A fan story is said to have been the origin of Amazon’s “Rings of Power” series. That could cost $250 million now.
The Amazon series “The Rings of Power” from the Lord of the Rings universe was received by fans as “poor” at best. For Amazon itself, the series is likely to have been a financial and marketing flop, because there was criticism from all sides. But the already expensive project could subsequently become even more expensive. Because an author is suing Amazon and claims that the series was mainly based on his works.
What happened? The author, who goes by the name “Demetrious Polychron”, wrote the book “The Fellowship Of The King” a few years ago and also published it on Amazon last year. The story is based on the story of The Lord of the Rings and tries to fill in gaps left by JRR Tolkien in his work.
In other words, the book is fan fiction.
Polychron had sent the book to JRR Tolkien’s grandson, Simon Tolkien, back in 2017 asking for an opinion on the book, but never received any response. Simon Tolkien is the heir and director of The Tolkien Estate – much of the rights to The Lord of the Rings reside there.
The book “The Fellowship Of The King” was nevertheless registered with the “US Copyright Office” after no response.
Then in 2019, Polychron tried again, this time through a lawyer, to get in touch with The Tolkien Estate. The request for cooperation was rejected the very next day. Polychron then personally brought a manuscript of his book to Simon Tolkien – and then received no answer either.
Ultimately, the book was published on Amazon in 2022 and 6 more books are said to be in the works.
What happened then? Demetrious Polychron claims his copyrights have been violated by the series “Rings of Power”. According to him, Amazon took several ideas and concepts from his book. Some of these allegations are curious, for example Amazon is said to have taken the character “Elanor” from the book of Polychron – although Elanor was also mentioned in the original “Lord of the Rings” books.
The total claim amounts to over 250 million US dollars.
It remains to be seen whether Demetrious Polychron will get through the lawsuit. Even if most consider his chances to be very slim, America sometimes surprises with rather strange court decisions.
If that happens, “The Fellowship Of The King” is likely to be the most financially successful fan fiction that has ever existed – albeit differently than originally planned.