and invading Valinor (all at Sauron's urging) all being merged into one big story, instead of one that's spread out across almost two thousand years.

Although I still feel like everything surrounding the Downfall of Númenor would make a perfect movie or miniseries all on its own.

 

[JD]

The other possibility that has occurred to me is that they could do an anthology set up, with time jumps of decades or centuries between each season. If we are dealing with members of the same families throughout the events, they could always have the actors come back as the descendants of the last season's characters. Or if there are Elves or other immortals involved, they wouldn't even have to do that.

 

[kirk55555]

I'm interested in seeing the kind of events mentioned in a coherent fashion. Since Tolkien's writings outside of The Hobbit and LOTR trilogy are pretty much gibberish (to be fair they weren't originally made to print from what I understand, but they're still unreadable to most people), seeing some interesting things on a TV show would be a cooler way to learn about those events then reading a wiki.

 

[Booji]

The other possibility that has occurred to me is that they could do an anthology set up, with time jumps of decades or centuries between each season.

This is what I was thinking. It's also possible we could have time jumps like 'The Past Chapter' in Bleach where we might go back in time to see some events.

 

[TommyR01D]

That sounds very epic while saying very little.

Given that the series was announced years ago, you'd think we'd at least know its name by this point, let alone some of the characters.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Or, you know, you could be patient with the production to release information when they're ready. Especially with a global pandemic going on.

 

[Orphalesion]

I'm interested in seeing the kind of events mentioned in a coherent fashion. Since Tolkien's writings outside of The Hobbit and LOTR trilogy are pretty much gibberish (to be fair they weren't originally made to print from what I understand, but they're still unreadable to most people), seeing some interesting things on a TV show would be a cooler way to learn about those events then reading a wiki.

It's particularly interesting because the Second Age (when these events took place) is the time period in Middle Earth's history that Tolkien worked on the least. Even in the Silmarillion they are an afterthought.

That also kinda makes me wish the series was about the First Age and Beleriand instead...

 

[Skywalker]

I'm actually the most interested in the Second Age because it doesn't have as much content as the First and Third Ages. We know the broad strokes and the names of all the major players of the age, but there is a lot empty spaces in there to connect those dots. Hopefully the people doing this show are up to the task.

 

[kirk55555]

I was just thinking, aren't there two nameless Wizards that tolkien mentioned somewhere but didn't name? I think they were both described as blue Wizards or something. That could be interesting to see in the show, and there wouldn't be anyone to compare them to from the movies unlike if they tried to recast Gandalf or radagast.

 

[TommyR01D]

I was just thinking, aren't there two nameless Wizards that tolkien mentioned somewhere but didn't name? I think they were both described as blue Wizards or something. That could be interesting to see in the show, and there wouldn't be anyone to compare them to from the movies unlike if they tried to recast Gandalf or radagast.

Alatar (or Morinehtar) and Pallando (or Rómestámo), but they and the other Istari only entered Middle-earth around the year 100 of the Third Age.

 

[publiusr]

The final episode should be post-Ring, showing magic leaving the world.

“There used to be dragons, all we have now are these dog sized lizards in the arena...”

 

[TommyR01D]

I've wondered about one day doing an adaptation of Beren & Lúthien (the studios always want love stories, after all) that uses a framing device of King Aragorn II and Queen Arwen telling young Eldarion about his family history.

Another possibility is a scene set in FO 120 with Legolas accompanying a very elderly Gimli to the Undying Lands, though I can't really think of a larger story into which that would fit.

 

[kirk55555]

Alatar (or Morinehtar) and Pallando (or Rómestámo), but they and the other Istari only entered Middle-earth around the year 100 of the Third Age.

Really? I thought that the Wizards have been there long before humans were there, it's weird that they're relatively Young in regards to being in Middle Earth.

 

[TommyR01D]

The wizards were born (if "born" is even the appropriate term for Maiar) before the creation of the planet Arda, but it was a long time before they were deployed there in their humanoid forms.

 

[Skywalker]

Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast were all confirmed to have been sent to Middle-earth in the year 1000 of the Third Age, but Tolkien seemed to never officially settle on when the two Blue Wizards (Alatar and Pallando) arrived. IIRC, his original intention was that they arrived at the same time as the other three Wizards and went into the East with Saruman, with only Saruman eventually returning. But then I believe Tolkien later played around with an idea that Alatar and Pallando actually arrived in Middle-earth much sooner than the other Wizards, sometime around the year 1600 of the Second Age--the year that Sauron forged the One Ring--but they still were tasked with working against Sauron in the East.

Personally I prefer Tolkien's original idea; it never really made sense to me that Alatar and Pallando would be sent to Middle-earth so much earlier than Saruman, Gandalf and Radagast. I suppose you could say that the latter three were sent after the former two fell off the grid and presumably failed in their mission, but for me at least, the Wizards all make more sense as purely Third Age characters.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast were all confirmed to have been sent to Middle-earth in the year 1000 of the Third Age, but Tolkien seemed to never officially settle on when the two Blue Wizards (Alatar and Pallando) arrived. IIRC, his original intention was that they arrived at the same time as the other three Wizards and went into the East with Saruman, with only Saruman eventually returning. But then I believe Tolkien later played around with an idea that Alatar and Pallando actually arrived in Middle-earth much sooner than the other Wizards, sometime around the year 1600 of the Second Age--the year that Sauron forged the One Ring--but they still were tasked with working against Sauron in the East.

Personally I prefer Tolkien's original idea; it never really made sense to me that Alatar and Pallando would be sent to Middle-earth so much earlier than Saruman, Gandalf and Radagast. I suppose you could say that the latter three were sent after the former two fell off the grid and presumably failed in their mission, but for me at least, the Wizards all make more sense as purely Third Age characters.

Yeah, as someone who was always very curious about Alatar and Pallando, I prefer the idea that they came to Middle-Earth at the same time as the other three, but otherwise their little known story is the same. I always wished we had gotten more about what happened to them in the East, even in the form of some discovered note of Tolkien's scribbled musing.

Either way, the point is moot for this series as it's the wrong Age and I don't foresee the writers veering that far off from established lore just so there can be some wizards in the show. There are plenty of good ideas to mine from as is.