Amazon's expects its Lord of the Rings series to premiere in 2021

The Hollywood Reporter

New Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke is aiming to go into production in 2020 with a 2021 for the Lord of the Rings TV series. "2021 is the hope. But there are other people who wish it was 2020," she tells The Hollywoood Reporter. Salke also says the showrunner search is on whether or not Peter Jackson is involved. Still, despite what Jackson said recently about not being involved, Salke is hopeful that he'll be part of the show in some capacity. "We're in conversations with him that I think are very amicable about how much involvement he wants and what kind," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "We haven't figured out exactly what that is yet. He may say he is involved or he's not involved. We're still very much in conversation with him about what kind of involvement he would propose." There is also the possibility that the prequel series may shoot in New Zealand, where Jackson filmed The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films. Salke also clarified that Amazon is only working on one Lord of the Rings series. “One. At the moment, one big series," she said. Meanwhile, Salke told Variety the prequel "is not a remaking of the movies, and it’s not a whole new thing. It’s something in between. It’s not, ‘Oh, it’s Lord of the Rings but you don’t recognize anything in it,’ but it’s not totally familiar to you either. So it’s original.”