Why Peter Jackson is Excited For New ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Series

With Lord of the Rings continuing its middle-earth saga in series form, the original trilogy’s mastermind Peter Jackson is excited to experience such a tale without being involved in it.

Jackson appeared at New York Comic Con on Friday, where he was on site to discus his upcoming Universal Studios film Mortal Engines. While the Mortal Engines film aims to create a massive new world with an unthinkable scope, Jackson has plenty of experience in such a realm. However, as his work on Lord of the Rings is soon passed to JD Payne and Patrick McKay who are developing a prequel series, Jackson is excited to simply experience the story rather than create it.

Jackson is “not really” protective of the franchise, he told ComicBook.com. “I’m kind of looking forward to it,” Jackson said. “I was a guy who didn’t get to see the Lord of the Rings like everybody else because I had to make it, so I’m looking forward to seeing somebody else’s take on the Tolkien world.”

As for how the vast Mortal Engines and Lord of the Rings world compare: they’re quite different. “The world of Tolkien is set about 7,000 years in the past, this one is set about 3,000 years in the future,” Jackson said. “It’s a time where society, there’s no longer any countries, any more. There are cities, states on wheels. There are massive huge, they’re called traction cities or predator cities. They roam around the world, consuming smaller towns. They literally eat them. So, it’s a very different society.”

In the film, which showed 25 minutes of footage to a crowded Madison Square Garden audience on Friday, one nation has emerged as the most threatening predator city. “London is the biggest of these predator cities in the movies, it’s got theaters and shops and cultures and fashions,” Jackson said. “It’s quite a fun place to live. If you like consuming smaller towns, it’s a perfect place to live.”

Watch ComicBook.com’s full interview with Jackson, discussing Mortal Engines and more, in the video above!

The Lord of the Rings series headed to Amazon has not yet begun production. Mortal Engines is set for release on December 14, 2018.