Amazon has been working on a Lord of the Rings series for a while now. Very little about it is known apart from the fact that it will probably be the most expensive series in history. All that was released about the series was that it would be set in a different era than the LotR movies. The relatively vast spans of time in Tolkeins back story means that the field is *very* wide open.
Amazon has been very slowly dropping the tiniest of hints about their series. Recently they released a map, something that Tolkein fans can appreciate. And when it comes to Middle Earth, maps mean not just “where,” but “when. Behold:
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings Series Confirms Its Setting, in the Vaguest Sense Possible
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. #LOTRonPrime pic.twitter.com/7TuQh7gRPD
— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) March 7, 2019
The world of Middle Earth underwent substantial changes throughout Tolkeins “Silmarilion,” the history of the Elves from the creation of the world up to the events of the Lord of the Rings. Consequently, a map can nail down the general time frame. The existence of the island of Numenor, for existence, indicates that the show will be set in the “Second Age,” ending some 2500 or so years prior to the events of LotR. But if you read the comments in the link posted above, it’s clear that some people have sufficient understanding of the lore of Middle Earth that they can nail it down to a particular generation of people based on the existence and apparent size of certain forests. If these superfans are correct, then Amazon is indicating:
it would seem that the map portrays a time period somewhere around 1,500 S.A., or during the creation of the Rings of Power, and around one generation before Númenor started to go into slow decline.
This all assumes that:
1: Amazon really knows what they’re doing
2: They’re not trolling (like having this set well *after* LotR, and the map just being an ancient relic)
3: Amazon is sticking to the canon.
Given recent defilements of canon in the likes of Star Trek and Star Wars, it is not impossible that corporate suit-bots or highly influential NPCs demanding “representation” and the like aren’t going to screw with things. Numenoreans and the peoples of the usual realms of Middle Earth are traditionally understood to be White Folk (and elves are *really* white folk), so a truly faithful series would likely have almost no “people of color” whatsoever except for roles such as pirates and slavers and barbarians from far southern lands… roles not likely to go over too well with the PC crowd. So on the one hand I would not be surprised to see canon-violations in the interests of appeasing the Offendatarians, and once you make those compromises, *everything* becomes mutable.
On the other hand: Amazon is spending a lot on this show. I mean… A LOT: at least $500 million. You could run a pretty good space program on what Amazon will plunk down for this. And when you’re spending that much… do you *really* want to piss off the base?