Amazon Launches Social Media Strategy For Massive 'Lord Of The Rings' Prequel
No timetable or talent announcements have been made for Amazon's forthcoming Lord Of The Rings prequel series — for which it paid a reported $250 million solely to license back in Nov. 2017 — but the multi-season venture has now kicked off a social media strategy of sorts.
A just-launched Twitter account dubbed LOTROnPrime has shared a map that likely suggests where and when the series will take place with the caption, "Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky" — a nod to a famed poem central to the franchise's plot. While fan theories abound in the responses, Deadline reports, the map for the series — which is being developed by showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay — shows Middle-earth after the War Of Wrath (given that Beleriand doesn't appear on it). Per Deadline, this suggests that the show will take place in the Second or Third Age.
Amazon is reportedly deriving its social strategy from Tolkien himself, who is quoted as saying of his fantasy franchise: "I wisely started with a map."
As previously reported, Amazon's series will explore events preceding J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship Of The Ring. The series is being produced by Amazon Studios, the Tolkien Estate & Trust, HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema (which also produced the Oscar-winning film franchise directed by Peter Jackson).
In addition to Twitter, LOTROnPRime has also launched accounts on Facebook and Instagram. You can check out the map, which is also available interactively on Amazon.com, below:
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, pic.twitter.com/unJj1Bpde1
— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) February 15, 2019
Amazon Studios' Top Film Executive Is Departing Amid Strategic Shift