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Amazon’s highly anticipated The Lord of the Rings TV show will be released on Amazon Prime in September 2022. Specifically, it’ll be out on September 2. New episodes will debut weekly.
September 2 is a notable day The Lord of the Rings, as JRR Tolkien passed away on September 2, 1973. The show will premiere on September 2, 2022 in 240 territories globally, Amazon said in a press release.
Filming wrapped up on Season 1 today, August 2, in New Zealand. The show still doesn’t have an official title.
Amazon Studios boss Jennifer Salke told The Hollywood Reporter that the hope was to launch The Lord of the Rings in 2021, but the pandemic might have changed plans.
“The journey begins September 2, 2022 with the premiere of our original The Lord of the Rings series on Prime Video,” Salke said in a statement. “I can’t express enough just how excited we all are to take our global audience on a new and epic journey through Middle-earth! Our talented producers, cast, creative, and production teams have worked tirelessly in New Zealand to bring this untold and awe-inspiring vision to life.”
The showrunners on The Lord of the Rings are Patrick McKay and JD Payne, both of whom do not have experience running a TV show. Neither did D.B. Weiss and David Benioff before they worked on Game of Thrones, which would become a juggernaut.
“As Bilbo says, ‘Now I think I am quite ready to go on another journey.’ Living and breathing Middle-earth these many months has been the adventure of a lifetime. We cannot wait for fans to have the chance to do so as well,” Payne and McKay said in a statement.
With a reported budget of $465 million for Season 1, The Lord of the Rings TV show is one of the most expensive TV productions in history.
“The number is a sexy headline or a crazy headline that’s fun to click on, but that is really building the infrastructure of what will sustain the whole series,” Salke said of the budget. “As for how many people need to watch Lord of the Rings? A lot. (Laughs.) A giant, global audience needs to show up to it as appointment television, and we are pretty confident that that will happen.”
The show features an ensemble cast that includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani.
Behind the camera, Amazon recruited Breaking Bad alum Gennifer Hutchison as an executive producer, while Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom’s J.A. Bayona, Doctor Who’s Wayne Che Yip, and The Witcher’s Charlotte Brändström all directed episodes.
The official description for Season 1 is below:
“The new epic drama brings to screens for the very first time J.R.R. Tolkien’s fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. Beginning in a time of relative peace, thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, 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.”
