WB/Amazon Consider Lord of the Rings Show

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As the decade dwindles, it’s becoming increasingly clear that WB is finding themselves more and more left by the wayside in the age of global franchising.  The hard truth of the matter is that times change and more in more having a popular series of films matters less than having a film series that can stick around as part of the pop culture atmosphere.  The peculiar alchemy of turning online interest into hype into engagement has become the order of the day and that is a game WB really doesn’t seem to know how to play.  That’s why, despite the twin success of The Conjuring film series and the Kaiju-verse, WB is still chasing a return of their older franchise stalwarts- Batman, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings. 

We already saw their attempts at branding a Batman for the new decade in last year’s disastrous Batman v. Superman while their attempts at a Harry Potter prequel in Fantastic Beasts were met with a resounding “meh,” which was at least a better response than the loud cry of “BOO!” the Hobbit films engendered.  Now, WB looks to the world of streaming to reverse its fortunes as they’re reportedly inching towards a deal with Amazon for a Lord of the Rings streaming series. 

Let’s not beat around the bush here, this seems like a bad idea for a few very obvious reasons: Amazon has never once produced a streaming series that was worth finishing and the last time WB tried to produce additional Lord of the Rings content it ended very poorly.  Both of those are admittedly shallow complaints though, I mean Netflix has made far more crap than quality and we still give them every consideration and making more Star Wars films seemed like a terrible idea before Force Awakens happened.  

No, the bigger concerns behind those knee-jerk ones are steeped in what I mentioned earlier about the changing shape of franchises as we enter the 2020s and the unfortunate truth that Lord of the Rings might not be franchise material for the new decade.

Cards on the table here, I love Lord of the Rings- I grew up watching the Ralph Bakshi film (which totally holds up) and was the perfect age for the Jackson trilogy.  It’s a great series and foundational to the entire idea of modern fantasy but the thing is that foundational isn’t always the same as eternal.  

Lord of the Rings is a great singular saga but it’s not really built to facilitate extended canon or additional storytelling, that’s part of why the series has always had a lot of difficulties making video games work.  Even the best of them, the Shadows Of series, works more because of the nemesis system mechanics than for any kind of lore expansion or use of the internal mythology.

That rigidity has always been a strength of the core story because it helps keep things focused but that focus isn’t really the best asset to a modern franchise.  I talked about how modern franchises like the Marvel Universe focus on turning online interest into engagement but a big part of that sustained pop culture presence is taking a “one size fits all” approach to media.  

In the case of the MCU, as the seminal franchise of the 2010s, the reason they can keep themselves at the forefront of everyone’s media diet without engendering burnout is that all of their movies have such radically different genres and experiences.  Just this year we’ve had the weird, European style space opera of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the ‘80s style by way of Millennial concerns teen drama of Spider-Man: Homecoming, and the Kirby infused science fantasy epic of Thor: Ragnarok. 

The problem is that this is a trick Lord of the Rings can’t really pull off.  The series has always just been about 1 particular flavor of high fantasy, to the point that all subsequent high fantasy endeavors must exist within its shadow.  There’s not really a way to make more Middle Earth stories that aren’t being placed in direct competition with the Lord of the Rings and that’s a battle you just aren’t going to win.  Even if they managed to produce a successful season, like maybe you could make an interesting story about the origins of Aragorn’s time with the Rangers as Strider, separating that story from whatever comes next would be incredibly difficult. 

Most of Middle Earth looks more or less the same aside from the parts that are either pure evil like Mordor or you’re getting into some questionable racial territory like the South.  Even the various villains of Middle Earth aren’t all that unique or compelling, like by a visual standard Orcs, Goblins, and Urukaih are all basically the same monster.  After that, the more interesting enemies like dragons and wizards and dark riders are either off limits for story reasons or prohibitively expensive to achieve. 

That’s the other big risk in this attempt; you’re immediately inviting comparison to one of the most foundational works of blockbuster filmmaking this side of Star Wars.  The original Lord of the Rings trilogy reshaped the blockbuster landscape and structure forever, it rewrote the book on special FX and what you could reasonably expect an audience to accept.  Trying to compete with that on a second rate streaming service like Amazon is just inviting disaster.

Honestly, I’m not totally sure why WB is attempting this other than the general air of desperation that’s begun to infect a surprising number of their projects.  It’s not as if fantasy TV is enjoying a boom period right now, in fact, high fantasy on TV has never really enjoyed a boom period.  Even its biggest standard bearer Game of Thrones has more or less wound down with nothing left to do but the dying.  

It might be a late attempt at planting a flag on the fantasy genre as Game of Thrones influence continues to recede but I feel like Disney has more or less decisively won the battle for the soul of fantasy with their monumentally successful blockbuster fairy tale series.  What’s more, is anyone really desperate to partner with Amazon Prime for original content?  I would’ve thought the good work they did running the Zombieland brand straight into the ground would’ve scared everyone away but I guess I was wrong. 

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