{"id":107775,"date":"2020-04-13T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=107775"},"modified":"2020-04-12T19:25:06","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T00:25:06","slug":"what-to-watch-to-prepare-for-amazons-lotr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2020\/04\/13\/107775-what-to-watch-to-prepare-for-amazons-lotr\/","title":{"rendered":"What to watch to prepare for Amazon’s LOTR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


Add these to your queue for a taste of the creative talent behind Amazon’s $1 Billion LOTR series<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Amazon’s billion-dollar Lord of the Rings series is in production but fans want to know what to expect now that Peter Jackson isn’t crafting Middle-earth. Since many are in quarantine and looking for shows to watch, we have put together a comprehensive list of films & TV shows which the current LOTR production team have previously worked on to provide a sense of the talent behind the series. Many of the writers have worked on other book adaptations, sometimes with actors from Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth films!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: all watch suggestions are based on U.S. platforms, check your local region for each of these!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Penny Dreadful pilot S1E1 – S1E2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch on:
Showtime, Amazon Prime<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LOTR Director JA Bayona directed the 2-episode pilot of Penny Dreadful, setting the tone for the entire series. He is currently filming the 2-episode pilot of LOTR.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A Monster Calls<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch on:
Cinemax<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bayona directed this powerful fantasy drama of loss, despair, love and family – themes familiar to Tolkien’s Legendarium.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Hannibal S3<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch on:
Amazon Prime<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LOTR writer Helen Shang was deeply involved in crafting the Red Dragon storyline for NBC’s Hannibal series, featuring Richard Armitage (Thorin).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Breaking Bad S4 – S5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch on:
Netflix<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lead writer of LOTR Gennifer Hutchison was Executive Story Editor on Breaking Bad, overseeing what many consider the best episode of television ever produced, “Ozymandias”<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Better Call Saul S1 – S4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch on:
Netflix<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gennifer jumped into the Breaking Bad spinoff, writing 8 episodes in the first 4 seasons.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Game of Thrones<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch on:
HBO, HBO Go, HBO Now<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is with a heavy heart that Thrones is on the list due to Bryan Cogman’s involvement on LOTR. Check his iMDB page<\/a> for specific episodes he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Halt & Catch Fire <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch on:
Netflix<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LOTR writer Jason Cahill wrote 4 episodes & executive produced the entire series starring Lee Pace (Thranduil) about the early days of the computer revolution.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Sopranos S1E3, S1E9, S2E1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch on:
Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cahill also wrote some key early episodes including the season 2 first episode “Guy Walks Into a Psychiatrist’s Office<\/a>“<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Stranger Things S1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch on:
Netflix<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LOTR writer Justin Doble wrote 3 of the most fan favorite episodes in the first season. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Star Wars Resistance S1E4, S1E9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch on:
Disney+<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before joining the LOTR writer’s room, Stephanie Folsom wrote 2 episode of the charming Star Wars animated series that were punctuated with lore building.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Toy Story 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch on:
Disney+<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Folsom is credited with the first draft of the screenplay and the overall story. Worth watching how this writer handled a huge franchise with a sequel fans didn’t expect.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch on:
Cinemax<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LOTR director JA Bayona took over this beloved franchise with some iconic visuals that reference past movies and made long term fans smile.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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If you want to prioritize further, Penny Dreadful<\/strong> pilot and Hannibal<\/strong> S3 are probably the first things to watch as they both take classic book stories & characters who have had feature films treatments, and have re-adapted for television. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Penny Dreadful<\/strong> is a psychological thriller that explores iconic literary characters like Dorian Gray and Frankenstein with origin stories in Victorian times. Amazon’s LOTR is based on Numenor in the Second Age of Middle-earth, and out of all the talented directors out there Amazon has chosen the pilot director of Penny Dreadful. It should be noted, Bayona did not direct any further episodes in the series. But these first two episode may give a sense of the tone we can expect in Numenor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breaking Bad <\/strong>is credited for creating the “peak television” era and LOTR writer Gennifer Hutchison was in an a leadership position in the writer’s room of that show and its spinoff Better Call Saul. For all we have heard she is a leading voice on LOTR, taking up the script writing mantle of Oscar winners Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens, to adapt Tolkien for an entirely new medium. Breaking Bad did very well at developing characters and delivering arcs that fulfilled early promises. It really is perfect television writing and we as fans are extremely lucky to have Gennifer involved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bonus: Westworld S1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch on:
HBO<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon has hired for LOTR the studio executives who greenlit Westworld, Thrones and Leftovers for HBO, so these can give a sense of the scale they expect from this show. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Happy watching, and remember to tweet at us<\/a> with your opinions on the above episodes & movies!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What to watch to prepare for Amazon’s LOTR. Add these to your queue for a taste of the creative talent behind Amazon’s $1 Billion series<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":106952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3119,496,149],"tags":[3206,3292,3247,1841],"class_list":["post-107775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amazon-tv-series","category-production","category-lotr","tag-amazon-studios","tag-lotr-on-prime","tag-prime","tag-tv-series"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/PrimeTeam4.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tLoH-s2j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107775"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107797,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107775\/revisions\/107797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}