Peter Jackson Possibly Involved With ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series After All

Amazon is bringing the world of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings to its streaming service, and Lord of the Rings film director Peter Jackson may be involved after all.

Jackson is currently out promoting his latest film, Mortal Engines and was asked by Metro about his thoughts on the Amazon series.

“I don’t have thoughts on it because I haven’t seen [anything],’ Jackson said. ‘I think they’re going to send us some scripts to see if we can help them along.

“I wish them all the best and if we can help them we certainly will try. ‘It’s a big task.”

Previously, there have been conflicting accounts of Jackson’s involvement with the television series, with Amazon saying that they were at least in talks with Jackson while Jackson was saying that he had nothing to do with it.

It seems that the truth is somewhere in the middle. Jackson doesn’t have anything to do with the series so far but, as Amazon’s representatives alluded to, those working on the series will be communicating with Jackson once there is something solid to communicate about and he may become involved at that time.

Jackson expressed his excitement about the new Lord of the Rings project in an interview with 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.”

The Lord of the Rings television series recently secured Star Trek film writers JD Payne and Patrick McKay to develop the series. Jennifer Salke, who heads Amazon’s original television efforts, has stated that she expects the project to be in development and production for two years before premiering in 2021.

“I’ve sat with Simon Tolkien [JRR Tolkien’s grandson] for a couple of hours, and (Amazon TV executive) Sharon (Tal Yguado) has spent tons of time with them,” Salke said in June. “She had spent the last couple of months meeting anyone who had said, ‘I’m really passionate about it and I want to get in and talk about the show and what’s possible.’ I think you’ll see us honing in on a strategy in the next month, which might involve a group of writers. Clearly, there’ll be someone in charge, but it involves the estate and Peter Jackson, and there’s a lot of conversations.”

The Lord of the Rings series has already received a multi-season order from Amazon with the potential for spinoffs. Amazon has not officially revealed any real details about the show’s plot, though there are rumors that it will focus on young Aragorn.

“I think you can know that we’re not remaking the movies, but we’re also not starting from scratch,” Salke says. “So, it’ll be characters you love.”

Are you looking forward to the Lord of the Rings television series? Let us know in the comments!