Tolkien’s son had strict requirements for the creators of The Rings of Power, but even that did not help the series.

Christopher Tolkien was the youngest son of the legendary John R.R. Tolkien and the chief defender of his father’s literary legacy.

For more than forty years, Christopher ran the Tolkien Estate, an organization that owns all rights to the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, with the exception of the film rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, which were sold during the professor’s lifetime.

Christopher Tolkien is remembered by many as the man who resisted years of attempts to turn Middle-earth into another Star Wars-like franchise, and his absent “feud” with Peter Jackson became almost legendary.

Christopher always had a respectful, almost sacred attitude toward his father’s texts, and any attempts to commercialize and popularize father’s work drove him crazy.

Christopher has always been, at best, neutral about Peter Jackson’s movies. But in 2012, in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, he finally said everything he thought:

“They just gutted the book and turned it into an action movie for 15-25 year olds. Tolkien has become […] consumed by his own popularity and the absurdity of the world we live in. I just can’t understand the widening gap between the beauty and seriousness of my father’s work and what it has become.”

According to popular belief, Christopher Tolkien was so opposed to the film version of The Lord of the Rings that he forbade all family members from even contacting Peter Jackson.

In 2008, the Tolkien Estate filed a lawsuit against New Line and Warner Bros., claiming that the Tolkien Estate had not received its contractual share of the profits from the trilogy.

The Tolkien Trust, a charitable foundation that supports many causes around the world, was to receive the bulk of the money. In 2017, however, both sides came to an agreement.

Christopher Tolkien’s strict requirements also applied to the creators of The Rings of Power. The series had to be faithful to the original story of Middle-earth.

The writers were not allowed to deviate too much from the important events and storylines clearly described in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.

Unfortunately, Christopher passed away in 2020. If he had lived to see the release of the series, the show’s creators would have for sure heard a lot of unflattering words.