The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is officially the most expensive TV show ever made, no real shocker when Amazon is hoping this will be a mega-hit for Prime Video on the level of The Mandalorian or Stranger Things.
We're sure you also won't be surprised to learn that bringing the J.R.R. Tolkien franchise to the small screen was one many streamers were interested in. However, they didn't all have the best ideas for the beloved property.
THR (via SFFGazette.com) explains that it was in 2017 that the Tolkein estate decided to entertain proposals for a Lord of the Rings TV show, the ideal time when everyone was looking to launch "the next Game of Thrones." Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos is a big Tolkien fan, so made winning the day a top priority, though he still had to compete with pitches made by rival studios.
Luckily for him, they were pretty dire.
HBO, for example, suggested retelling Middle-earth's "Third Age." In other words, they were looking to basically remake Peter Jackson's movie trilogy, an approach that we're sure would have proven divisive. There are members of the Tolkien estate who didn't like or appreciate Jackson's vision, but they weren't looking to retread familiar ground.
Netflix, meanwhile, suggested making several shows, such as standalone series revolving around characters like Gandalf and Aragorn. One insider says, "They took the Marvel approach, and that completely freaked out the estate."
Ultimately, it was Amazon that won the day. They promised to do something new and had the money to woo Tolkien's family. That would eventually lead to The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, a show that's been a hit both critically and in terms of viewership (it's reportedly been beating House of the Dragon, for example).
It's always fun to think about what might have been, though it does feel like the right decision was made. Recently, there have been rumblings about new movies set in Middle-earth, potentially focusing on characters like those mentioned above, though only time will tell whether they too come to pass.