Amazon has been a major player in the arena of streaming scripted television for several years now.

In spite of this, it has failed to produce a genre show that is both a popular hit and critical darling - a lá HBO’s juggernaut Game of Thrones, or Netflix’s pop culture phenomenon Stranger Things.

In order to rectify this, the online powerhouse dug into its nearly bottomless coffers to pay a reportedly mind-boggling 250 million dollars for the television rights to the most iconic and revered fantasy novels of all time, The Lord Of The Rings.

Keep in mind, that amount is only for the rights to produce a LOTR television series.

Industry analysts predict the show may cost as much as 100–150 million dollars per season to produce. This will be the most expensive television production deal in history.

It may also be one of Amazon’s biggest stumbles since introducing its ill-fated Fire Phone.

To be fair, it is understandable why Amazon would gamble on a LOTR television series fulfilling its ambition of creating a critically acclaimed hit inextricably linked to its brand.

The LOTR novels continue to be adored by fans from all over the world. The film franchise produced by Warner Bros. has grossed nearly three billion dollars at the box office, and the books — which are perennial bestsellers — were declared the best of the millennium in a readers poll Amazon conducted in 2000.

Still, while a LOTR series may seem like a sure bet on paper, there have been significant cultural shifts since The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring debuted in theaters in 2001.

Before then, epic fantasy films were made very sporadically, and were considered unworthy of award attention.

After the stunning critical and commercial success of the original LOTR film trilogy, Hollywood frantically mined other fantasy novels for films, such as the Percy Jackson book series, Harry Potter, and The Chronicles of Narnia, to produce a slew of motion pictures which have met with varying degrees of success.

Television soon followed the cinema with small screen adaptations of fantasy works, such as the currently airing The Shannara Chronicles, based on the novels by Terry Brooks.

Even so, fantasy did not garner the same critical respect on television as dramas and comedies until the debut of HBO’s Game Of Thrones in 2011.

Game Of Thrones shocked audiences, and signaled another paradigm shift in the way fantasy is perceived as a storytelling device.

Based on the bestselling novels by George R. R. Martin, GOT represents a polarizing subgenre of fantasy known among fans as “grimdark.”

Grimdark fantasies are the antithesis of fantasies that follow in the tradition of LOTR.

These stories are set in dark and gritty worlds, and feature explicit depictions of sex, profanity, violence and gore.

The most prominent hallmark of grimdark is the obliteration of demarcations between what is commonly believed to be good and evil.

Main protagonists are often amoral, and only motivated to act due to self-interest. Heroic characters in grimdark frequently do not fare well due to their inability to navigate and counter the Machiaveillian schemes surrounding them.

GOT’s grimdark pedigree exposed audiences to a dimension of fantasy never before seen onscreen. The result is it exploded into another massive, award-winning hit for HBO.

In contrast, Amazon is playing it safe in pursuing LOTR as a television series — which is not the best strategy to employ if it wants to finally breakthrough.

With six movies already produced, the world of Middle-Earth has already been extensively explored onscreen — and audience fatigue has begun to set in.

While the ill-advised The Hobbit film trilogy was a commercial success, the movies felt superfluous and overblown.

Seeing more of the same on television does not elicit the same levels of excitement and anticipation as it once would.

Amazon needs to take a bold, creative risk in order to produce a genre series that will make audiences and critics alike stand up and take notice.

Modern fantasy has long been criticized for drawing too heavily upon archetypes and tropes established by LOTR; the stories are set in worlds which are analogues to medieval Europe. They are often populated by elves, orcs, goblins, dragons, and dwarfs. There is always a “chosen” one, and a apocalyptic final battle must be fought to save the world.

Also, fantasy, like most other media, is still overwhelmingly centered on whiteness - with people of color and members of other marginalized groups essentially erased, or depicted in stereotypical roles as slaves, or on the side opposing the heroic white protagonist(s).

A fraction of what Amazon is investing in another excursion to Middle-Earth could instead be spent producing a series of extraordinary quality based on the brilliant works of genre authors from marginalized communities. These authors break away from traditional fantasy narratives in terms of characterization, setting, themes and perspective.

The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin

N.K. Jemisin is a bestselling author whose books often feature women of color as main protagonists. Her characters inhabit wondrous worlds of mysticism, political intrigue, and peril. In her novels, immortal gods take on human flesh to engage with mortals, characters are both heroic and flawed, and wielding power often comes at a price. Her books also explore the intersections of class, gender, ethnicity, sex, and power in dynamic ways which make for intensely compelling dramas.

Then there is the magnificent novel The Grace Of Kings by Ken Liu that is part of a intriguing subgenre of fantasy called “silkpunk.” Silkpunk explores fantasy through the lens of East Asian culture, technology, folklore, and history.

Such works from diverse authors like these— with the resources of Amazon behind them- would make excellent candidates for a breakout television series, because they would offer audiences audacious fantasies displayed in new, fresh, and exciting frames.

Instead, Amazon is sinking a literal fortune into another excursion to Middle-Earth. It may prove to be the critical and commercial boon the company is looking for, but when I consider it, I feel as if I have been there and done that.