Sean Astin Weighs in on Amazon’s Possible Lord of the Rings Adaptation

Over the weekend, the beacons were lit and word got out that Amazon and Warner Bros. were in talks to turn The Lord of the Rings into a TV series. Sean Astin, who played Samwise Gamgee so wonderfully in Peter Jackson’s massively successful film trilogy, has now offered his two cents on the prospective project, which he says he saw coming several miles away.

“I saw that the other day, and I thought that was intriguing,” Astin said of the Amazon project on SiriusXM radio show Up All Afternoon with Kyle Anderson Tuesday, per EW. “I’ve been saying for 15 years that maybe like 12 years after Lord of the Rings came out, that it would get remade. And people always said, ‘Oh no, it’ll never get remade! It’s a classic! They could never top it!’ And I’m like, ‘No, it’ll get remade. It’s a massive story! The characters are so beloved.’”

When asked whether he would be willing to reprise his role as Sam, Astin demurred, because that’s just the kind of guy he is:

I’m carrying the Samwise banner for the Peter Jackson version of Lord of the Rings. When I saw the Amazon thing, that didn’t even occur to me. I just sort of thought, “What would it be like to see the next Sam there?” I think it’s an intriguing idea [but] the devil’s in the details. How would they do it? How? Who?

The Stranger Things 2 star (long live Bob!) also shared his thoughts on how he hopes Amazon will approach their adaptation creatively:

One of the great things about Netflix with Stranger Things is I’m sure they were giving script notes, but I never saw ’em. The Duffers got to make their movie. And the same was true with New Line and Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. First of all, New Zealand’s far away. And there were times they asserted themselves, but in a core way, Peter was making Peter’s movie. So I don’t know. The challenge would be, could they find some team to do it that they could let to their thing, or are they going to squat on it? It’s hard to make a TV series like this by committee.

Astin concluded by pointing out certain aspects of Middle-earth and its denizens that a LOTR TV series would be wise to delve into: “The Mines of Moria are referred to a lot in Lord of the Rings. And I guess in the Hobbit trilogy, you spent a little time with them, but the culture of the dwarves in the mines … I would love to see like five hours of that.” We’d be hard-pressed to disagree.

Stay tuned for more info on Amazon’s LOTR project, enjoy a handful of Samwise Gamgee’s finest moments below and revisit February 2017’s impromptu LOTR reunion here.