Peter's Jackson Isn't Involved in the Lord of the Rings TV Series

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Peter Jackson Confirms He Isn't Involved With Lord of the Rings TV Series

By Taylor Williams

Published Jun 7, 2018

Peter Jackson confirms he won't be involved in Amazon's Lord of the Rings series at this time.

Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson was recently rumored to be considering a return to Middle Earth with Amazon's Lord of the Rings series. However, representatives for the New Zealand-based filmmaker have now confirmed that he is not involved with the series at this point in time.

Conflicting reports out of foreign news outlets earlier this week suggested that Jackson either wasn't involved in any capacity with Amazon's Lord of the Rings series, or was putting the creative team behind the series together instead of acting as showrunner. According to Digital Spy, Peter Jackson's representatives have confirmed that he is not involved in the Amazon project at this time.

IGN's German site reported on Tuesday that Jackson had a phone call with Amazon about the Lord of the Rings series, but that he wasn't interested in being a showrunner for it.

"I had a phone conversation with Amazon on that one," Jackson said. "I think that was over a year ago and it sounded like they were doing the right thing [with the show], they have very good intentions with it. It all sounds very fascinating and exciting. However, I would not want to be the one responsible for the entire TV series, simply because I've never been responsible for a [long-term] series like this before in my life. So, it would not be very smart if I took on the role of showrunner. What I'm actually doing right now is putting the creative team [behind the series] together."

This is in contrast to an interview with French publication Allocine, in which Jackson stated that he wasn't involved in the series in any capacity. "I'm not involved at all with the Lord of the Rings series," Jackson told Allocine. "I understand that my name can be quoted, but nothing is happening with me on this project."

Jackson’s next project is an adaptation of Philip Reeve’s 2001 novel Mortal Engines, a story about a mobile city of London trying to survive the post-apocalypse. Directed by Christian Rivers from a script by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, Mortal Engines stars Robert Sheehan as Tom Natsworthy, Hera Hilmar as Hester Shaw, Stephen Lang as Chrysler Peavy, Hugo Weaving as Thaddeus Valentine, Colin Salmon as Chudleigh Pomeroy and Ronan Raftery as Bevis Pod. The film hits theaters Dec. 14.