Overview
They're taking the hobbits to Amazon — and, in just over a year, fans of Lord of the Rings will be able to see the end result. Mark Friday, September 2, 2022 in your diary, as that's when you'll be trekking back to Middle-earth via Amazon Prime Video's new LOTR show. It's called The Lord of the Rings, too, but it isn't just serving up a rehash.
The series' existence shouldn't be new news, given that the streaming platform first announced it back in 2017, and then gave it the official go-ahead in mid-2018. Since then, the LOTR show has sat at the top of fans' most-anticipated list, obviously. Over the years, we've also heard that it wouldn't just remake Peter Jackson's movies, and learned a few concrete details regarding what it's about as well.
Now, however, there's a specific date to look forward to — albeit a year later than when it was originally expected to drop, with sometime in 2021 initially floated. That was before the pandemic, though, and we all now know how much havoc COVID-19 has played on, well, everything,
Amazon Prime Video announced the 2022 premiere date to mark the end of filming the show's initial batch of episodes. If you're wondering how it'll look — and how New Zealand's scenic landscape will be used this time around — the streaming service also dropped a first image from the series. Greenery abounds, naturally, as does a towering city surrounded by mountains, as well as a glowing sky.
Also wondering what the series will cover if it's not retelling the events of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books? The show will spend time in Middle-earth's Second Age — and bring that era from the LOTR realm to the screen for the very first time. According to the official synopsis, it'll follow "the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth's history," with the action set thousands of years before the novels and movies we've all read and watched. The series will also "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."
If you're a little rusty on your LOTR lore, the Second Age lasted for 3441 years, and saw the initial rise and fall of Sauron, as well as a spate of wars over the coveted rings. Elves feature prominently, and there's plenty to cover, even if Tolkien's works didn't spend that much time on the period — largely outlining the main events in an appendix to the popular trilogy.
Naturally, you can expect Sauron to feature in the new show, and to give its main figures some trouble. "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," the official synopsis continues. "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," it also advises.
In terms of stars, LOTR will feature an unsurprisingly large cast — and some impressive talent behind the scenes. Among the actors traversing Middle-earth are Tom Budge (Judy & Punch), Morfydd Clark (Saint Maud), Ismael Cruz Córdova (The Undoing), Joseph Mawle (Game of Thrones), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (The Accountant), Maxim Baldry (Years and Years), Peter Mullan (Westworld), Benjamin Walker (The Underground Railroad) and comedian Lenny Henry. And, the series is being overseen by showrunners and executive producers JD Payne and Patrick McKay, while filmmaker JA Bayona (A Monster Calls, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) directs the first two episodes.
Amazon's new Lord of the Rings series will premiere on Friday, September 2, 2022.