Where money is to be earned, large and influential companies are sure to follow. Even at the cost of quality, marketing series that have garnered great success in the past is seemingly a favorite for corporations that stream television media. This debauchery of fantastic series has been the destruction of many childhoods, and has made for many box office bombers and mediocre books.
This plague has spread throughout many streaming sites, such as Netflix with Fuller House, The CW with Riverdale, and now, Amazon with The Lord of the Rings franchise. The Lord of the Rings series was published in three volumes over the course of a year, 1954 to 1955. The three Lord of The Rings movies that are based upon the written trilogy were all released within the early 2000’s, each within a year of each other. Each film follows the adventures of Frodo Baggins, and his possession of a powerful ring, previously owned by his uncle, Bilbo Baggins. However, Frodo is unaware of its dark history and purpose to corrupt the soul of its wearer. But before Bilbo even came upon the ring, Gollum, a river hobbit turned sour, owned the ring for centuries. The Amazon series may explore this decrepit character further, as the storyline is meant to precede the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring.
Many details have yet to be disclosed about this epic adventure, but there are allegedly some restrictions to Amazon’s creativity on the goings-on of Middle Earth: It is estimated that the company paid 250 million dollars to buy the rights to the series, in order to buy out other streaming corporations such as Netflix and HBO – money cannot buy everything, as is clearly shown by these parameters that the publishing companies have set.
Money also cannot buy the ability to captivate an audience, or create a worthwhile addition to a masterfully created fictional world; as the world has seen with re-creations such as Go Set a Watchmen and The Cursed Child, it is nearly impossible to attain the initial greatness of a franchise: When creators are motivated predominantly by profit, quality wanes.
Once a story ends, it is best to allow its legacy to speak for itself, left untouched, rather than digging up what could have been. Perhaps this lesson will have to be learned at the cost of millions for Amazon, and set a precedent for other media companies to let the classics alone!
