The Lord of the Rings series: release date, history, everything you need to know
The Lord of the Rings will be available in series! Amazon Prime Video is currently preparing a new adventure in the universe created by JRR Tolkien after buying the rights at a gold price. If it will have no direct link with the films, it will still allow us to dive back into Middle-earth for at least five seasons. Release date, history, budget, casting, we tell you everything we know about the production event!
The Lord of the Rings will be entitled to his series. Amazon has in fact signed a historic contract with the rights holders of JRR Tolkien, the publisher HarpersCollins and the New Line studios. The amount is $ 250 million for rights . According to this contract, Amazon undertakes to produce at least 5 seasons around this series inspired by the work of JRR Tolkien, 20 years after the global success of the film adaptation of Peter Jackson.
WHAT IS THE RELEASE DATE OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS SERIES?
Amazon has not officially confirmed a release date for the series, but at the rate of production, we can expect a release towards the end of 2021, at worst early 2022.
The series was announced in November 2017. A team of writers brainstormed for two years to create the best story possible. Filming began in early 2020 in New Zealand, but has been interrupted several times due to the coronavirus.
The pilot episode (the longest to do) finished filming at the end of December 2020 , its director JA Bayona (Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom) said. Filming for the rest of the season, which will be shorter, should resume in a few weeks. Note that season 2 has already been ordered.
If we follow the usual schedule of the series, we can therefore hope to see The Lord of the Rings arrive on Amazon Prime towards the end of the year at the earliest. Either way, we’ll have at least one trailer for us.
WHY WILL THE LORD OF THE RINGS SERIES BE ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO (AND NOT ON NETFLIX)?
More than the series itself, what is surprising is that it was Amazon that won the day. Netflix and HBO also coveted this monument of literature. Amazon has put its big checkbook on the table: Jeff Bezos’ group has announced a budget of $ 465 million just for the first season . For comparison, the first trilogy cost less than $ 300 million. The most expensive film in history, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, cost him $ 410 million.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Jennifer Salke, director of Amazon Studios, returned to the reasons for this staggering figure : “ It’s a complete season of a huge series that builds a whole universe”, explains- it. “The number makes a sexy title or a crazy title that is fun to click on, but it really builds the infrastructure of what will carry the whole series.” Let’s not forget that we also have to count the purchase costs for adaptation rights, which amount to $ 250 million .
For Amazon, this series is a chance to attract many more people to its Amazon Prime Video streaming platform, provided of course that it is successful. The firm’s economic model allows it to invest with a vengeance, hoping to create synergies. This is how Jeff Bezos once said: “ We manage to monetize (Prime Video) in a very unusual way. When we win a Golden Globe, it helps us sell more shoes ”.
In addition to Lord of the Rings, Amazon is stepping up its investments to expand Prime Video’s offering. The platform already offers big budget content, like The Boys or Carnival Row. In this area, the series devoted to Middle-earth should become the jewel in its crown.
WHO IS DIRECTING THE SERIES?
Every series must have its showrunners. JD Payne and Patrick McKay will fill this role for The Lord of the Rings. These two screenwriters, who have worked together for over twenty years, are not very well known to the general public, as they have not yet been credited on large projects. They signed the scenarios for the next Star Trek, Godzilla Vs Kong or even Jungle Cruise. Amazon has chosen to bet on these two strangers, which is reminiscent of the bet made by HBO at the end of the 2000s. The chain had given its confidence to two strangers David Benioff and DB Weiss, for his Game of Thrones series, with the success we know. Will this new creation centered on Middle-earth meet the same fate?
It should be noted Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, is not involved in the project.
JA Bayona, Spanish director best known to the general public for Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, will be executive producer and director of the first two episodes. On the first season, Amazon also assembled a fine team of writers, many of whom worked on prestigious projects like Breaking Bad, Stranger Things or Toy Story 4.
WILL WE SEE FAMOUS ACTORS ON THE SCREEN?
On screen, Amazon has chosen to bet on a cast without any headliner. The flagship role (Beldor, character created especially for the occasion) will be played by Robert Aramayo, who we have already seen briefly in Game of Thrones. He was indeed the one who played the young Ned Stark (played in his older version by a star actor in the Lord of the Rings trilogy: Sean Bean. The world is small).
Galadrielle will also be present in a younger version, played by Morfydd Clark (Cate Blanchett in the movies).
Fun fact, an actor from the first trilogy will be returning for the series. This is Peter Tait. He played an orc named Shagrat in The Return of the King. We can imagine that he will play another character here.
Note that Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in both trilogies, expressed his wish to return to the role of the magician. If his character is an immortal (Istari), his appearance on screen is complicated, since he is supposed to arrive in Middle-earth long after the events that will be described in the first season. We must therefore put a cross on it , unless the situation turns around.
WHAT WILL BE THE HISTORY OF THE SERIES?
The plot will take place during the Second Age of Middle-earth , which is thousands of years before the Peter Jackson films (which take place at the end of the Third Age). There was rumor at one point that the story would center on a young Aragorn, but eventually Amazon went in a whole different, much more interesting direction.
In March 2019, the series’ official Twitter account unveiled a map of Middle-earth. Specificity compared to the map taken from the films: it includes the island of Nùmenor , which speaks a lot to Tolkien fans.
Equivalent to Atlantis in Tolkien’s universe , Nùmenor is an island where a race of men called Nùménoréens lives, endowed with a longer life than normal. Aragorn is a descendant of this line. The mouth of Sauron, which we see at the end of The Return of the King, is him a Nùmenorean perverted by the Dark Lord and made immortal.
The tweet that presents the map is accompanied by a well-known text:
One Ring to rule them all
One Ring to find them
One Ring to bring them all,
And in darkness bind them
To the land of Mordor where shadows lie.
On January 13, 2021, Amazon delivered a first official synopsis. If it remains quite nebulous on the scenario, we know that a big bad guy will come back (Sauron?) And that we will see places of Middle-earth such as the Misty Mountains, the Lindon or even Nùmenor. Here it is :
“The upcoming Amazon Studio series brings to screen for the first time the heroic legends of Second Age fables in Middle-earth history. This dramatic epic takes place several thousand years before the events of JRR Tolkien’s books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. ”
“The plot will take viewers into an era in which great powers have been forged, kingdoms advanced to glory before falling to ruin, unlikely heroes have been put to the test, hope hangs on a thread finer than ever, as the greatest villains to ever come from Tolkien’s pen threaten to plunge the world into darkness. ”
“The series, the plot of which begins in a time of relative peace, follows a set of characters, as familiar as they are new, as they confront the resurgence of Evil in Middle-earth.”
“From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elven capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking charm of the island kingdom of Númenor, to the farthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will forge a legacy that will live on long after their departure ”.
While the story focuses well on the creation of the Rings and Sauron’s betrayal, the series will be set thousands of years before the War of the Last Alliance, which serves as the introduction to the Fellowship of the Ring movie. The writers therefore have the free field to tell their story without being “embarrassed” by the films.
It is not impossible that the series will take the side of the anthology , that is to say to tell a different story with new actors in each season. Middle-earth would lend itself perfectly to this exercise. It is an extremely rich universe, which spans more than twelve thousand years and which includes hundreds of stories.
ARE THERE OTHER PROJECTS AROUND THE LICENSE?
Amazon broke its piggy bank to obtain the rights to The Lord of the Rings and fully intended to exploit them to the fullest. In addition to the series, an MMORPG set in Middle-earth was planned. Developed by Athlon, this major title was announced in 2019. However, the project was canceled following the acquisition of the studio by Tencent. A blow for the fans who waited patiently for it. However, it is hard to imagine Amazon not exploiting the universe on other formats and we can hope for the announcement of new projects in the coming months.
Of course, we are still relatively far from the release of the series. But we’ll be updating this file regularly with all the information we have about The Lord of the Rings series. What do you think of Amazon’s participation in this project? Are you interested in a story that takes place long before the movies? Share your opinion in the comments!
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