Amazon has reportedly renewed its Lord of the Rings series for a second season.

Set in Middle-earth, the television adaptation will explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. These will be set a generation before the familiar events of Tolkien’s trilogy, in the Second Age of Middle-earth.

The project was first announced in 2017 and has since amassing a sizeable cast and crew. Confirmed in front of the camera are Will Poulter, Markella Kavenagh and Joseph Mawle, and behind the camera are J.A. Bayona (directing the first two episodes), executive producers Lindsey Weber (10 Cloverfield Lane), Bruce Richmond (Game of Thrones), Gene Kelly (Boardwalk Empire), Sharon Tal Yguado, Gennifer Hutchison (Breaking Bad), Jason Cahill (The Sopranos), and Justin Doble (Stranger Things), showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay (Star Trek 4), costume designer Kate Hawley (Suicide Squad), production designer Rick Heinrichs (Star Wars: The Last Jedi), visual effects supervisor Jason Smith (The Revenant), Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey and illustrator/concept artist John Howe.
 
All of that adds up to a hefty price tag, especially given the cost of initially securing the rights to the novels. That deal included a multi-season commitment, but Amazon still needs to give the formal green light for each run. Now, Amazon Studios has given the order for a second season, with chief Jennifer Salke confirming to Deadline last weekend that the writers had been commissioned to break ground on the next run.

Amazon has also reportedly ordered a four-month hiatus after the filming of the first two episodes, allowing the team the chance to review the footage but also plan out efficient ways to prepare for Season 2 filming, either by shooting some footage at the same time or filming the two runs back-to-back.

Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series to film in New Zealand

18th September 2019

Amazon Studios has announced that its series based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic fantasy novels The Lord of the Rings will film in New Zealand.
 
“As we searched for the location in which we could bring to life the primordial beauty of the Second Age of Middle-earth, we knew we needed to find somewhere majestic, with pristine coasts, forests, and mountains, that also is a home to world-class sets, studios, and highly skilled and experienced craftspeople and other staff. And we’re happy that we are now able to officially confirm New Zealand as our home for our series based on stories from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings,” say showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay.
 
“We are grateful to the people and the government of New Zealand and especially Auckland for supporting us during this pre-production phase. The abundant measure of Kiwi hospitality with which they have welcomed us has already made us feel right at home, and we are looking forward to deepening our partnership in the years to come.”
 
Set in Middle-earth, the television adaptation will explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. These will be set a generation before the familiar events of Tolkien’s trilogy, in the Second Age of Middle-earth. Will Poulter will star in the series, reportedly alongside Australian star Markella Kavenagh.

J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage) will direct the first two episodes and also serve as executive producer, alongside his partner, Belén Atienza. Executive Producers are Lindsey Weber (10 Cloverfield Lane), Bruce Richmond (Game of Thrones), Gene Kelly (Boardwalk Empire), Sharon Tal Yguado, Gennifer Hutchison (Breaking Bad), Jason Cahill (The Sopranos), and Justin Doble (Stranger Things).
 
 

Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series will be set in the Second Age

8th March 2019

Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series will officially be set in the Second Age, the online giant has announced.

Announced in 2017, the project is a hugely ambitious one for Amazon Prime Video, and not just because it costs a lot of money, although it does that too; the rights for J.R.R. Tolkein’s novels cost a reported $250 million, before production costs even began to mount up, with a commitment from Amazon to making multiple seasons.

Since then, speculation has run rampant about what the series might cover, speculation that has increased following the hiring of Star Trek 4 writers JD Payne and Patrick McKay to pen the show. Last month, Amazon teased the programme with the release of a map of Tolkein’s Middle-earth, which fans noted included Calenardhon, the name of Rohan’s lands when it was ruled by Gondor, which places the show as taking place in the Second Age (the Third Age is when The Lord of the Rings took place).

Now, Amazon has confirmed that the series is going to be set generations before Aragorn and other known characters showed up. “Welcome to the Second Age,” tweeted Amazon cryptically, before going on to quote a passage from Tolkein’s novels: “One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.”

The words were accompanied by a newly expanded and detailed map, including Numenor, the land from which Aragon’s ancestors hail, which suggests that we’ll be looking at the bloodline leading to the eventual King of Gondor. The rhyme, meanwhile, suggests that we may be following, in particular, the years leading up to the Last Alliance of Elves and Men (Gil-galad and Elendil, father of Isildur) and, eventually, the first downfall of Sauron.

Amazon teases map for Lord of the Rings series

20th February 2019

Amazon has been teasing some initial details of its new Lord of the Rings series – or, more accurately, teasing fans about how secretive it’s going to be about said details.

Announced in 2017, the project is a hugely ambitious one for Amazon Prime Video, and not just because it costs a lot of money, although it does that too; the rights for J.R.R. Tolkein’s novels cost a reported $250 million, before production costs even began to mount up, with a commitment from Amazon to making multiple seasons.

Star Trek 4 writers JD Payne and Patrick McKay were eventually tapped to write the series, although Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke has revealed, alongside a few other bits that there is “no timetable” for the show’s release. That suggests that there is still some scope for developing and planning a story and director for the series to take, and it’s perhaps in that spirit that Amazon this week revealed a map of Middle-earth.

That map doesn’t give us much to go on, but eagle-eyed fans have spotted that it includes Calenardhon, the name of Rohan’s lands when it was ruled by Gondor. That places the series in the Second Age of Middle-earth, i.e. the one before the Third Age, which is when Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy (and Tolkein’s novels) take place. That suggests that plans have moved on from 2018, when it was rumoured by The One Ring that the series would follow a young Aragorn, with the prequel instead going even further back into Tolkein’s lore for storylines.

Salke told the media at the TCA press tour that the team is “making great progress”, but has since spoken a bit more about the project – or, specifically, the secrecy surrounding it.

In an interview with THR, Salke noted that she, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and Senior Vice President of Business Development Jeff Blackburn had a meeting with Tolkien’s estate in New York to “see some art, some creative work that they haven’t shown the world yet”. She also noted that the writers room is being very carefully contained.

“There’s a fantastic writers room working under lock and key. They’re already generating really exciting material. They’re down in Santa Monica,” she elaborated. “You have to go through such clearance, and they have all their windows taped closed. And there’s a security guard that sits outside, and you have to have a fingerprint to get in there, because their whole board is up on a thing of the whole season.”

Amazon officially announces Lord of the Rings prequel series

13th November 2017

Amazon is officially making a new Lord of the Rings prequel series.

The show, which was rumoured to be in negotiations at Amazon earlier this month, will be set in Middle Earth, the home of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic, which has grown over the years from a world-renowned literary work to a blockbuster movie franchise. Its theatrical adaptations, from New Line Cinema and Director Peter Jackson, earned a combined gross of nearly $6 billion worldwide. With an all-star cast that included Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Sean Astin and Orlando Bloom, The Lord of the Rings trilogy garnered a combined 17 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
 
Amazon’s new TV adaptation will explore new storylines preceding The Fellowship of the Ring, the first book in the trilogy. The deal includes a production commitment to multiple seasons, plus a potential additional spin-off series.

The series will be produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment.
 
It shows that Amazon’s serious about its shift in focus away from smaller projects to bigger, mainstream productions that will generate as much watercooler buzz as possible. While some may debate the originality of choosing a fantasy franchise that has already been adapted for the screen, Amazon is putting its money where its confidence is: Deadline reports that the Tolkein estate (which approached Netflix and HBO) have asked for around $250 million for the deal. That does not include any development or production, but solely the rights to mount a Lord of the Rings TV show in the first place. With costs for an epic series likely to stretch to around $100 million a season, including talents and production itself, this is a gargantuan gamble for Amazon Studios.

“‪The Lord of the Rings‬ is a cultural phenomenon that has captured the imagination of generations of fans through literature and the big screen,” says Sharon Tal Yguado, Head of Scripted Series, Amazon Studios. “We are honored to be working with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins and New Line on this exciting collaboration for television and are thrilled to be taking The Lord of the Rings fans on a new epic journey in Middle Earth.”
 
“We are delighted that Amazon, with its longstanding commitment to literature, is the home of the first-ever multi-season television series for ‪The Lord of the Rings‬,” adds Matt Galsor, a representative for the Tolkien Estate and Trust and HarperCollins. “Sharon and the team at Amazon Studios have exceptional ideas to bring to the screen previously unexplored stories based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s original writings.”

The show is expected to premiere in 2020.

Amazon in talks for Lord of the Rings TV series

4th November 2017

Amazon is in talks to develop a TV series based on The Lord of the Rings.

Amazon Studios has been undergoing a tumultuous time in recent months, as the online giant’s TV and film arm has parted ways with a wave of executives. That was kick-started by Roy Price, who was initially suspended after an allegation of sexual harassment from a producer on The Man in the High Castle. Shortly after, Amazon’s head of scripted, Joe Lewis, and head of unscripted, Conrad Riggs, also departed.

Heather Schuster is now Amazon’s head of unscripted, with Tracey Lentz appointed head of creative unscripted and Sharon Tal Yguado in charge of all scripted series. They are working alongside Albert Cheng, who was appointed as Price’s interim replacement.

The major reshuffle also comes at a time when Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been pushing for a change in focus at Amazon Studios, with Bezos wanting to move away from niche projects, such as award winners Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle, and develop programming with a wider international appeal. That shift has seen both The Last Tycoon and Z: The Beginning of Everything cancelled, while deals have been made with genre stalwarts such as The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman.

A project involving The Lord of the Rings would fit right in with Amazon’s aim to reach a more mainstream audience. With Warner Bros. reportedly shopping around a series based on the novels, it is no surprise that Amazon has emerged as the frontrunner in a competitive bidding situation.

The negotiations mark a significant improvement in the relationship between Warner Bros., which produced Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films (pictured above), and the Tolkein estate, after they settled a long-running lawsuit in July, which revolved around the use of characters from the films in various games. Variety reports that Bezos himself is involved in the negotiations with Warner Bros., although talks are still in the early stages.