Lord of the Rings Fan Fiction Writer Suing Tolkien Estate and Amazon For Copyright Infringement

A Lord of the Rings fan fiction writer is suing the Tolkien Estate and Rings of Power creator Amazon for copyright infringement of his novel The Fellowship of the King.

As reported by PC Gamer, Demetrious Polychron claims his work, which was registered with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2017 and published in September 2022, is “inspired by Lord of the Rings and J.R.R. Tolkien” but is a “wholly original book and concept”.

The lawsuit claims that The Rings of Power show infringes on his copyright and Polychron is seeking $250 million as a result.

Polychron also claims to have attempted several times to work with the Tolkien Estate professionaly. After filing the trademark, he sent a letter to J.R.R. Tolkien’s grandson and Tolkien Estate director Simon Tolkien, describing the book and asking the company to review his manuscript.

In 2019 Polychron hired an attorney to contact the Tolkien Estate again “with excitement to collaborate with the defendants and the anticipation of publishing his book to the public”. The complaint states the Tolkien Estate “rebuffed any attempt at collaboration the very next day”, so Polychron personally delivered a copyrighted copy to Simon Tolkien’s home.

He then claims to have asked for it back, telling Simon Tolkien in a letter that “he would publish The Fellowship of the King, and an additional six book series, independently”.

The lawsuit points out similarities such as one of Polychron’s characters being called Elanor, which is the same name as one of the Rings of Power characters. However, it should be noted that this is also the name of one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s own characters (one of Sam’s daughters.)

Season 2 of The Rings of Power is currently in production in the UK with no premiere date revealed so far. Game of Thrones’ Ciarán Hinds was recently confirmed to join the cast alongside several other actors such as Gabriel Akuwudike, Yasen ‘Zates’ Atour, Ben Daniels, Amelia Kenworthy, Nia Towle, and Nicholas Woodeso.

As for directing talent, Amazon has already confirmed that Charlotte Brändström, Louise Hooper, and Sanaa Hamri will lead Season 2. The trio have credits on The Witcher, The Sandman, and The Wheel of Time.

Filming of its second season hasn’t gone particularly smoothly so far though, as a horse recently died on set and a fire broke out a week later.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.