That is interesting news indeed, and (as most of you have probably already guessed) it now seems possible that the Amazon deal only could have come to fruition after Christopher Tolkien's resignation (and what that means concerning the nature and the scope of the rights which were acquired by Amazon is an entirely different question). Reading both news stories, one could of course reach the somewhat off-putting but not entirely unreasonable conclusion that Christopher Tolkien's successor or successors immediately acted upon his resignation and decided that the time had finally arrived to milk this cashcow for all its worth.
That said, I am not sure how long such high-stake negotiations in the entertainment business normally take. According to the PDF which Voronwë cited, Christopher Tolkien's appointment was terminated (I am not overly familiar with English law lingo, but couldn't this also mean that he was forced by others to resign?) on the 31st of August. If this whole deal had only been set into motion after his resignation, that would have given the parties involved only two and a half months to plan, pitch, negotiate, and sign the deal. That seems somewhat unrealistic, but then again, I am not working in the respective business. If one is in the habit of raising thoroughly unsubstantiated allegations, one could also theorize that Christopher Tolkien stepped down from his position because he did not want to sign off to this or similar television deals (I am not phrasing this sentence the way I do to imply that I believe in this scenario)
But then again, Christopher Tolkien is a man in his early nineties, and even if he were younger, multiple other reasons could exist for his resignation.
I honestly did not expect a confirmation of the Amazon deal so soon. Maybe this indicates that we will already get more concrete news about the series in the next six months, potentially even before the end of this year:
something along the lines of where and when it will take place, who the main protagonist will be, and who will step into the roles of main writers:
MOUNT DOOM--(NEW YORK TIMES)--Dec. 17, 2017: Amazon today announced more details about their upcoming prequel series for
The Lord of the Rings. "Amazon is proud to announce the reveal of
The Young Strider Chronicles" said Aaron Aaronson, Head of Blockbuster Series, Amazon Studios: "The series is set fifty years before the events of
The Lord of the Rings and will explore the adventures of a young Aragorn, seeking fame and love in the wider world of Middle-earth. Accompanied by his childhood-friends Andriel, the feisty and strong-willed daughter of Galadriel, and the always-disgruntled dwarf Bofobur, son of Hofobur, the young Strider will meet new friends and foes along his way. The series will introduce Olgbush, the long-forgotten second lieutenant of Sauron, who plans to conquer all of Middle-earth in the absence of his lord. Executive producer J. J. Abrams promises a faithful adaptation of Tolkien's larger bibliography: "We really try to remain faithful to the source material. Our main villain, the fierce-some Olgbush, for example, appears in a fan letter written to Tolkien in 1984. We really believe that Tolkien's main themes - cool battles, huge swords, and lots of landscape vistas - guide us in our effort to bring Middle-earth to a wider, 21st-century audience. Roberto Orci along with
Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have been announced as the main writers for the show, which, according to them, will feature a main twist about Sauron.
The Young Strider Chronicles is scheduled for release on Oct. 16, 2019.
PS: Good news for V: Just read that in March of this year Amazon also announced that they will produce a series about
The Grateful Dead. If all things go south, that way you can get Amazon Prime and potentially hate-watch two series at once (
http://deadline.com/2017/03/grateful-de ... 202055101/).