Amazon Prime Video has announced that the first and second episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings Of Power will premiere in the UK on September 2nd at 2 am. The remaining six episodes of the eight-episode series have been announced to air weekly thereafter (Fridays at 5 am), with the finale on October 14th.
The highly anticipated series will act as a prequel to J. R. R. Tolkien’s beloved Hobbit and Lord of the Rings series.
Set 1000 years before the events of the ever-popular trilogies, it has been announced that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings Of Power will reveal the origin stories of the Second Age of Middle-earth, the Dark Lord Sauron, and the 20 mythical rings.
In 2017 Amazon purchased the television rights to The Lord of the Rings for $250 million, making a commitment to a five-season production. The first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings Of Power, is purported to be one of the most expensive shows ever made, costing Amazon Studios $465 million to create (a figure made even more impressive when considering it only cost $281 million to make the early 2000’s major motion picture trilogy).
Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke justified this extraordinary price tag in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter - “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.”
Showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay stated in an interview with Empire, “The rich world that J.R.R. Tolkien created is filled with majesty and heart, wisdom and complexity … We are absolutely thrilled to be partnering with Amazon to bring it to life anew.”
Words by Luke Horwitz
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