The Lord of the Rings: The Second Age

Hmm, what could Amazon Studios mean? On Twitter, the producers of the long-in-the-works Lord of the Rings TV series have finally shared a synopsis, but it’s full of obscure hints about “great powers… forged,” and “the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen.” Inscrutable, yes? Nobody can figure out such complex hints — though we must admit, the words seem to have a familiar ring. The serialized epic was first announced in 2017 as a prequel to Peter Jackson’s twin trilogies, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. We later learned that JD Payne and Patrick McKay will handle showrunning duties, and that the events will take place in the Second Age, as described in Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. Second Age — that rings a bell. Isn’t that when the big bad villa...