Amazon is currently hard at work on a sprawling, wildly expensive show set in Middle-earth, the sprawling fantasy world made famous by J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Or at least, they will be soon: they had to stop filming thanks to the coronavirus, but will start up again in New Zealand very soon.
And that’s great news, because a lot of people are curious to see what this show turns out to be. That includes Elijah Wood, who played Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, and again in his Hobbit movies. “I am super fascinated by what they’re doing with the show,” Wood recently told IndieWire. “They’re calling it ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ but I think that’s slightly misleading. From what I understand, the material they are working on exists chronologically further back in history in the lore of ‘Lord of the Rings’ or Middle-earth than any characters represented in ‘Lord of the Rings.’ It sounds more ‘Silmarillion’ era. Not to get nerdy, but it’s the Second Age of Middle-earth.”
Oh, I can get so much more nerdy than that. Wood is right: from what we’ve heard, the show is set during the Second Age, back when the isle of Númenor was still above the waves, Middle-earth was more densely populated with elves, and Sauron was busy forging the rings of power — he hadn’t actually completed them yet. The whole thing ends with the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, where the free peoples of Middle-earth face down Sauron in Mordor, defeat him, try to destroy the One Ring, fail, and set the stage for The Lord of the Rings.
Of course, we don’t know which parts of the Second Age the show will focus on — it’s a long age — which means we’re in the same place as Wood, who isn’t involved with the series…yet.
“I’m just curious what the storytelling is going to be,” the actor said. “It’s clear the world is Middle-earth and I’m glad they are shooting in New Zealand. It feels like there will be at least a visual continuity with what we had all done on the movies. It’s no surprise they are about to start shooting again, or have the go-ahead to do so, because New Zealand conquered this thing and they’re Coronavirus free. It’s one of the few places on the planet where is possible.”
But even though Frodo wouldn’t be born for thousands of years at the time of the show, would Wood be up for a cameo? “Absolutely,” he said. “If there was a world where that made sense and was organic to what they’re doing than yes. Look, any excuse to get to go to New Zealand to work on something I am absolutely there.”
I mean, somehow they managed to get Frodo into The Hobbit movies, and those take place well before his time, too. Anything’s possible. In the meantime, we’ll be watching as the cast returns to work, and see if we can glean anything about this new journey to Middle-earth.
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