The upcoming Amazon-produced Lord of the Rings series is a contentious topic among fans of the series (both the original books and Peter Jackson's film adaptations). Some are excited about a new journey into Middle Earth, while others are worried about whether or not the series will truly be able to live up to its predecessors. The show is not connected to Peter Jackson or to the team that made the Lord of the Rings movies in the early 2000s, but it will inevitably have to be compared to those films, as it takes place in the same universe.
Is trying to make new Lord of the Rings entries a good idea? The original films were very successful and are beloved by many, and the series will have very big shoes to fill if it hopes to live up to the film trilogy at all. There is already a bad track record of people trying to replicate the magic and near perfection of the original movies and failing, as The Hobbit films turned out to be quite messy. It seems very unlikely that the Amazon series will be able to capture that same vision that the original films had, and it seems unlikely that it will be accepted and loved by fans in the same way.
One hurdle the show will have to overcome is the story that they're trying to tell, and the time period that they're setting it in. The story might be unconnected from any characters we've seen previously, and while that allows them to tell a new story without worrying about keeping character integrity, it might be hard for some people to get invested in the show when the world is familiar but none of the characters are. The show is also going to be set during the Second Age of Middle Earth, which is one of the least-discussed times in J.R.R. Tolkien's work. It takes place long before the events of both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but it's unclear what events the show will take place during.
One of the main storylines that happens during the Second Age is the fall of Númenor, and it seems as though the show will be touching on this event. Númenor was an island (similar to Atlantis) that came out of the sea and was eventually destroyed during the Second Age. Númenor was home to the Dúnedain, which were a race of men who left the island before it was destroyed and went on to create the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor. Aragorn (from The Lord of the Rings trilogy) was actually a descendant of the Dúnedain, and there have been rumors that the show will follow parts of his life, perhaps as a young man, and detail the fall of his ancestors. This might be an interesting plot point to explore, but it also raises a problem.
It wasn't just the story that fans fell in love with when they first watched the Lord of the Rings movies, but the characters as well. Those movies have perfect casting, with many of the actors giving career-best performances. Audiences may not react well to seeing other actors in the roles that were made iconic by the original actors in the films. If they decide to go with a young Aragorn story, no matter how skilled the actor portraying him is, for many fans, it still won't hold a candle to Viggo Mortensen's performance in the original movies. The show may find itself stuck in a catch-22 where audiences won't connect to a story that is entirely unrelated to the characters they already know and love, but they also won't accept those characters being played by anyone else, or the possibility of those characters being the victims of bad writing in a new story.
Peter Jackson also brought such a unique vision to the story as the director. You can tell that the original movies were made by people who really loved and cared about the story they were telling, and it's obvious in every moment, from the direction, to the acting, to the script, to the set design, to the costumes. That is what sets the Lord of the Rings apart from a lot of other franchise films - they feel authentic and genuine, and as though they were made with the intention to tell a good story, and not just make a cash grab. The Amazon series can't be fairly judged until it actually comes out, but something about it feels like they're leaning more in the cash grab direction. It just seems like it's clearly being made to further capitalize on the success of the original trilogy now that nostalgia for those films has been built up sufficiently.
The Hobbit movies really fell into this trap, and it's what makes them so much more inferior to the original series. Of course, one major problem plaguing the Hobbit trilogy was the amount of studio interference, to the point where it's clear that Jackson's original vision had gotten lost amongst the studio notes that ordered one small book to be split into three movies that are each close to three hours long, and that CGI be used instead of practical effects. So many elements of the Hobbit movies just seem contradictory to what made the original trilogy so special, and that's one of the reasons they failed. A lot of fans worry that the Amazon series could go in the same direction.
There have also been concerns amongst fans that the Amazon show is angling to be similar to Game of Thrones, and fans were especially incensed by the rumors that there will be nudity in the show. From this news, it seemed as though this Amazon series was trying to capitalize on the success of Game of Thrones by making their own version of it, just set in Middle Earth. The problem is, Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings are fundamentally different in subject and tone. Game of Thrones was written to be dark and gritty, while Lord of the Rings is more of a wholesome world. There's darkness in Middle Earth, of course, but it's not exactly edgy. It just seems like Tolkien's world and what makes it interesting and unique is going to be totally ignored in favor of shocking modern audiences and keeping up with the trend of recent fantasy TV shows, which seem to love to include gratuitous sexual content. And that's fine for those projects if it fits in their vision, but it just seems so antithetical to the Middle Earth that we know.
Can the Amazon series even come close to being as good as the films? It's possible, but unlikely. Again, the whole project seems motivated by the desire to make a quick buck (and they'll certainly need to do so in order to make up for the insane amount of money they've budgeted for the project), and it's doubtful that they'll be able to capture the same feeling that Jackson's original vision did. Obviously they'll want to put their own spin on it and the directors want to bring their own flair and creative style, but it will be truly shocking if the show manages to feel as genuine and authentic as the original trilogy did.