Produced by Amazon Prime and reportedly costing more than any TV show ever, the new Lord of the Rings series has revealed very little about its plot so far. But with its title now confirmed, and with some explanation from the show’s creators, we finally know a little more about what to expect.
Here’s what showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay had to say about The Rings of Power:
“The Rings of Power unites all the major stories of Middle-earth’s Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord, Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.
“Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring - but before there was one, there were many…and we’re excited to share the epic story of them all.”
The teaser trailer shows the title of the series being forged at a blacksmith’s — and that’s actually being forged in a blacksmith’s, not just a CGI sequence. It’s narrated with the famous Ring Verse speech, which details where the 20 rings of power were distributed before the Dark Lord Sauron first attempted to take hold of Middle Earth.
This means the show will be a prequel to the stories we know and love in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. JRR Tolkein’s estate forbade Amazon to focus on the content of the books, so much of what we watch will largely be original material driven by Tolkein’s extensive Middle Earth bible, The Silmarillion.
Amazon Prime Video now lists The Rings of Power on its streaming app, showing a new synopsis that provides more detail on the plot, plus a release date of 2nd September 2022.
Until now, it’s been unclear whether the series would take a darker, more explicit Game of Thrones-style route, or a more family-friendly one similar to the existing Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. But the Prime Video listing shows an age rating of 16+, which would place it roughly in between the two.
The Rings of Power is already being called the most expensive TV show ever. Amazon initially bought the rights to the Tolkein universe for $250 million and then announced plans to spend $1 billion on the production and marketing over its five-season runtime.
So with this much investment going into one of the most treasured fictional worlds of all time, there are many fingers crossed for a TV show that’ll be worth it. But unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until the 2nd September to learn that.
