‘Lord Of The Rings’ Show Updates: New Teaser, Release Date & More You Need To Know

It’s time to go back to Middle-earth. The first television adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is coming to Prime Video. After a massive $250 million deal in 2017, Amazon Studios acquired the global TV rights to The Lord of the Rings, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s best-selling novels. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is one of the most highly-anticipated shows of 2022.

The Lord of the Rings series already has a premiere date and another season is already in the works. This is just the beginning of Amazon’s plans for The Lord of the Rings. From the cast to the teasers, HollywoodLife has rounded up everything you need to know about the epic series.

The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Teasers

A second teaser was released on July 14. The footage gave fans a first look at characters from  the island kingdom of Númenor. The characters are Isildur (Maxim Baldry), Elendil (Lloyd Owen), Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle), and Queen Regent Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson). Additional Númenóreans also recently announced are Kemen (Leon Wadham) and Eärien (Ema Horvath).

The teaser trailer also highlighted some of the realms viewers will visit over the course of the 8-episode first season, including the Elven realms of Lindon and Eregion, the Dwarven realm Khazad-dûm, the Southlands, the Northernmost Wastes, the Sundering Seas, and the island kingdom of Númenór.

The first teaser trailer dropped 5 months during the 2022 Super Bowl. “Before the king. Before the fellowship. Before the ring. A new legend begins this fall,” the tagline read. A voiceover says, “Haven’t you ever wondered what else is out there? There’s wonder in this world beyond our wandering. I can feel it.”

The Plot

The Lord of the Rings television series is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The show will bring to the screen the legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history.

Viewers will be transported 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,” according to Amazon’s description of the show. The series will begin at a “time of relative peace” and follow 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.”

Filming

The show filmed in New Zealand, where The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies filmed. The series began filming in early 2020 and was close to finishing the first two episodes when production was shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming resumed in New Zealand in Sept. 2020, Deadline reported. The Lord of the Rings series was granted a border exemption by the New Zealand government in July 2020 to film.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom director J.A. Bayona posted an Instagram photo in late Dec. 2020 saying that he was leaving New Zealand, a hint that the first two episodes of the Amazon series had been completed. “This is my last photo in New Zealand. I have no words to thank this extraordinary land and its beautiful people for taking me in this last year and a half. My heart feels a little kiwi now and I can’t wait to be back,” he wrote. J.A. is also an executive producer. Filming officially wrapped in August 2021.

Release Date

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will launch on Prime Video on September 2, 2022. New episodes will be available weekly. The first season will consist of 8 episodes. The show has already been renewed for season 2.

The Cast

The Lord of the Rings series features a massive ensemble cast from all over the globe. In January 2020, Amazon Studios revealed the first set of cast members, including Robert Aramayo, Benjamin Walker, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, and Daniel Weyman.

You’ve likely seen many of these cast members before. Robert is best known for playing a young Ned Stark in Game of Thrones. Robert reportedly replaced Will Poulter, who had been in negotiations for the young hero role, according to Deadline. Will left the project due to scheduling conflicts. Nazanin is widely recognized for her roles in Counterpart, Homeland, and more. Ismael is jumping from one major TV series to another. He recently starred in the hit HBO miniseries The Undoing.

Amazon revealed a second wave of cast members in Dec. 2020. Those cast members include Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Simon Merrells,​ Geoff Morrell, Peter Mullan, Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, and Sara Zwangobani. Ian, Kip, Anthony, Maxine, Peter, Alex, and Leon all hail from New Zealand. The remaining cast members hail from Australia, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

“The world that J.R.R. Tolkien created is epic, diverse, and filled with heart. These extraordinarily talented performers, hailing from across the globe, represent the culmination of a multi-year search to find brilliant and unique artists to bring that world to life anew. The international cast of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings series is more than just an ensemble. It is a family. We are thrilled to welcome each of them to Middle-earth,” showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay said in a statement.

Season 2

The LOTR series has already been renewed for a second season. Amazon Studios head, Jennifer Salke, confirmed to Deadline that season 2 was already in the works all the way back in November 2019. Along with the renewal, the show was expected to go on a 4 to 5-month hiatus after filming the first two episodes of season 1 to give the writing team time to write and plan season 2. Filming is expected to begin in mid-2022.

How To Watch

The Lord of the Rings series will be available to watch on Prime Video. The show will be available in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.