After the success of three epic fantasy movies, “The Lord of the Rings” is coming to the small screen. Amazon’s highly-anticipated and apparently quite expensive show has finished filming of the first season this week and will premiere on September 2, 2022.
About four years ago, the streaming service announced their plans to bring fans back to Middle-earth, but kept most of the details under wraps while giving a few hints every now and then.
Set thousands of years before the events chronicled in Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” the series will explore the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history.
Epic Premise and Massive Cast
Along with a debut date, Amazon Studios also released an official first image from the upcoming series, which will be set in Middle-earth’s Second Age. The show will explore an era where great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested and the greatest villain of Tolkien’s world threatened to unleash darkness.
“The Lord of the Rings” series will follow an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they face a long-feared re-emergence of evil in Middle-earth. The first season will span eight episodes, which will be released on weekly basis. English actor Robert Aramayo was cast in the lead role for the series, who played young Ned Stark in “Game of Thrones.”
The show’s cast includes Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, and Daniel Weyman, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Lenny Henry, Thusitha Jayasundera, Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, and more.
Prequel to LOTR trilogy
The works of J.R.R Tolkien feature four ages. While the Lord of the Rings was set in the Third Age, this series will take place in the Second Age.
The infamous One Ring of the popular movie series was forged during this period by the Dark Lord Sauron. It probably will explore the origin of the One Ring and how the lands fell under its dark influence.
In early 2019, Amazon shared an interactive map showing the region of Middle-earth that will be seen in the show. Although there is not much to see in the map, it does depict the island of Númenor, which was the Atlantis-like home of the Dúnedain, a favored race of men who plunged into darkness thousands of years before Bilbo and Frodo Baggins came along.
A big-budget show
It is a huge investment by Amazon in its Prime Video streaming service. This show is a big-budget project, with one season of the show costing more than $450 million. The magnitude of this upcoming show is being compared with that of “Game of Thrones.”
Moreover, Prime Video gave the series a multi-season commitment, believed to be for five seasons as part of the initial deal with the Tolkien Estate. With such a massive cast, shooting in New Zealand and five-season running, the series is likely to become the most expensive show in TV history.
The showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay said in a joint statement, “Living and breathing Middle-earth these many months has been the adventure of a lifetime. We cannot wait for fans to have the chance to do so as well.” Needless to say, the fans are super excited and can’t wait for September 2022.