One hurdle the show will have to overcome is the story that they’re trying to tell, and the time period that they’re setting it in. The story might be unconnected from any characters we’ve seen previously, and while that allows them to tell a new story without worrying about keeping character integrity, it might be hard for some people to get invested in the show when the world is familiar but none of the characters are. The show is also going to be set during the Second Age of Middle Earth, which is one of the least-discussed times in J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. It takes place long before the events of both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but it’s unclear what events the show will take place during.

One of the main storylines that happens during the Second Age is the fall of Númenor, and it seems as though the show will be touching on this event. Númenor was an island (similar to Atlantis) that came out of the sea and was eventually destroyed during the Second Age. Númenor was home to the Dúnedain, which were a race of men who left the island before it was destroyed and went on to create the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor. Aragorn (from The Lord of the Rings trilogy) was actually a descendant of the Dúnedain, and there have been rumors that the show will follow parts of his life, perhaps as a young man, and detail the fall of his ancestors. This might be an interesting plot point to explore, but it also raises a problem.

It wasn’t just the story that fans fell in love with when they first watched the Lord of the Rings movies, but the characters as well. Those movies have perfect casting, with many of the actors giving career-best performances. Audiences may not react well to seeing other actors in the roles that were made iconic by the original actors in the films. If they decide to go with a young Aragorn story, no matter how skilled the actor portraying him is, for many fans, it still won’t hold a candle to Viggo Mortensen’s performance in the original movies. The show may find itself stuck in a catch-22 where audiences won’t connect to a story that is entirely unrelated to the characters they already know and love, but they also won’t accept those characters being played by anyone else, or the possibility of those characters being the victims of bad writing in a new story.

MORE: 10 Forgotten Lord Of The Rings Games You Need To Play