For many fans, the works of J.R.R. Tolkien have become synonymous with the name Peter Jackson. After all, Jackson received global acclaim for his massively successful The Lord of the Rings trilogy, followed by The Hobbit trilogy. So when Amazon Studios announced a big budget television series based in the world of Lord of the Rings, Jackson’s name naturally came up.

 In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Jackson said he was initially approached by Amazon for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. “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,’ … So they said, ‘As soon as we get the first couple scripts, we’ll send them to you.’ And the scripts never showed up. That’s the last thing I heard, which is fine. No complaints at all.”