If one thing’s clear, it’s that Amazon has no intention of rushing their Lord of the Rings television series out the door anytime soon. It was all the way back in 2017 when the streaming giant announced they would be spending around $250 million to secure the rights to adapt the franchise for the small screen, and it looks like they could be spending a lot more when it comes to production, as some rumors indicate that Amazon has planned out five seasons.
Unfortunately, there’s not too much concrete information when it comes to who’s actually working on the project as to date, no official casting announcements have been made. Amazon has picked out a pair of showrunners though in the form of John D. Payne and Patrick McKay, whose only released work is Star Trek Beyond (the two served as uncredited screenwriters). Bryan Cogman, meanwhile, who wrote close to a dozen episodes for HBO’s Game of Thrones is also serving as a creative consultant and executive producer.
Details beyond that are scarce, but it looks like Amazon has now made a new hire who’s a bit more recognizable.
As reported by Deadline, the company has tapped Juan Antonio (J.A.) Bayona to direct the first two episodes for their planned series. Having caught the eye of director Colin Trevorrow, Bayona got the chance to work on his first major blockbuster franchise with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which went on to gross over $1.3 billion.
If you’re worried or skeptical about another adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein’s franchise, you’ll be glad to hear that this new show won’t be a simple retread of already-published works. Instead, Amazon’s series takes place before the events of The Lord of the Rings, which means that there will be plenty of surprises in store for audiences.
Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait two years to see it for ourselves, but in the meantime, we imagine a lot more concrete updates will arrive now that Bayona has signed on to helm. As always, keep watching this space.
