Elijah Wood: There’s something “very bizarre” about Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show

Empire Magazine has a very special issue coming out: a feature that catches up with Elijah Wood and Daniel Radcliffe, who played Frodo Baggins and Harry Potter respectively, two of the biggest fantasy icons of the early 2000s. How do they feel about their famous performances 20 years out? We’ll find out when the interview hits newsstands on February 18.

The actors also sound off on what’s currently being done with the properties that made them famous, as both Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings remain part of the pop cultural conversation. In fact, Amazon is mounting a tremendously expensive TV series based on The Lord the Rings…only not, because it’s actually set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, long before Bilbo or Frodo or many of the other characters we know from that story are even born.

So why call the show The Lord of the Rings if it’s not adapting the story of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books? Wood is as confused as anyone. “I find it very bizarre that they’re calling it Lord of the Rings as a shorthand, because it’s not Lord of the Rings!” he said. It takes place in the Second Age of Middle-earth.”

I mean, I think the most obvious answer is that Amazon wants people to watch the show and knows that a lot of them will recognize the title “Lord of the Rings,” so they’re using it even though they’re not actually adapting that specific story. And to be fair, Amazon hasn’t announced an official title yet. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be “The Second Age of Middle-earth”…although I doubt it.

The Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood seems to know a lot about Middle-earth mythology

Anyway, Wood’s comment here is reminiscent of what he said last summer. “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.”

Go ahead, Elijah, get nerdy; we won’t tell anyone.

The Lord of the Rings has assembled its cast and has already shot material, although we probably won’t see it until 2022. Until then, feel free to bone up:

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h/t Gamespot