Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!
The Lord of the Rings: Amazon reveals title, first details for mega-expensive 'The Rings of Power' series
Get ready for a Middle-earth like you've never seen it before!
Start preparing for your return trip to Middle-earth! Amazon just revealed the official title for its mega-super-expensive Lord of the Rings television series: The Rings of Power. Got goosebumps yet? Scheduled to premiere in early September of this year, the multi-season fantasy drama is set during the Second Age, thousands of years before to the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and subsequent trilogy of novels (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King).
The show will — among other things — focus on the origin of the nineteen magical rings given to the realms of Elves, Dwarves, and Men. Sauron, of course, wielded the twentieth — "One Ring to rule them all." Utilizing real-world forging techniques and high-end cameras specifically made for filming slow-motion sequences, Amazon crafted a nifty little teaser trailer containing several voiceover lines of the famous poem (also known as the "Ring Verse") associated with the coveted artifacts:
“Three rings for the Elven-kings under the sky. Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone. Nine for mortal men doomed to die. One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne in the land of Mordor where the shadows lie.”
Watch the teaser below:
"This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R Tolkien's other classics. 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," co-showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay said in a joint statement. "Until now, audiences have only seen onscreen the story of the One Ring — but before there was one, there were many... and we're excited to share the epic story of all of them."
The Rings of Power kicks off in a time of "relative peace," following an ensemble roster of characters (both new and familiar) as they contend with the long-feared re-emergence of a great evil that threatens to cover the world in darkness. The plot synopsis promises to take viewers on a wild ride through Tolkien's fully-realized literary universe — "from the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the Elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the farthest reaches of the map."
Kingdoms will rise, heroes tested, and great powers born out of great adversity. Could the sheer scope and ambition of this project actually outmatch the iconic Peter Jackson movies? Hard to believe, but we'll have our answer in eight months.
Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, J.A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado also serve as executive producers. Ron Ames and Christopher Newman are producers with Wayne Che Yip in the role of co-executive producer.
Yip (The Wheel of Time), Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), and Charlotte Brändström (The Outsider) directed the series.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will not-so-unexpectedly journey onto Prime Video on Friday, Sep. 2.
