How Amazon Should Make A Lord Of The Rings TV Show

4. Don't Just Try And Do Amazon's Game Of Thrones

There's one big reason Amazon are betting so big on this TV series, and it goes by the name Game of Thrones. Yes, George R.R. Martin's work might be highly indebted to that of Tolkien, right down to those middle initials, but it's working in reverse on TV. Thrones is the biggest show in the world, and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos wants a slice of that hot pie.

However, chasing the next Game of Thrones is folly, and not something Amazon should be attempting with Lord of the Rings, for a couple of different reasons. Firstly, lessons from TV history suggest that the next big thing will largely be different to its predecessor, rather than a copycat: The Sopranos gave way to Lost which gave way to Mad Men and so on.

Secondly, LOTR and A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones may have some basic similarities, but they're intrinsically different. Martin's work intends to subvert most typical fantasy tropes, and even then it's more a historical and political tale within some fantasy trappings, whereas Tolkien's is much more of a morality tale and a more overt kind of fantasy. That's what it should continue aiming for, rather than being Game of Thrones.

There's also a fact that most TV shows of the Peak TV era have taken the wrong lessons from that show - a reliance on shocking deaths and plot twists, for example, which are key to that narrative but elsewhere done to provoke reaction, while it's also worth remembering just how many years Thrones spent in development at HBO before they got it right - and again, a Lord of the Rings show needs to distance itself from that and be its own thing. The first great LOTR show, not the next Game of Thrones.