Everything you need to know about the ‘Lord of the Rings’ TV series

Lord of the Rings fans have been waiting for new content for a while. The big promise of a new streaming series from Amazon keeps the hope alive. Namely, this new story promises to dive deep into the world of Middle Earth and not overly drag out a book to do so in the process! (Yes, we’re forever salty about The Hobbit trilogy.) 

Due to COVID-19, however, production for the series was suspended for a time. As with all productions, if we’re being honest, while most Americans have been banned from international travel because, frankly, we can’t get ourselves together enough to get our COVID numbers down. There have been some exceptions to the rule, namely regarding film crews. 

Lords of the Rings has been given a special dispensation by the New Zealand government so that filming can continue for the Amazon series. Given how much cash is going into the production, it’s not a huge surprise. New Zealand also gave the greenlight to Netflix’s live-action version of Cowboy Bebop to film as well.

So if you need a little bit of a refresh about the Lord of the Rings series, here’s what you need to know.

What is the Lord of the Rings series about?

The Lord of the Rings series is actually a prequel series. It takes place during the Second Age of Middle Earth. For context, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings takes place thousands of years after the Second Age. So we’re going way before the formation of the Fellowship. The One Ring, however, will probably make an appearance. The Second Age is notable for the creation of the One Ring and the Rings of Power.

The Second Age, for context, lasted about 3,441 years so there are a lot of years to cover in the series. As for plot specifics, we don’t really know. Given this is when the One Ring and the Rings of Power are created? We have an idea of where we’ll end up in the series, possibly in the lead-up to such a creation. Perhaps even seeing a young Sauron?

Now that would be something. 

What has to done carefully, however, is making sure that series doesn’t contradict the Third Age, which is where The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings takes place. 

John Shippey, a Tolkien scholar, and consultant on Lord of the Rings, said of this focus on the Second Age.

“But you can add new characters and ask a lot of questions, like: What has Sauron done in the meantime? Where was he after Morgoth was defeated? Theoretically, Amazon can answer these questions by inventing the answers, since Tolkien did not describe it. But it must not contradict anything which Tolkien did say. That’s what Amazon has to watch out for. It must be canonical, it is impossible to change the boundaries which Tolkien has created. It is necessary to remain ‘Tolkienian’.”

Meet the team of Lord of the Rings

JD Payne and Patrick McKay (Star Trek, Jungle Cruise, Flash Gordon) will write the pilot for the series and serve as executive producers and co-showrunners. J.A. Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Orphanage) will direct the first two episodes of the series.

Robert Aramayo, 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 will make up the cast for the series, per the 2020 Winter TCA Press Tour.

When will the series come out?

Filming started in Feb 2020, but was suspended due to the general state of the world. Given that filming is resuming soon . . . we don’t know. Probably late 2021 or 2022 if New Zealand keeps its COVID-19 cases low.

But no one knows.