In a just a few short weeks, Game of Thrones fans around the world will be pretty much inconsolable as the eighth and final season of HBO’s fantasy kicks off, and everyone gets ready to say goodbye to the stories and characters we’ve come to love.
Over the last few years, Westeros has become ingrained in popular culture and our minds, with audiences of all kinds falling for the adventures, romances and gripping tales told in the adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ novel series.
Yes, it’s sad that Game of Thrones is coming to an end – and no, we’re not really ready to wave farewell to the show either. But let’s put on a brave face because, you know what? Things might just be ok.
There’s a ready made solution to life post-Game of Thrones, and a perfect way to fill the gap of the medieval fantasy epic. And it’s just so obvious: Amazon Prime is set to launch its own Lord of the Rings prequel series – based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novels – which has been in the pipeline for years and will be the perfect way to keep the magic alive.
The epic is set to have a huge budget (estimated at $250 million) to run for multiple seasons, and although plot details are remaining a closely guarded secret, it’s safe to say fans will be delighted at the chance of exploring more of Middle-earth.
For followers of Lord of the Rings, the idea of this show stepping up to fill the gap left by Game of Thrones is a no-brainer, but some people not quite so familiar might be more skeptical. Well stop it. Dragons. Magic. Drama. Adventure. It’s all there, and it will be there in abundance. Seriously, what’s not to love?
And better yet, the new spectacle will be inspired by the works of a man who directly influenced Martin and his own series of fantasy novels.
Martin’s not shied away from admitting without Middle Earth, it’s unlikely there would have been the Seven Kingdoms, in the past. A few years ago he went on record saying: ‘I revere Lord of the Rings, I reread it every few years, it had an enormous effect on me as a kid.’
Very high praise from someone who has almost become a modern day Tolkien, and the impact Lord of the Rinds had is obvious and undeniable.
One of the things Game of Thrones viewers have learned to be wary of is caring about characters too much, because there’s anyways the chance of them being killed off. It happened in the novels, and it’s happened on the small screen.
Now, where did the idea of that level of excitement and drama come from? Let’s look at what Martin has said on the subject.
‘And then Gandalf dies! I can’t explain the impact that had on me at 13. You can’t kill Gandalf. I mean, Conan didn’t die in the Conan books, you know? Tolkien just broke that rule, and I’ll love him forever for it,’ he once explained.
‘The minute you kill Gandalf, the suspense of everything that follows is a thousand times greater, because now anybody could die.
‘Of course, that’s had a profound effect on my own willingness to kill characters off at the drop of a hat.’
There you have it. One of Game of Thrones best qualities came from Lord of the Rings, and that should be enough to get anyone excited. There’s even the chance that the Lord of the Rings show can take things to new heights, by taking its source material and learning lessons from the Game of Thrones series to create a greater, bloody, spectacle.
The movie franchise based on Tolkien’s work was huge when it first launched in 2001. Ok, so the more recent Hobbit trilogy was a slight misstep and could’ve done with trimming down. But that’s where the serial format could work to its benefit.
Whether it’s one long, multi-season story or an anthology series with a different Tolkien-esque ark each time, there is plenty to look forward to.
We don’t have a lot to go on when it comes to a plot just yet, but the official Lord of the Rings on Prime Twitter and website has certainly got people talking after a series of interactive maps linked to Tolkien’s famous ‘One Ring’ poem – you know the one.
Anyway, by the time the latest verse was shared, it sent fans positively wild as it appears the rumours of an Aragorn prequel are unfounded, because the details in the maps all point to the show taking place in the Second Age before the ring was formed.
Details like Minas Anor – the preceding name of the white city Minas Tirith and Minas Ithil – which became Minas Morgul – definitely point to this taking place in the build-up to the ring being forged, and we are there for it.
Game of Thrones coming to an end doesn’t mean we’ve got to wave goodbye to the idea of an epic, big budget fantasy adventure to obsess over. We’ll be leaving Westeros but heading back to Middle-earth, and fans should embrace it with open arms.
Game of Thrones returns to HBO and Sky Atlantic on April while seasons one to seven are currently available to stream on NOW TV. Lord of The Rings is expected to kick off production in 2020.
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