Amazon Studios announced yesterday that filming had wrapped in New Zealand on season one of the highly-anticipated The Lord of the Rings series. Production had been previously halted in early 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic but resumed in September of the same year.

To the relief of all who love the original books and film adaptations, the studio finally confirmed a release date for the still-untitled project first announced in 2017. 

Thankfully, the long wait is almost over. So mark your calendars, Tolkien Geeks, for Friday, September 2, 2022, to immerse yourself once more in the magical world of Middle Earth!

“The journey begins September 2, 2022, with the premiere of our original The Lord of the Rings series on Prime Video,”

said Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios. 

“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.”

Alongside the date, the studios flamed fans’ excitement with a single sneak-peek photo to celebrate the completion of the shooting in the South-pacific island country. 

The beautiful landscapes of New Zealand have always been the home for Tolkien adaptations, and this time was no different.

Additionally, its government has also granted Amazon Studios a NZ$162 million ($116 million) taxpayer-funded subsidy to film this first season there as part of a broader agreement. 

This agreement aims to boost New Zealand’s economy over the next decade through tourism branding and promotion.

Joining in on the celebration, even New Zealand’s Ambassador to Egypt, Mr. Greg Lewis, tweeted out just earlier today, asking Lord of the Rings fans to “rejoice!” And this is no doubt a time and reason for us to rejoice for both Kiwis and fans of these well-loved fantasy novels.

However, a small minority of fans are more careful to jump into cheer, seeing as little is known about the character standing in the image or the person portraying them, leaving many to speculate. 

The mystery is fueled further by the fact that no specific roles have been specified for the series’ announced ensemble cast, which contains relatively unfamiliar names to worldwide audiences like Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, and Ismael Cruz Córdova among others. 

The Crown’s Charles Edwards is also involved, yet, with doubt and apprehension, hardcore fans are still left to wonder whether this new series could potentially live up to the hype of its film predecessors. 

Although there have been several adaptations of Tolkien’s timeless work, including animation and live-action ones, none has been as successful and perhaps revolutionary to film-making and the creative industry as Peter Jackon’s original Lord of the Rings series (2001, 2002, 2003), which had won a collective total of 17 Oscars out of 30 Academy Award nominations. 

This total also included awards in the top categories of Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Return of the King, which ties with Titanic and Ben-Hur for the record for most Oscars held by a film: 11.

What else do we know about the new Lord of the Rings series?

Well, not much. We know that developers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay described it as an “epic drama” set in the Second Age of Middle-earth.

This means that it will act as a “thousands of years before” prequel to the events taking place in the Lord of the Rings films and J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy. 

Although the Hobbit trilogy also acted as a prequel (logically), this would count as the very first time Tolkien’s Second Age of Middle-earth’s history is tackled on any screen.

The eight-episode season will be available for broadcast through Amazon’s streaming platform service, Amazon Prime Video.

The first episode will premiere on the set debut date, with the remaining seven episodes being released afterward weekly.

Are you excited about the new series? Anxious and doubtful? Let us know your thoughts and wishes for the September 2022 Amazon series!