The adventures in Middle-earth aren’t ending any time soon. The first television adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is currently airing on Prime Video, and it’s truly epic in scale. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has already been renewed for season 2 and filming has already started.
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 Rings of Power hit the top of the streaming charts in its debut week with 1.3 billion minutes viewed, beating out HBO’s House of the Dragon. From the cast to what we know about season 2, HollywoodLife has rounded up everything you need to know about the epic series.
The Rings Of Power 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, which will consist of 8 episodes.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power began filming on October 3, 2022, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Filming is taking place at the moment at Bray Studios outside London and will continue in the U.K. The first season was filmed in New Zealand over the course of 18 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The show moved locations to be more “economical” and because Amazon is establishing a “multishow hub” in the U.K.
The fan-favorite character Círdan the Shipwright will be joining the fun in the second season. “We don’t want to give too much away, but one character we’re excited for folks to meet in season 2 is Círdan the Shipwright,” showrunner J.D. Payne told TIME. “In the time of our story, he’s the oldest of all known elves in Middle-earth—in fact he lived so long, he had a beard.” An actor has not been cast in the role.
The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Trailers
The official trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power dropped on August 23, just two weeks before the big premiere. Galadriel takes over her brother’s vow to fight the enemy. “Each of us, every one, must decide who we shall be,” Galadriel says.
Halbrand later tells Galadriel, “I’m not the hero you seek.” She replies, “Whatever it was you did, be free of it.” In the last seconds of the trailer, Elrond asks Galadriel to put away her sword after a valiant fight. “Without it, what am I to be?” she says.
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). A week later, a new trailer dropped during the show’s San Diego Comic Con trailer and teased Sauron wreaking havoc.
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.
‘The Lord of the Rings’ series. (Prime Video)
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 first season The Rings of Power filmed in New Zealand, where The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies were 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 launched on Prime Video on September 2, 2022. Prime Video premiered with the first 2 episodes of the series. The following weeks feature only one episode dropping per week. The first season consists of 8 episodes.
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 December 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.
How To Watch
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is available to watch on Prime Video. The show is available in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.