While Amazon’s billion-dollar Lord of the Rings TV Series may hold the title of the most expensive television show yet, it is still technically without a proper title. While it will likely be called Lord of the Rings Second Age, we do not know for sure yet. Many fans are divided over what exactly it should be called. Its first look did give a lot of fans the relief they expect with a proper release date now in hand.
What to expect from The Lord of the Rings tv series
What we know beforehand is the series will not continue or be a sequel to Peter Jackson’s original film trilogy. Those movies followed Frodo and the Fellowship on their quest to destroy the One Ring. It takes place during the Third Age of Middle-earth. The Amazon show, on the other hand, takes place in the Second Age.
The Second Age lasted more than 3,400 years. According to the synopsis present in theonering.net, the series will see the rise of “the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness”. The “greatest villain” could be referring to Sauron, who rose during the early years of the Second Age. This period saw the creation of the One Ring and the War of the Last Alliance. The latter was briefly discussed in The Fellowship of the Ring. The debut movie saw Isildur cut the One Ring from Sauron’s fingers.
One of the biggest takeaways from the report is that Amazon has the licensing rights to parts of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, works that deal mainly with the distant past of J.R.R. Tolkien’s invented world. Since this show is set during the Second Age, thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings story proper, it would make sense that Amazon would want to adapt the relevant parts of those books. Apparently, it is doing so with the full approval and cooperation of the Tolkien Estate, which is more involved with this production than on other adaptations of Tolkien’s works. There were three lore experts/Tolkien scholars on set.
Release Date Info
The release date for the show was recently revealed as 2nd September 2022. It is being well anticipated by the fans of the movies as well as the books.
