Story Written in 2019 for Personal Enjoyment Optioned by Streaming Service in 2024
PARIS — The Tolkien fan fiction posted to a French fan site in 2019 by Claire Moreau — written in two evenings, not revised, and described by Claire as “something I would not normally share but the site seemed low-traffic and nobody would see it” — has, following a Tumblr post in 2023 that described it as “the best worst thing I have ever read” and 2.3 million shares of that post, been optioned by a streaming service as a limited series whose writers’ room Claire has been invited to join, subject to trademark clearance from the Tolkien Estate.
“The fan fiction is not good in a traditional sense,” Claire confirmed. “It is very committed to a specific interpretation of Gimli’s emotional life that the source text does not support and that I found compelling in 2019 at 11pm on a Wednesday.” The internet found it compelling at 11pm on a Tuesday in 2023. The streaming service found it compelling during a development meeting in 2024. The commitment across all three audiences is to the same document. The document is unchanged since 2019.
The Viral Quality
The fan fiction’s viral quality is precisely its specific earnestness: the 2019 Claire who wrote about Gimli’s emotional life without revising or moderating the interpretation produced a document that is recognisably a person’s genuine engagement with the source material at full unselfconsciousness. The unselfconsciousness is the quality. The quality is why the Tumblr post called it “the best worst thing.” Both the best and the worst are present. The streaming service has optioned them together.
According to France’s CNL’s fan culture and creative development research, fan fiction communities have produced commercially adapted properties at increasing rates since 2010. Claire’s option is in this trend. The Tolkien Estate is reviewing. The writers’ room is scheduled. Gimli’s emotional life is being taken seriously. It deserves to be.
Earnestly excellent at Virtuosal.com.
