Sean Astin told a story of how a fan told him about a mistake in The Lord of the Rings and the incident is a perfect encapsulation of the huge challenge that The Lord of the Rings TV series has to overcome. It has been two decades since the original The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released. The six movies in the franchise (three The Lord of the Rings and three The Hobbit movies) have received a varied reception from fans, but the response has always been strong. Understanding this strength of feeling holds the key to the success or failure of the upcoming series.

In a Screen Rant exclusive interview, Sean Astin told a story about a fan that stopped the limo he was riding in so that he could tell Astin and Peter Jackson about an error with The Fellowship of the Ring. The fan had noticed that in the scene in Balin’s tomb as the Fellowship face off against a cave troll, that the cave troll walks through a beam of sunlight that has made its way into the tomb. The fan pointed out that the lore established by author J.R.R. Tolkien in the prequel book, The Hobbit, made it clear that if trolls were exposed to sunlight then they would turn to stone.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

While this seems like a minor detail, it represents the bigger issue of how dense J.R.R. Tolkien’s lore is for the world of Middle-Earth. Not only is there a huge amount of depth to the lore in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but Tolkien’s The Silmarillion takes all of that lore a step further. For the new The Lord of the Rings reboot series to be a success, the showrunner’s chief focus will need to be on ensuring that their adherence to Tolkien lore is immaculate. Not only is the lore dense, but it is clear that the fanbase values strict accuracy when it comes to Tolkien adaptations.

The fact that this adherence to Tolkien lore is crucial for The Lord of the Rings adaptations has already been borne out by The Hobbit trilogy. The trilogy was a big-budget extravaganza and attempted to win audiences over with extreme special effects and fan-service-driven appearances from actors and characters from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Ultimately, this was not enough even when coupled with deep-cut inclusions from The Silmarillion as it appears that The Lord of the Rings fanbase would prefer a faithful representation of the original content and lore than pretty pictures and fanservice.

While this issue is particularly apparent with The Lord of the Rings reboot, the problem is by no means unique to them. The Battlestar Galactica reboot/revival on Peacock is set to face similar issues related to how it translates the wealth of pre-existing lore in a way that can appeal to both new and old fans of the franchise. Similarly, whenever a new comics adaptation from DC or Marvel Comics is produced, some viewers will be unhappy with the changes that have been made for the adaptation. While some liberties are inevitable with Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings reboot adaptation (adaptations are required to change things by their nature), keeping faithful to the lore and rules established in the wider world of Middle-Earth will be key to the new TV series’ success.

How Moon Knight Heals Without Khonshu’s Armor – Is It A Plot Hole?

About The Author


Faefyx Collington
(487 Articles Published)

See also  BOTW Gameplay Running At 4K 60 FPS Justifies Switch Pro Demands

Faefyx Collington (They/Them) is a senior features writer for Screen Rant. They’re a British writer of both fiction and non-fiction, focussing on science fiction, fantasy, and mystery for the former and on culture, gender, and current affairs for the latter.
Never content to settle to one thing, Faefyx is also a co-host and producer of the podcast and video series “Unramblings,” and can occasionally be found making music around the internet as well.
Having acquired degrees on both sides of the Atlantic, Fyx has settled (for the moment) in the southern United States where they live with their spouse and an entirely appropriate number of cats.

More From Faefyx Collington