Every Tolkien Creature Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings Show Needs To Introduce
Amazon's The Lord of the Rings show needs to introduce several evil-aligned Tolkien creatures to up the narrative stakes of its epic story. The streaming giant first purchased the television rights for The Lord of the Rings for $250 million in November 2017, making a five-season production commitment worth at least $1 billion overall. This deal, coupled with a mammoth season 1 budget of $465 million, makes Amazon's The Lord of the Rings the most expensive television series ever made, with a big chunk of the show's production budget likely to be spent on bringing Middle Earth's most ferocious creatures to life via CG.
While plot details remain largely under-wraps for Amazon's The Lord of the Rings to date, the series is confirmed to take place across the Second Age as Middle Earth's inhabitants confront the re-emergence of a long-forgotten evil. However, despite its synopsis, Amazon has also revealed the iconic dark lord, Sauron, will not make an appearance in the inaugural season of The Lord of the Rings. Sauron's confirmed omission has fueled speculation that The Lord of the Rings season 1 will instead focus on the defeat of Morgoth, the original dark lord who called forth numerous evil creatures to do his bidding at the dawn of the Second Age.
This opens up the tantalizing possibility of seeing some of Middle Earth's most formidable evil-aligned foes brought to life in the highly anticipated The Lord of the Rings series. Many of J.R.R. Tolkien's scariest creatures were already extinct by the time the narratives for both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy began, giving the Amazon original series a golden chance to establish them as canon in the LOTR movie universe. Here's every terrifying Tolkien creature Amazon's The Lord of the Rings needs to introduce, as well as how the show is perfectly set up to do so.
Some of the scariest entities to ever exist on Tolkien's Middle Earth did so at the beginning of the Second Age, with many of these creatures free to wander the land following Morgoth's defeat (and before Sauron's rise to power across the course of the age). The timing of Amazon's The Lord of the Rings story, therefore, is perfect, with the show able to depict the original dark lord calling forth legions of dragons, Long-Worms, and spiders that only exist in legend by the time The Fellowship of the Ring's narrative begins. Many of these creatures go on to exist independently following Morgoth's destruction and play key roles in Sauron's rise to power, meaning establishing their existence in season 1 is key to The Lord of the Rings' overarching story.
Narrative cohesion aside, Amazon's The Lord of the Rings should also introduce Tolkien's previously unseen creatures due to the narrative stakes they inherently carry. Presenting new evil behemoths for the series' protagonists to battle is evocative of some of the franchise's classic clashes, such as Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin) fending off Shelob or Bard (Luke Evans) slaying Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) with his father's arrows above Lake Town. In this way, The Lord of the Rings introducing the most feared creatures of the second will give the Amazon original the same grandiose stakes that made Peter Jackson's films so compelling to begin with.
Although The Hobbit's Smaug remains the most famous of Middle Earth's dragons in contemporary culture, several offshoots of his species command greater fear and respect across Tolkien's canon. Scatha The Worm is one such example here, with the wingless dragon described as "the greatest of Long-Worms to ever live in Middle Earth." Scatha, like Smaug after him, became obsessed by hoarding riches, with the famed Long-Worm active across the entirety of the Second Age prior to his death at the hands of Éothéod at the beginning of the Third Age. A scourge of both the kingdoms of men and dwarves, Amazon's The Lord of the Rings could well see Scatha plague its protagonists as he prowls the slopes of the Grey Mountains seeking riches.
While Scatha exists largely independently of the main LOTR Second Age narrative, Ancalagon the Black helped shape the age's destiny under the command of Morgoth. The first winged dragon and the largest ever to exist in Middle Earth, Ancalagon initially acted as Morgoth's greatest weapon in battle before betraying his dark master and directly contributing to his defeat to begin the Second Age. Amazon's The Lord of the Rings may well feature Ancalagon's deception to introduce the changing of the ages in Middle Earth, while the great dragon's death at the hands of Eärendil will likely feature in the series at some point as Sauron consolidates his power. Ancalagon's legend is also proven to carry far beyond his lifespan, with Gandalf stating to Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring that "not even Ancalagon’s flames could destroy the One Ring," further hinting at Ancalagon's inclusion alongside a young Gandalf in the Amazon original.
The first dragon born from the dark pits of Angband, Glaurung the great worm is often considered the progenitor of future dragons across Middle Earth. Glaurung could best be utilized in Amazon's The Lord of the Rings via flashbacks, due to his legacy, with the Dragon King's death leading to house Marach's rise to prominence across the Second Age. The Amazon original will likely involve members of the house of Marach as they become known as the house of Hador before assimilating into the kingdom of Númenor that forms the backbone of Tolkien's Second Age storyline adjacent to Sauron's ascent.
While less likely to appear in The Lord of the Rings than her draconic counterparts, the mother of all spiders' inclusion would be a surefire way to command immediate attention by the Amazon original. A mysterious entity made of pure darkness, the Ungoliant feasted on life-force itself with an insatiable appetite in Tolkien's The Silmarillion. As with Ancalagon the Black, the Ungoliant was originally allied to Morgoth before betraying him and contributing heavily to his ultimate demise at the end of the First Age of The Lord of the Rings canon, making her a tantalizing choice for inclusion in the Amazon original series.