From Westeros to Middle-Earth.
Photo Credit: New Line Cinema
Game of Thrones alum Bryan Cogman has been tapped by Amazon Prime Video to work as a consultant on its in-the-works Lord of the Rings prequel series, according to author George R.R. Martin and trade reports. He will work alongside J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, who were announced as showrunners and head writers in July last year. Cogman is an experienced Thrones veteran, having served as a writer, producer, co-executive producer, and executive story editor across the eight seasons of the HBO show. He was credited on 11 Game of Thrones episodes in total, including season 8's arguably best episode, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”.
“Amazon [has] scooped up Bryan Cogman, and put him to work on developing shows of his own, as well as helping out on their big Tolkien project,” Martin wrote on his blog earlier this week, with the ‘big Tolkien project' no doubt being the Lord of the Rings series, which is based in the universe created by J.R.R. Tolkien. Variety confirmed Tuesday that Cogman was indeed moving from one epic fantasy project to another, which would be in addition to his overall deal at Amazon Prime Video that he signed back in September last year to develop and produce original series.
There haven't been many details on Amazon's Lord of the Rings project since its initial announcement in late 2017. We know that it will be set in the Second Age of Middle-Earth, which puts it hundreds or thousands of years before the events of the first Lord of the Rings movie, The Fellowship of the Ring. It has a five-season commitment and is expected to cost $1 billion across that run, though it's unclear if the reported $250 million Amazon paid for the rights is part of that.
In addition to the Lord of the Rings prequel series, Cogman is also working on a live-action adaptation of Disney's animated film The Sword in the Stone, which is being made for Disney+. Cogman was also involved with one of the five Game of Thrones prequel spin-offs, but he revealed in April that his was one of two that was not moving forward. HBO still has three in the works, with one — starring Naomi Watts — set to enter production in a few weeks.
Amazon hopes to have Lord of the Rings on the air in 2021.
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