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@JuleZ '02 HEEL
Okay so I've been thinking a lot about this because, well, I'm a nerd.
Here is a good article about 5 storylines the TV series could focus on. My vote is absolutely choice #3. It would be a good decision to focus on the story of Celebrimbor because he's prominently featured in the Shadow of Mordor / Shadow of War PS4/XBox1 game series... a game series that's sold millions and millions of copies. Now, granted, the version of Celebrimbor presented in those two games is, like the article says, a bastardized version and portrays him to be slightly evil and sinister. But still, even if they portray Celebrimbor more correctly in the show, I think it would be wise to build off the momentum of that videogame series.
The Elendil / Isildur idea could work for sure, especially because Numenor is never showed in the movies, so it would give the show writers infinite creative license to design it however they wanted. But I still think the Celebrimbor vs. Sauron idea is best. It would focus heavily on the creation of the rings, which movie-only and book+movie fans alike would love. And overall, it gives tons of different storylines to work into the show. In addition to following Sauron (Annatar) in human form and following Celebrimbor and his secret making of the 3 Elven rings, you could follow any of the 9 (or all of them) men who ultimately become corrupted by the nine rings. Tolkien never names any of them or says much about their past, so the show writers could really set up those characters and follow their ultimate descent into ring wraiths.
As for the other ideas presented in the article, I think the young Aragorn storyline is a non-starter. You'd have to cast someone other than Viggo Mortensen and it would just be stupid because Aragorn wouldn't look like the Aragorn everyone is used to seeing. The Beren and Luthien storyline isn't a good fit either, IMO. It's too esoteric and not similar enough to the movies. People would be like WTF is this. Same thing with the The Children of Hurin.
Some other ideas I've thought of are:
1. Following the Rangers of the North through the centuries. This would be a fantastic storyline for the show because it would appease film-only fans as well as book fans. Let's be real, for this show to be mega successful on the level of GoT, it's going to have to incorporate elements from the movies to draw in folks who know the movies but are less familiar with the books. The Rangers of the North storyline would be great because it takes place in the Third Age, the same age as all of the events in LOTR. Furthermore, it involves Gandalf and it involves Eriador, the region of middle-Earth where almost all the events of Fellowship take place... The Shire, Bree, Rivendell. Since Ian McKellen has expressed desire to play Gandalf, this storyline would be a good one. To get a sense of what I'm envisioning, read this
Wikipedia page's chronological history. The series could open with the Witch-king and the Nazgul totally owning Arnor and you could incorporate all the gratuitous battle scenes and violence you wanted. Then, Arnor falls, and the line of Rangers begins. It's got Sauron, it's got Gandalf, it's got The Shire since the Rangers continuously guard The Shire. It also overlaps the time period of the War of the Dwarves and Orcs alluded to in the Hobbit movies, as well as the formation of the White Council. Lots of things hinted at in the movies could be explored in more detail.
The downside is it would have to be a bit of an "anthology" story-telling since it passes from one chieftain to the next to the next, all with similar names, but it could definitely be done. There's also plenty of villains and evil available such as Nazgul, wolves, orcs.
2. War of the Dwarves and Orcs. This by itself could be multiple seasons, especially since we're really introduced to Dwarves in the Hobbit movies.
