Posted in: Amazon Studios, Lord of The Rings, TV | Tagged: amazon, bleeding cool, cable, elijah wood, Frodo Baggins, j. r. r. tolkien, peter jackson, streaming, television, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, tv

Lord of the Rings: Elijah Wood Says Amazon Should Rename TV Series

For all the lore J.R.R. Tolkien created for Middle Earth, Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood thinks Amazon should consider renaming their television adaptation. The upcoming series builds off of the Peter Jackson cinematic films along with his The Hobbit trilogy. The Frodo actor spoke with Empire (via JoeBlo) about how Amazon's continuation that predates Jackson's original trilogy should be renamed to avoid any confusion.

"I find it bizarre that they're calling it Lord of The Rings as a shorthand, because it's not Lord of the Rings!" Wood said. "It takes place in the Second Age of Middle-earth. I am fascinated by what they're doing with the show. 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 Things 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."

Film Stars Comment on Amazon's Lord of the Rings Series

Much of "The Silmarillion", which was Tolkien's final and unfinished work, expanded on the Middle Earth lore with its collection of stories. While the author died in 1973, the work was completed and posthumously released thanks to his son, Christopher Tolkien in 1977. With the cast already announced and filming of the new Amazon series, some of the stars of the original trilogy chimed in on their thoughts. Viggo Mortensen, who played Aragon, had concerns that it might be too similar to another franchise. "[Am I worried that] they would try to be like Game of Thrones and have a certain level of arbitrary violence and stuff like that?" he told NME. "I dunno. I know it's J.A. Bayona, who is a Spanish director who's very talented. They are doing it in New Zealand, so I would imagine they would have the benefit of Peter Jackson's advice and maybe some of the crew members. I would think that they have every opportunity to do it right. They have a good example to follow."

John Rhys-Davies, who played Gimli in the Jackson films admitted to Bleeding Cool that the Amazon series did intrigue him and an inquiry did come his way. "It would take an enormous amount of time, which is not something I have a lot of," he said. "It would be nice to work in New Zealand. I suppose I should say 'Never say never,' but I don't really want to reprise a dwarf, like Gimli." Wood admitted he would be interested if offered the opportunity to revisit Middle Earth again perhaps in another capacity. "If there was a world where that made sense and organic to what they're doing, then yes," he said. "Look, any excuse to get to go to New Zealand to work on something, I am absolutely there."

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