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Topics: The Lord Of The Rings, TV And Film, Warner Bros
The Lord of the Rings fans discover that we nearly had a sequel before it was scrapped by its author, J.R.R. Tolkien.
When it comes to epic adventures, it doesn't get much better than the tales of The Lord of the Rings and its prequel, The Hobbit. The legendary tales of J.R.R. Tolkien’s good vs evil have inspired the likes of Star Wars and no doubt, its influence will continue for generations.
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The J.R.R. Tolkien novels also benefited from hugely successful live-action movie adaptations directed by Peter Jackson which began with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001, followed by The Two Towers and The Return of the King in 2002 and 2003, respectively.
The Hobbit was also stretched into three movies, but perhaps the less said about those, the better and more recently, we’ve just concluded the second season of Amazon Prime’s The Rings of Power.
Outside of the more common novels, J.R.R. Tolkien has written many more tales set in The Lord of the Rings universe that expand upon its lore, many of which are prequels.
However, The Lord of the Rings nearly received a direct sequel set roughly 100 years after the trilogy, until it was scrapped after only 13 pages.
“Today I learned that Tolkien wrote an incomplete sequel to The Lord of the Rings called The New Shadow,” announced Redditor Merrieboy as discovered in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.
It seems like The New Shadow would have been less about magic and mythical tales, and more political. Perhaps it was more akin to Game of Thrones, another property inspired by The Lord of the Rings.
The passage shared in the Reddit post states that the reason why The New Shadow was scrapped was simply because J.R.R. Tolkien found it boring and ultimately “not worth doing.”
“I didn't think this was possible, but I've just gained even more respect for Tolkien,” ZenNate replied. “He abandoned this project for the best possible reason.”
“We could've finally found out about Middle-earth's tax policies,” joked Blackgaze.
“I think it would have been extremely interesting, but without the Hobbit aspect, it wouldn’t have felt like a true follow-up,” Gavner-Purl suggested. “I know that may sound ridiculous but there’s a definite change in feel and atmosphere in stories like Children of Hurin, and Fall of Gondolin without Hobbits as the lead characters.”
We’ll never know for sure whether The New Shadow would have been a success, but if J.R.R. Tolkien felt the vibe was off, it was probably the correct decision to scrap it so early on.