New Line Cinema

By Jeremy Mathai/July 27, 2022 11:00 am EST

In case you haven’t noticed, we happen to find ourselves smack dab in the middle of a burgeoning arm’s race for prestige fantasy shows. With original hits such as Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and HBO’s “Game of Thrones” over and done with, the next stage of competition has begun with their newest incarnations: Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” series and the spin-off/prequel series “House of the Dragon.” In this age of “content,” of course, that means storytellers have had to dig through each property’s respective source material to find stories that are actually worth telling. As you can imagine with a creator as protective and picky (and slow-moving!) as George R.R. Martin, many proposed concepts to expand the universe of “Game of Thrones” never quite made it to the finish line.

But as far as we knew, only rumors pointed towards the concepts that were ultimately passed over in favor of what would eventually become “The Rings of Power.” In a new report, however, the two showrunners for the new “The Lord of the Rings” series have opened up about the pitches that never quite passed the smell test and were destined for an untimely demise. That’s right — in some alternate timeline, we could’ve been looking forward to “The Lord of the Rings Origins: Aragorn,” “The Continuing Adventures of Gimli,” and who knows what others. Check out all the details below.

But as far as we knew, only rumors pointed towards the concepts that were ultimately passed over in favor of what would eventually become “The Rings of Power.” In a new report, however, the two showrunners for the new “The Lord of the Rings” series have opened up about the pitches that never quite passed the smell test and were destined for an untimely demise.

That’s right — in some alternate timeline, we could’ve been looking forward to “The Lord of the Rings Origins: Aragorn,” “The Continuing Adventures of Gimli,” and who knows what others. Check out all the details below.

‘They said the field was wide open — any story within that material, you could tell’

In a new interview with Total Film, “The Rings of Power” co-showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay were asked about the could-have-been’s that might have come to fruition had the decisionmakers chose differently. Somewhat surprisingly, Payne indicates that anything and everything was on the table.

In addition to confirming previous reports, this quote also gives quite a bit of insight into just what material Prime Video is able to dip into (as I reported here while on the ground at Comic-Con).

We’ll find out on September 2, 2022 whether “The Rings of Power” proves to be, as Payne puts it, “worthy of Tolkien.”