Several Amazon executives and the Tolkien descendants are being sued for $250 million. They allegedly stole the storyline for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power from a fan’s book.
Whether The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power can keep up with the originals by J.R.R. Tolkien, most fantasy fans will probably deny. After all, there were many original ideas in the first season. But even there, an author named Demetrious Polychron disagrees: According to his $250 million lawsuit, Amazon and the Tolkien descendants are said to have unscrupulously stolen from his books for the series.
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series and fan fiction are said to have many parallels
As reported by entertainment site Radar Online Demetrious is currently suing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and the administrators of the Tolkien estate, among others, for damages. The producers are said to have adopted characters, storylines and even images based on the covers of his books.
By his own admission, Demetrious wrote and published a novel based on Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings template called The Fellowship of the King. He had also created a seven-book series called The War of the Rings.
The author claims to have acquired a copyright for the novel in 2017. However, any attempt to contact Tolkien’s descendants was fruitless for years. Now they will have to listen to how it looks.
Whether Demetrious’ lawsuit can succeed is difficult to assess. Many Tolkien fans will find it brazen. Proceedings based on allegations of plagiarism can nevertheless be very complicated and take years before a decision is reached.
