Peter Jackson explains why he wasn't involved in new Lord of the Rings series: 'The scripts never showed up'

Blame the poor cell service in the Mines of Moria maybe.

Peter Jackson, the Oscar-winning director of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, says the studio behind the upcoming Amazon Prime Video series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power requested his input on the show but then never followed through.

"They asked me if I wanted to be involved — [writer-producer Fran Walsh] and I — and I said, 'That's an impossible question to answer without seeing a script,'" Jackson said on The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast this week. "So they said, 'As soon as we get the first couple scripts, we'll send them to you.' And the scripts never showed up."

Although he says that's the last he heard from the studio, Jackson insisted his feelings aren't ruffled. "I'll be watching it," he said. "I'm not the sort of guy who wishes ill will. Filmmaking is hard enough. If somebody makes a good film or TV show, it's something to celebrate. The one thing I am looking forward to is actually seeing it as a perfectly neutral viewer."

The streamer announced their adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's works in 2017. Five years later, the reported billion-dollar production is set to debut next month on Amazon Prime Video with a cast of 22 regulars playing elves, dwarves, humans, and harfoots, the predecessors to the hobbits.

"In pursuing the rights for our show, we were obligated to keep the series distinct and separate from the films," Amazon Studios told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement. "We have the utmost respect for Peter Jackson and The Lord of the Rings films and are thrilled that he is looking forward to watching The Rings of Power."

This echoes creator Patrick McKay's comments in Entertainment Weekly's new cover story about the guiding principle of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

"We felt that this was this great epic that was distinct enough from what had been adapted before, but it had enough connections to be a little familiar," McKay said. "That's kind of been the watchword from day one: to do something different but familiar, and hopefully huge, epic, and awesome in its own right."

Representatives for Jackson and Amazon Prime Video did not immediately respond to EW's requests for comment.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres Sept. 2 on Amazon Prime Video.

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