Amazon Acquires Rights To More Of J.R.R. Tolkien's Writing
Image Source: Cinemablend
Ever since people have been trying to adapt J.R.R. Tolkien’s worlds to screen, Tolkien himself and later the Tolkien Society have been very careful over what source material they allow to be used. For years now it was only allowed to use anything mentioned in The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings (including “The Appendices”), which is why certain things have only been briefly mentioned or shown but not specifically named or spoken about in depth. This is also why in Amazon’s The Rings of Power series, focusing on the Second Age events that happened years before The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, they could not draw on source material in The Silmarillion. No one had the rights to that story for adaptation to screen.
Fellowship of Fans recently posted an exclusive on X (formerly Twitter) that Amazon did receive special permission to use some material outside of “The Appendices.” At the end of The Rings of Power, we strongly suspect that The Stranger is one of the wizards, or as Tolkien calls them, Istari, and that he and the Harfoot, Nori Brandyfoot, are headed to Rhûn which is in the East of Middle-earth. There are still many theories running around as to who this character really is. Many of the prevailing theories were that he is either Gandalf or Radagast. However, Tolkien scholars have noted that Gandalf wasn’t in Middle-earth at the time so if the showrunners were to go that route, they would have to explain why.
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Part of the reason for these speculations was that no one was allowed to mention any of the other Istari by name other than Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast, all of whom appear in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings movies. In The Hobbit, it’s alluded that there are more Istari, but that is all that was allowed. With the ability to use content outside of “The Appendices” especially writings in The Unfinished Tales and other texts regarding the Istari, Amazon can now work with using the other wizards. Many Tolkien fans also speculated that The Stranger was one of the Blue Wizards that Tolkien named as Alatar and Pallando. He did mention in some writings that they were around in the Second Age and went East – to Rhûn.
Now that Amazon has these rights it will hopefully help expand on the Istari’s storyline and the exciting and mysterious doings of these beings in Middle-earth.
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Source: X
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