I followed theonering.net (TORN) before and during the movies. TORN definitely had some scoops. I haven’t looked recently. They found a synopsis of the new Amazon series, and has been apparently confirmed.
TLDR: Second Age, “beginning in a time of relative peace”, will include Númenor.
Brian
If it’s a sequel, then perhaps this should be addressed:
a) It is a prequel (LOTR = late Third Age, this series is in the Second Age)
b) FYI the above is NSFW
c) The eagle thing has been refuted many times (summary, no, they could’t just use the eagles as a taxi service)
Brian
So I guess Elrond and Galadriel are in it. Gandalf wasn’t around in the Second Age, so not him. I’m trying to think of anyone else ‘familiar’ from the 3rd age and I think that’s it.
Celeborn & Cirdan could be in it.
Fangorn (Treebeard) of course.
Thranduil for sure.
Gil-Galad and Celebrimbor.
Glorfindel is possible, towards the end of his life, the Professor decided Glorfindel came back in the middle of the 2nd age.
Durin III was also middle of the 2nd age.
Then Tom Bombadil & probably Old Man Willow are options.
Smaug is an option.
Well, I was thinking ‘familiar’ characters who were in the movies*, since this is a television show. But even if you include the books those movies are based on, (minus the Tale of Years, otherwise everybody is ‘familiar’), Gil-Galad and Celebrimbor aren’t there, nor Durin III. The rest I’ll give you.
*though I reject that the Hobbit movies ever happened, yech.
The second age was thousands of years long, and only the elven characters and Sauron live that long (I don’t remember if any other Maiar participate in any second age events). Does that mean that it will either be focused on a relatively brief period of that history, or that the human characters will change up every few episodes as the story jumps along to another plot strand?
I can see focusing on the last 150 years, that’s when a lot of the exciting stuff happens, but they’d have to be careful not to make it too much spectacle and not enough character.
I’m not familiar with deep LOTR lore, but I would be shocked if the story jumps around by decades between episodes such that the human characters are replaced.
Well, the Númenóreans lived 200-400 years, so you’d get a little consistency across medium long time spans.
“Set in the Second Age” in no way implies that the story covers the entire Second Age. I’m guessing that they’ll just take one sequence of events, and tell a story about that, with a stable cast of characters. And once they’ve told that story, if it’s enough of a success that they want to continue, then they’ll spin off to a different story, with just enough elves in common to keep it connected.
Here is a timeline of events -
One more Maia, of unknown participation: Durin’s Bane.
I think we should let @Terrifel write it.