Amazon confirms Lord of the Rings show is Second Age prequel to films

After being locked down tighter than the nuclear codes, some details about Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings show have begun to trickle out thanks to some increasingly updated maps — but they’ve seemingly confirmed that the show will be set long, long before the characters fans know from the films.

Past maps have explained that the film wouldn’t be about young Aragorn — as some of the names of landmarks and towers simply didn’t exist during the hero’s time (think of old maps showing the U.S.S.R.) — but now the newest expansion of the map from the Amazon Lord of the Rings Twitter account has introduced a lost civilization and the confirmation of a new age.

Check it out:

As if the inclusion of the Atlantis-like island of Numenor (which later falls to Sauron’s corruption) wasn’t enough, the account followed up with a second tweet that cleared up any other speculation about when the series will be set. Welcome to the Second Age:

For those not versed in hardcore Tolkien lore, this effectively means the show will be set in the era leading up to the Last Alliance of Elves and Men defeating Sauron’s army (but not destroying the ring) in the opening scene of the first film. The Second Age is about 3,500 years long and involves tons of drama, but the fall of Numenor and the creation of this final alliance during the era’s fourth millennium would seem like ripe fodder for a TV show.

No plot details or release information has yet to be announced, but if clues like these keep filtering out, Middle-earth’s greatest detectives will soon know everything about the show.