Amazon's new Lord of the Rings 'cannot use much of Tolkien's plot' | Books | The Guardian

In November 2017, Amazon beat Netflix to a $250m (£207m) deal with the Tolkien estate, HarperCollins and Warner Bros to acquire the rights to the fantasy story, and is reportedly spending around $1bn on the adaptation. Details were scarce in the announcement, but Sharon Tal Yguado, Amazon's head of scripted programming, then promised "a new epic journey in Middle-earth".

Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey, who is supervising the show's development, told German fansite Deutsche Tolkien that the estate has refused to allow the series to be set during any period other than the Second Age of Middle-earth. This means Amazon's adaptation will not cross over at all with events from the Third Age, which were dramatised in Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning trilogy and sees hobbit Frodo Baggins destroy the One Ring.