Amazon has two big-budget series coming out.

Wheel of Time, starting next month.

And then their still untitled Tolkien series, coming 22 Sep’22.

I fear they will step on each other.

A great deal of fantasy is all Tolkien-derivative anyway.

Amazon is spending a whole lot of money on their Tolkien project. But I’m afraid the fantasy genre is getting far too played-out.

Between Marvel and DC running their character arcs into the ground with who knows how many reboots over the next few years, it is hard to care about any of the long running characters (e.g. Batman.)

There is a shallowness to super-hero shows that I find quite off-putting. Of course the “comic books” were mostly all for juveniles anyway, with some later ones intended for a more adult audience.

Anyway, I’m hoping Amazon is not going to go for the cheap whodunnit route for their Tolkien series. We already know who the guilty party is (Sauron) and what he did (made magical rings and one master ring and turned kings of men to evil.) There isn’t really a mystery there. So if Amazon is going to have a whodunnit in that series they are going to have to create a subplot with new characters.

There is, and the horse’s mouth has spoken on this, a new Babylon 5 series in the works. I hope it can make it to the screen. So many good ideas die by a thousand cuts from the suits.