The Lord of the Rings saga is one of the most beloved pieces of fiction in history. So much so that it’s been crafted into video games, cartoons, and of course, live-action sagas. But after what happened with The Hobbit (see: not living up to its potential), many were hesitant when Amazon Prime Video announced that it was going to have a prequel set WELL before LOTR via The Rings of Power. Over time though, fans have gotten more used to the notion and are even excited for it.
What fans may not have realized is that this show was just one of MANY that were thrown around for the platform. As co-showrunner J.D. Payne explained in an interview…
“When we first went up for the job, we were told there were literally dozens of other people who were also throwing their hat in the ring, and everyone was coming in with different things,” Payne says. “Amazon bought the rights to the trilogy, the appendices, and The Hobbit. They said the field was wide open – any story within that material, you could tell. So you had people pitching the Young Aragon show, or the Gimli spinoff, or other kinds of things.”
The Young Aragorn story was easily the “most prominent” of the initial prequel ideas at first, but as made clear by The Rings of Power, they passed on it to tell this story. Not the least of which most likely was because this story had not been fully told before in terms of mainstream media. We’d gotten glimpses, but not the whole tale.
A tale that might just last five seasons, and has the support of the Tolkien family to boot. So while a “wide net” was cast, it could be that this was the best decision of the options available.
Source: Total Film