Amazon's Lord Of The Rings: 10 Things Fans Demand

10. The Tolkien Estate Getting Over Themselves

When you're in charge of the legacy of one of the most influential fantasy franchises of all time. You're not gonna yeet the copyright out willy-nilly.

But even with two highly successful trilogies completed, the Tolkien Estate is still very unwilling to let anyone do anything with Tolkien's work. There were over two decades between LOTR and The Hobbit getting film adaptations because of all that red tape. This Amazon series is no different.

With this show to be set in the Second Age, thousands of years before Bilbo Baggins stumbles across a magic ring in a rocky cave, there's plenty of original content that would help any dramatisation. However, the showrunners only have a smidgen of the material available to them.

They have access to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy's appendices, which often touch on Second Age events, but Third Age storylines must be avoided - as those rights remain elsewhere. Oh, and no First Age stuff either, because the Tolkien Estate said no.

But what about The Silmarillion? Well, even though this is the one text actually set in the Second Age, that's not allowed either. Theses rules set for the Amazon series are at best confusing - at worst set them up for disaster.