If moviegoers who do not have a scholarly knowledge of J.R.R. Tolkien think of his epic fantasy book series “Lord of the Rings,” they will likely envision the New Line Cinema film trilogy of the early 2000s, directed by Peter Jackson and starring the likes of Elijah Wood, Vigo Mortenssen and Sir Ian McKellen. The movies and its prequel “The Hobbit” have been out of the public imagination for years now, so nobody outside of film buffs could imagine how the “LOTR” series being developed by Amazon would look like. But there is a possibility they will hear some familiarity.

According to Deadline, Amazon Studios is looking to tap Howard Shore to score the “Lord of the Rings” series they plan to release on Prime Video streaming late next year. Shore, it must be recalled, was the composer of Peter Jackson’s film trilogy. He would win three Academy Awards for his work on that cinematic epic: two Best Original Scores (“Fellowship of the Ring” and “Return of the King”) and a Best Original Song (“Into the West” sung by Enya). If he agrees, Shore will be the only figure from the New Line Cinema creative team to be involved in this Amazon Prime prequel series.

The upcoming “Lord of the Rings” series takes place some millennia before the events of the films (and the books they are based on), and are more accurately an adaptation of happenings from Tolkien’s companion volume “The Silmarillion.” Set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, it is likely to cover events like the founding of the Kingdom of Numenor, the settlement of Elves on Middle-earth, and the rise to power of the Dark Lord Sauron, whose defeat at Mordor by the Last Alliance (“Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” prologue) ended the Second Age and began the Third.

Principal photography for season 1 of Amazon’s “Lord of the Rings” was reportedly completed in New Zealand this past April, after its production run was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic last year. The series is expected to premiere on Prime Video next year, September 2, 2022. Work on the second season was scheduled to commence in the UK earlier that year, on January. The choice of New Zealand where the Peter Jackson “LOTR” movies were made was brilliant enough. And if Howard Shore does accept the offer to score the show, we could hear more of this music come 2022.

Image from Maxim