We know very little about Amazon’s plans for a multi-season TV series based upon the world envisioned in J.R.R Toklien’s Lord of The Rings. Following the launch of the company’s first teaser for the series, super fans have tried to piece things together.
A tweet from the @LOTRonPrime Twitter account on Friday offers a map of Middle-earth, minus any of the well-known place names like The Shire, Rohan, Gondor and… whisper it… Mordor. The tweet invites fans to explore the map, but on the surface there’s not an awful lot to explore. Of course, there may be some hidden Easter eggs no-one has spotted yet, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
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The tweet is accompanied by the text: “Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,” which suggests there might be a little more to come than what we’re already seeing from the account.
Naturally, there are some fan theories about what actually could be implied by the map, and the Tolkien historians are right on it.
If they made it about the second age, the fall of numenor and the war of the last alliance, I would be….very content.
— boutch67 (@boutch67) February 15, 2019
Three observations with this from @LOTRonPrime:
1) Notice how far it extends East with a forest, mountains and rivers (not standard map).
2) No settlements are marked.
3) Does tweet suggest they will they start with the forging of the Rings in the middle of the Second Age? https://t.co/LkJi5ghtDs— Shaun Gunner (@ShaunGunner) February 15, 2019
MEANING… LOTS OF THINGS.
BUT IT DEFINITELY CONCERNS EVENTS TAKING PLACE IN THE THIRD OR SECOND AGES.
COULD BE ANYTHING FROM NUMENOR, TO GIL-GALAD, TO THE NORTHERN KINGDOM OF MEN ARNOR? THE EXILED DUNEDAIN SETTLEING IN ARNOR AND GONDOR? IT COULD BE LOADS OF THINGS.— ?????? ?????????? (@tolkienthot) February 15, 2019
The map is consistent with rumors that the story will be about a young Aragorn by showing more of the east. In the RotK appendix, Aragorn traveled to the far East and South exploring the hearts of men good and evil and learning about the "plots and devices" of Sauron's servants.
— Eric Rotbard (@EricR42) February 15, 2019
Amazon has previously said it won’t be remaking the Peter Jackson films, but there will be characters known and loved by fans of the trilogy and beyond.
“I think you can know that we’re not remaking the movies, but we’re also not starting from scratch,” Amazon Studios boss Jennifer Salke has said (via Deadline). “So, it’ll be characters you love.”
She also said there’s no timeline for the show to arrive on Amazon Prime, but the launch of this Twitter handle and the subsequent tweets suggests business is fixing to pick up. We may be hearing more information sooner than expected.
Is the Lord of the Rings TV show the most exciting prospect in streaming right now? Or can it only disappoint given what has come before? Let us know @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.