Very clickbait headline. The relevant info is that the show will include Harfoots (a type of hobbit), but the story is supposedly based in the 2nd age. Tolkien Canon doesn’t have hobbits appearing until the 3rd age, according to the article.
My understanding is that Tolkien canon doesn’t have any stories big enough for a full show, though it does have lots of smaller tales scattered throughout history. So to make a show, they have to create a narrative within the context and setting of the world at that time. I think Tolkien paints a rich history, so there is a lot of existing world building to pull from to set the show within. I don’t think the change “hobbits exist in the world a few hundred years earlier” makes a negative impact — I think many will be excited to see hobbits in the show!
Side note: I think it’s interesting that Amazon is spending so much money on the show. I hope that means they know they need to “do it right” and not cut corners in order to attract the huge LOTR fanbase. I also find it interesting that they are contractually obligated to make five seasons.
The Second Age material isn't so much "smaller tales" as a very, very high level overview. It covers thousands of years in a few pages, and the most detailed stuff covers enormous events in a paragraph or so. It's almost entirely limited to a single small (but important) island, with only limited references elsewhere.
But it provides just enough scraps to hang a story on. To tell that story, they'll have to be intimately familiar with the First and Third Ages, not for consistency of events but to understand the ethos and mindset of the people.
I think everybody already figured this out. Tolkien's a bit old fashioned, even Jackson thought his work needed a few extra jokes, zingers, and love triangles which would have horrified the now deceased author, a relic of another time. It's good to keep things fresh, it's why we rewrite the Bible and the Koran every few years to keep the cultural references and in-jokes fresh.
The people that complain about "woke" want to be the target audience. Much of "wokeness" consists of realizing that they've been the target audience for practically everything, for a very long time. And anti-wokeness consists of insisting that it has to continue to be that way, and that anything else is somehow immoral.
Readit News
My understanding is that Tolkien canon doesn’t have any stories big enough for a full show, though it does have lots of smaller tales scattered throughout history. So to make a show, they have to create a narrative within the context and setting of the world at that time. I think Tolkien paints a rich history, so there is a lot of existing world building to pull from to set the show within. I don’t think the change “hobbits exist in the world a few hundred years earlier” makes a negative impact — I think many will be excited to see hobbits in the show!
Side note: I think it’s interesting that Amazon is spending so much money on the show. I hope that means they know they need to “do it right” and not cut corners in order to attract the huge LOTR fanbase. I also find it interesting that they are contractually obligated to make five seasons.
But it provides just enough scraps to hang a story on. To tell that story, they'll have to be intimately familiar with the First and Third Ages, not for consistency of events but to understand the ethos and mindset of the people.