At long last, the highly anticipated The Lord of the Rings series from Amazon Studios has set a release date. The series will premiere on Amazon Prime Video September 2, 2022.
Season 1 filming wrapped today in New Zealand, and with it came the first official image from the series. Episodes will begin airing on September 2, 2022 in 240 countries and territories worldwide and will release weekly. The episode count has not been released yet.
Amazon’s series will follow the Second Age of Tolkien’s work in Middle-earth, taking place thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogies. The Second Age was that of which bore the rings of power. It famously ended with the defeat of Sauron in the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. It also featured the fall of Númenor, the home of the Aragorn’s forefathers. Viewers of the original series will remember a brief detailing of these events opening The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in a haunting narration by Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel.
The Second Age of Middle-earth is detailed in some of Tolkien’s posthumous works published by his son: The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, and The History of Middle-earth.
Amazon’s official synopsis reads:
“Amazon Studios’ forthcoming series brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.”
The series is led by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay, who said, “As Bilbo says, ‘Now I think I am quite ready to go on another journey.’ 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.”
The series stars Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani.
Now that filming is complete, we can only hope that more news begins to trickle out about the series. Amazon has done incredibly well keeping leaks and spoilers at bay thus far. The Lord of the Rings series is Amazon’s priciest endeavor yet, spending $465 million on the project.
Tolkien fans are notoriously loyal to the work of Tolkien. How Amazon holds up to the source material is sure to be scrutinized as the series airs.
Stay tuned for more news surrounding The Lord of the Rings series as it comes out!
