The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

"The Rings of Power" redirects here. For the titular Middle-earth objects, see Rings of Power. For other uses, see Rings of Power (disambiguation).

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Genre	Action Adventure Drama Fantasy
Based on	The Lord of the Rings and appendices by J. R. R. Tolkien
Developed by	J. D. Payne Patrick McKay
Starring	See below
Theme music composer	Howard Shore
Composer	Bear McCreary
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	J. D. Payne Patrick McKay Lindsey Weber Callum Greene J. A. Bayona Belén Atienza Justin Doble Jason Cahill Gennifer Hutchison Bruce Richmond Sharon Tal Yguado
Producers	Ron Ames Christopher Newman
Production locations	New Zealand United Kingdom
Production companies	Amazon Studios Tolkien Estate Tolkien Trust HarperCollins New Line Cinema
Original release
Network	Prime Video

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is an upcoming American fantasy television series based on the novel The Lord of the Rings and its appendices by J. R. R. Tolkien. Developed by showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay for the streaming service Prime Video, the series is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It is produced by Amazon Studios with the Tolkien Estate, the Tolkien Trust, HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema.

Amazon bought the television rights for The Lord of the Rings for US$250 million in November 2017, making a five-season production commitment worth at least US$1 billion. This would make it the most expensive television series ever made. Payne and McKay were hired in July 2018. The series is primarily based on the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, which include discussion of the Second Age, and per the requirements of Amazon's deal with the Tolkien Estate it is not a continuation of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies. Despite this, the production intended to evoke the films with similar production design, and several members of the series' large international cast portray younger versions of characters from the films. Filming for the first eight-episode season took place in New Zealand, where the films were produced, from February 2020 to August 2021, with a production break of several months during that time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The season is scheduled to premiere on Prime Video on September 1, 2022.

In August 2021, Amazon announced that production for future seasons would take place in the United Kingdom. Filming for the second season is expected to begin in October 2022.

Premise

Set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the series is based on author J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth. It begins during a time of relative peace and covers all the major events of Middle-earth's Second Age: the forging of the Rings of Power, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the fall of the island kingdom of Númenor, and the last alliance between Elves and Men. These events take place over thousands of years in Tolkien's original stories but are condensed for the series.

Cast and characters

• Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Míriel: the queen regent of Númenor, an island kingdom ruled by Men descended from Elrond's half-Elven brother Elros
• Robert Aramayo as Elrond: a half-Elven architect and politician. Aramayo was interested in exploring the pressure that Elrond faces living up to the legacy of his father, Eärendil, as well as the fact that Elrond chose to be immortal unlike his brother Elros, who Elrond had to watch grow old and die. Elrond goes from being optimistic and eager to world-weary and closed-off throughout the series.
• Owain Arthur as Durin IV: prince of the Dwarven city of Khazad-dûm. It took three hours to apply Arthur's Dwarven prosthetics each day.
• Maxim Baldry as Isildur: a Númenórean sailor who will eventually become a warrior and king. The writers wanted to explore Isildur's story more than the source material so the audience would feel that it ends in tragedy rather than foolishness. Co-showrunner Patrick McKay compared the character to Al Pacino's Michael Corleone from The Godfather (1972).
• Nazanin Boniadi as Bronwyn: a human mother and healer who owns an apothecary in the Southlands
• Morfydd Clark as Galadriel: an Elven warrior who believes evil is returning to Middle-earth. Tolkien had described Galadriel in her youth as being a strong fighter of "Amazon disposition" and the series shows her journey from that point to becoming the "elder stateswoman" that the character is more commonly known as. Clark said her fluency in Welsh made it easier to learn Galadriel's Elvish lines.
• Ismael Cruz Córdova as Arondir: a Silvan Elf with a forbidden love for the human healer Bronwyn, similar to Tolkien's love stories about Beren and Lúthien and Aragorn and Arwen
• Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor: the Elven smith who forges the Rings of Power, he is a "brilliant artisan" known throughout Middle-earth who is friends with the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm.
• Trystan Gravelle as Pharazôn: a Númenórean advisor to queen regent Míriel
• Lenny Henry as Sadoc Burrows: a Harfoot elder. Henry described the Harfoots as "the traditional Tolkien little guy... the little people in this world provide comedy but also get to be incredibly brave".
• Ema Horvath as Eärien: Isildur's sister, who was created for the series. Horvath and Baldry bonded in New Zealand by bungee jumping and zip-lining together.
• Markella Kavenagh as Elanor "Nori" Brandyfoot: a Harfoot with a "yearning for adventure".
• Simon Merrells as Trevyn
• Tyroe Muhafidin as Theo: Bronwyn's son
• Peter Mullan as Durin III: king of the Dwarven city of Khazad-dûm
• Sophia Nomvete as Disa: princess of the Dwarven city of Khazad-dûm. Disa and the other female Dwarves have facial hair, but they don't have large beards like the male Dwarves in the series.
• Lloyd Owen as Elendil: a Númenórean sailor and Isildur's father who will eventually be a leader in the last alliance between Elves and Men
• Megan Richards as Poppy Proudfellow: a curious Harfoot
• Dylan Smith as Largo Brandyfoot: Nori's father
• Charlie Vickers as Halbrand: a human running from his past whose destiny is entwined with Galadriel's
• Leon Wadham as Kemen: Pharazôn's son
• Benjamin Walker as Gil-galad: the High King of the Elves who rules from the realm of Lindon. The character is mentioned in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in a poem called "The Fall of Gil-galad", and Walker said the series would expand on that. He highlighted the character's "odd gift of foresight. He's prescient, and he's ahead of the curve. He can kind of feel the pulse of evil rising."
• Daniel Weyman as an unnamed stranger who falls from the sky in a flaming meteor
• Sara Zwangobani as Marigold Brandyfoot: Nori's mother

The following actors have been cast in undisclosed roles:

• Ian Blackburn
• Beau Cassidy
• Kip Chapman
• Amelie Child-Villiers
• Anthony Crum
• Maxine Cunliffe
• Will Fletcher
• Thusitha Jayasundera
• Joseph Mawle
• Fabian McCallum
• Geoff Morrell
• Augustus Prew
• Bridie Sisson
• Peter Tait
• Alex Tarrant

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"Shadow of the Past"	J. A. Bayona	Teleplay by : J. D. Payne & Patrick McKay Television Story by : J. D. Payne & Patrick McKay	September 1, 2022 (2022-09-01)
2	TBA	J. A. Bayona	Unknown	September 1, 2022 (2022-09-01)

Wayne Che Yip directed four episodes of the season, and Charlotte Brändström directed two.

Production

Development

Background and announcement

In July 2017, a lawsuit was settled between Warner Bros., the studio behind the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies, and the estate of author J. R. R. Tolkien upon whose books those films were based. With the two sides "on better terms", they began offering the rights to a potential television series based on Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to several outlets, including Amazon, Netflix, and HBO, with a starting price of US$200 million. Amazon emerged as the frontrunner by September and entered negotiations. Uncommonly for programming developments at the studio, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was personally involved with the negotiations. A fan of the franchise, Bezos had previously given Amazon Studios a mandate to develop an ambitious fantasy series of comparable scale to HBO's Game of Thrones which made Amazon the lead contender for the project.

On November 13, 2017, Amazon acquired the global television rights for close to US$250 million. Industry commentators described this amount—before any production costs and without any creative talent attached to the project—as "insane", although some considered the project to be more of a reputational risk for Amazon than a financial one due to Bezos's wealth. Amazon's streaming service Prime Video gave a multi-season commitment to the series that was believed to be for five seasons, with the possibility of a spin-off series as well. Despite this, Prime Video had to give a formal greenlight to future seasons before work could begin on them. The budget was expected to be in the range of US$100–150 million per season, and was likely to eventually exceed US$1 billion which would make it the most expensive television series ever made. Warner Bros. Television was not involved in the project because Amazon Studios wanted to produce it themselves. Amazon was working with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema (the Warner Bros. division who produced the films). New Line was reportedly included to allow the series to use material from the films. The Tolkien Estate imposed some creative restrictions on the series, and the deal stipulated that production begin within two years.

Creative team

In April 2018, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film director Peter Jackson had begun discussing his potential involvement with Amazon, but by June he was not expected to be involved in the series. Later that month, Head of Amazon Studios Jennifer Salke said discussions regarding Jackson's involvement were ongoing, and added that the deal for the series had only been officially completed a month earlier. The studio had been meeting with potential writers about the project and intended to have a game plan for the series and a writing team set "very soon", with the hope that the series could debut in 2021. The studio asked for story pitches based on anything in Tolkien's The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and its appendices. These included prequel stories focused on characters such as Aragorn, Gimli, and Gandalf. J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay pitched a series that explored the major events of Middle-earth's Second Age, thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings, include the forging of the Rings of Power, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the fall of the island kingdom of Númenor, and the last alliance between Elves and Men. These events were covered in a five-minute prologue in the Lord of the Rings films, but the pair wanted to expand this into "50 hours of television". Payne said it felt like "an amazing, untold story" that was "worthy of Tolkien", and McKay added, "We didn't want to do a side thing. A spinoff or the origin story of something else. We wanted to find a huge Tolkienian mega epic, and Amazon" agreed. Payne and McKay were hired to develop the series in July 2018. They were an unlikely choice, having only done unproduced or uncredited writing before the series, but their vision aligned with Amazon's and they were championed to the studio by director J. J. Abrams who worked with them on an unproduced Star Trek film.

In December, Jackson said he and his producing partners would read some scripts for the series and offer notes on them, but otherwise he would enjoy watching a Tolkien adaptation that he did not make. Bryan Cogman joined the series as a consultant in May 2019 after signing an overall deal with Amazon. Cogman previously served as a writer on Game of Thrones, and was set to work alongside Payne and McKay in developing the new series. In July, J. A. Bayona was hired to direct the first two episodes of the series and serve as executive producer alongside his producing partner Belén Atienza. Later that month, Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss were in discussions with several outlets regarding signing an overall deal, including with Amazon who were interested in having the pair consult on The Lord of the Rings; they ultimately signed a deal with Netflix instead. At the end of July, Amazon announced that Payne and McKay would serve as showrunners and executive producers for the series, and revealed the full creative team that was working on the project: executive producers Bayona, Atienza, Bruce Richmond, Gene Kelly, Lindsey Weber, and Sharon Tal Yguado; co-producer Ron Ames; costume designer Kate Hawley; production designer Rick Heinrichs; visual effects supervisor Jason Smith; and illustrator/concept artist John Howe, who was one of the chief conceptual designers on the films. Special effects company Wētā Workshop and visual effects vendor Wētā FX were also expected to be involved in the series as they were for the films. Additionally, Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey was revealed to be working on the series, but he was no longer involved by April 2020; other Tolkien scholars and "lore experts" remained involved.

Following development of the first season, Cogman left the series to focus on developing new projects. Kelly also left the series, while Yguado left when she exited her role as Amazon Studios' head of genre programming. Callum Greene joined as a new executive producer by December 2020, after previously serving as producer on The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013). Heinrichs was eventually replaced as production designer by Ramsey Avery. In March 2021, Wayne Che Yip was announced as director for four episodes of the series, and was set as a co-executive producer. Charlotte Brändström was revealed as director for another two episodes in May. That August, Jackson said he had not been contacted again about seeing scripts for the series. Amazon explained that the deal to acquire the television rights for The Lord of the Rings required them to keep the series distinct from Jackson's films, and the Tolkien Estate were reportedly against Jackson's involvement in the project. Despite this, the showrunners had privately discussed the series with Jackson and Yguado had championed his inclusion before her exit. The second season was revealed that month to have an all-female directing team.

Seasons

Prime Video gave the series a multi-season commitment, believed to be for five seasons, as part of the initial deal with the Tolkien Estate, though the streaming service still had to give a formal greenlight to future seasons before work could begin on them. In July 2019, Shippey stated that he believed the first season of the series was supposed to consist of 20 episodes. In November, Amazon officially ordered a second season of the series, and scheduled a longer-than-usual four or five month production break after completion of filming on the first two episodes. This was to allow all the footage for the first episodes to be reviewed, and so the series' writers room could be reconvened to begin work on the second season before filming on the first season continued. This gave the series the option to film the first two seasons back-to-back, as the Lord of the Rings films had been. Amazon announced that the first season would consist of eight episodes in January 2020, and revealed the series' full title, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, in January 2022. Payne and McKay felt the title could "live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien's other classics".

Writing

A writers room for the series had begun work in Santa Monica by mid-February 2019. Salke described extensive security measures that were being taken to keep details of this writing secret, including windows being taped closed and a security guard requiring fingerprint clearance from those entering the room. In addition to Payne and McKay, writers on the series include Gennifer Hutchison, Helen Shang, Jason Cahill, Justin Doble, Bryan Cogman, and Stephany Folsom, with Glenise Mullins acting as a consulting writer. The writers room was set to be disbanded once production on the series began, but would be reconvened during the four or five month break in filming that was scheduled following production on the first two episodes. The writers were expected to map out the second season and write the majority of its scripts during this production break.

"Can we come up with the novel Tolkien never wrote and do it as the mega-event series that could only happen now?"

Co-showrunner Patrick McKay on the "driving question" behind the series

The series is mostly set in the Second Age of Middle-earth. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are set during the Third Age, with the First and Second Ages being explored in other Tolkien writings such as The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and The History of Middle-earth. Because Amazon only bought the television rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, the writers had to identify all of the references to the First and Second Ages in those books and create a story that bridged those passages. These are primarily in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, but also in certain chapters and songs. Tolkien's estate was prepared to veto any changes from his established narrative, including anything that contradicted what Tolkien wrote in other works. The writers were free to add characters or details, and worked with the estate and Tolkien lore experts to ensure these were still "Tolkienian". They referenced letters that Tolkien wrote about his works and mythology for additional context on the setting and characters. Simon Tolkien, a novelist and the grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien, consulted on the series and helped develop its story and character arcs.

Payne and McKay knew the series was expected to run for five seasons and were able to plan elements of the final season, including the series' final shot, while working on the first. Because they were mostly not able to adapt direct dialogue from Tolkien's Second Age stories, the writers attempted to repurpose Tolkien's dialogue that they did have access to while also taking inspiration from religious texts and poetry. They tailored the dialogue to different characters using dialects and poetic meters. Leith McPherson returned from the Hobbit films as dialect coach and noted that Tolkien's fictional languages evolve over time so are different for the Second Age compared to the Third. The series' Elves mostly speak Quenya, a language described as "Elvish Latin" that is often just used for spellcasting in the Third Age. Dwarvish and Orcish are also heard, along with English and Irish dialects. The biggest deviation made from Tolkien's works, which was approved by the estate and lore experts, was to condense the Second Age from thousands of years to a short period of time. This avoided human characters frequently dying due to their relatively short lifespans, and allowed major characters from later in the timeline to be introduced earlier in the series. The showrunners considered using non-linear storytelling instead, but felt this would prevent the audience from emotionally investing in the series. They said many real-life historical dramas also condense events like this, and felt they were still respecting the "spirit and feeling" of Tolkien's writings.

After the series was revealed to have hired Jennifer Ward-Lealand as an intimacy coordinator, Tolkien fans expressed concern that it would include Game of Thrones-style graphic sex and violence. Payne and McKay said this would not be the case and the series would be family-friendly. They hoped to evoke the tone of Tolkien's books, which can be "intense, sometimes quite political, sometimes quite sophisticated—but it's also heartwarming and life-affirming and optimistic." They also did not want to be influenced by modern politics, instead aspiring to tell a timeless story that matched Tolkien's own intention to create a mythology that would always be applicable.

The first season features several locations not previously seen in the film adaptations, including the Elf-capital Lindon and the island kingdom of Númenor, but it also revisits familiar locations from the films such as Khazad-dûm, which is in ruins during the Lord of the Rings films but is shown in its "full glory" during the series. One of the groups that the series includes are the Harfoots, precursors to the popular Hobbit race from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Payne and McKay explained that they felt the series would not truly feel like Middle-earth to the audience without Hobbits, but Tolkien's writings state that the Hobbits were not known during the Second Age, so they chose to explore the Harfoots instead since they were "satisfyingly Hobbit-adjacent". The Harfoots are depicted as having a secretive society and their story takes place in the "margins of the bigger quests" which was compared to the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. McKay said the first season was about "reintroducing this world and the return of evil", focusing on introducing the Second Age of Middle-earth and the heroic major characters rather than telling a "villain-centric" story. Despite being mentioned in a synopsis for the series and being a major character in the Second Age, the Dark Lord Sauron was reported to not be appearing in the first season at all. McKay said the season was influenced by dialogue from the second chapter of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, "The Shadow of the Past", which he paraphrased as "After a defeat and a respite, a shadow grows again in a new form." Bayona said the season would hint at the presence of Sauron, and the overall story was about "the repercussions of war and the shadow of the past". He was influenced by his own childhood growing up in Spain following the Francoist dictatorship.

Casting

Salke stated in June 2018 that though the series would not be a remake of the films, it would bring back some characters from them. By July 2019, casting for the series was taking place around the world, with casting directors working in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Casting for extras also began in New Zealand at that time. Due to the secrecy surrounding the series, many actors did not know what roles they were going to play when they were cast. Markella Kavenagh was in talks to portray a character referred to as "Tyra" at the end of July, a series regular role. Will Poulter was cast as one of the series' leads, reportedly called "Beldor", in September. The role was described as being "one of the more coveted jobs" for young actors in Hollywood before Poulter's casting. Maxim Baldry was informally attached to the series in a "significant role" in mid-October, while Joseph Mawle was cast later that month. Mawle was reportedly playing the series' lead villain, referred to as "Oren". In December, Ema Horvath was cast in another series regular role; Poulter was forced to leave the series due to scheduling conflicts, with his role set to be recast; and Morfydd Clark was cast as a young version of the character Galadriel, who was portrayed in the films by Cate Blanchett.

Robert Aramayo was cast in the lead role for the series, replacing Poulter, in early January 2020. He was later revealed to be playing a young version of the character Elrond, who was portrayed by Hugo Weaving in the films. A week after Aramayo's casting, Amazon officially announced his involvement along with the casting of Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Horvath, Kavenagh, Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, and Daniel Weyman. Amazon's co-head of television Vernon Sanders noted that there were still some key roles that had yet to be filled. One of these key roles was confirmed to go to Baldry in March, when his deal for the series was completed. Baldry replaces Harry Sinclair as Isildur, who appeared in flashbacks during the films. In December 2020, Amazon announced 20 new cast members for the series: Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Baldry, newcomer Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Lenny Henry, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Simon Merrells, Geoff Morrell, Peter Mullan, Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, and Sara Zwangobani. Owen and Walker portray Elendil and Gil-galad, who were briefly played by Peter McKenzie and Mark Ferguson in the films.

In March 2021, Budge announced that he had departed the series after filming several episodes. He explained that Amazon had reviewed the first episodes and decided to recast his character, who was reported to be Celebrimbor. Charles Edwards was cast to replace him as Celebrimbor in July, when Will Fletcher, Amelie Child-Villiers, and Beau Cassidy were also added to the season's cast. Seven of the series' main actors are New Zealanders, and overall a third of the first season's 124 speaking roles went to New Zealand actors. The rest of the cast came from Australia, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

While promoting the first season at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2022, the showrunners said they would give a role in the second season to television host and avid Tolkien fan Stephen Colbert, who was moderating the series' panel at the convention. A month later, they said the character Círdan would be introduced in the second season. The character briefly appeared in the Lord of the Rings films portrayed by Michael Elsworth.

Design

It was Jackson's understanding in December 2018 that the series would be set in the same continuity as the films and Amazon wanted to be consistent with the designs that were created for them, which illustrator and concept artist John Howe reiterated in August 2019, saying the showrunners were determined to remain faithful to the designs of the film trilogies. Payne and McKay later clarified that the series is not a direct continuation of the films, per Amazon's deal for the series, but they did not want it to "clash" with the films and tried to have similar designs. They took advantage of Howe's experience working on Jackson's adaptations, as well as that of costume designer Kate Hawley who worked on the Hobbit films. Other influences included the 1977 animated television adaptation of The Hobbit by Rankin/Bass. Production designer Ramsey Avery said his biggest challenge on the series was making Middle-earth feel both familiar and new. He approached this by attempting to create a "vibrant and rich and golden" world that was distinct from the films, in which "everything is on its decline, and it's fading". Howe had filled 40 sketchbooks with drawings for the project by May 2022, and said the biggest difference between the films and series was the latter visited new locations, such as the oceans of Middle-earth.

Payne said being on set "was like going to Middle-earth every day for work", and Yip called out the Númenor set in particular as "breathtaking... we were there for weeks, but every day I'd notice a new detail". The showrunners and Avery planned out all of Númenor, with Payne explaining that they focused on the city because "it's never been seen before. People have some ideas of what Elves look like or what Dwarves look like and what those kingdoms might look like. But Númenor was, in some ways, a blank canvas." The Númenor set was described as "an entire seaside city" with buildings, alleyways, shrines, graffiti, and a ship docked at the harbor. Avery used different styles for each location: Númenor's "looming marble structures" were inspired by Ancient Greece and Venice, and used the color blue to reflect the culture's emphasis on water and sailing; Lindon was inspired by Gothic architecture, with "tree-like columns and arboreal details" to reflect the Elves' love of nature; and Khazad-dûm was designed to be "less severe" than the film version, using a "sensitivity toward the stone" rather than "harsh lines and gargantuan statues" to show what the kingdom is like before the Dwarves "got greedy". Avery gave the Harfoot wagons large round wheels as an homage to the round Hobbit doors seen in the films.

Jamie Wilson was the head of prosthetics for the series after previously working on the film trilogies. He noted that there had been advancements in the technology available since the films were produced, including encapsulated silicone that looks much more like real skin than previous techniques. The prosthetics team also worked closely with the series' visual effects department for digital "tweaks" to the prosthetics. The showrunners were particularly interested in the series' depiction of Orcs and ensuring that practical effects were used where possible. Wilson explained that the Orcs in the series were intended to be "younger"-looking than those in the films, since these groups are just emerging from hiding. Because of this, the series' Orcs feature less battle-scars than those in the films and are also lighter-skinned with some skin conditions caused by new exposure to the sun.

Filming

New Zealand

Salke said in June 2018 that the series could be produced in New Zealand, where the films were made, but Amazon was also willing to shoot in other countries as long as they could "provide those locations in a really authentic way, because we want it to look incredible". Pre-production on the series reportedly began around that time in Auckland, while location scouting also took place in Scotland, including around the Isle of Skye, Portpatrick, Scourie, Perthshire, and Loch Lomond. Amazon and Creative Scotland held talks about the series being based at new studios that were under construction in Leith, Edinburgh. In December, Amazon held a "crisis meeting" with David Parker, then New Zealand's Minister of Economic Development, after the studio threatened to take the production out of the country due to the lack of available studio space in Auckland. New Zealand's Major Screen Production Grant, which provides tax rebates for productions, was offered to Amazon, but Parker did not propose any special deal because he wanted the series to be made "on terms that are good for New Zealand".

Amazon chose to film the first season in New Zealand, where the Lord of the Rings films were made, including on location at the Coromandel Peninsula, Fiordland, Piha, and Rangitikei

Amazon decided to film in New Zealand, and were reportedly influenced by the New Zealand government's reassurances that the country was safe following the Christchurch mosque shootings in March 2019, as well as concern regarding the potential effects of Brexit in Scotland. Production was set to primarily take place in Auckland, but additional filming was expected to take place in Queenstown and other locations around New Zealand. Auckland was chosen as the primary filming location in New Zealand because the Wellington studios that the films were produced in were being used by the Avatar films at the time. Leases for the series at Kumeu Film Studios and Auckland Film Studios took effect in July, and Amazon officially confirmed that the series would be filmed in New Zealand in September 2019 after completing negotiations with the New Zealand Government, the New Zealand Film Commission, and Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED). The studio said filming would begin in the "coming months", with some specific locations still being discussed with ATEED. Payne and McKay said the creative team chose New Zealand because they needed "somewhere majestic, with pristine coasts, forests, and mountains" that could also meet the production requirements of the series.

Through New Zealand's Major Screen Production Grant, all film and television productions receive a 20 per cent tax rebate, with those that offer "significant economic benefits" able to negotiate for an additional 5 per cent rebate. To gain access to the latter, Amazon signed two Memoranda of Understanding in December 2020 with the New Zealand Film Commission, Tourism New Zealand, and the country's Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). One memorandum outlined Amazon's overall obligations in exchange for the extra refund, and the other was specific to the first season. Further memoranda needed to be signed for future seasons. The agreements allowed Tourism New Zealand to promote the country using material from the series, while Amazon would work with the Film Commission to help grow the country's screen sector and with MBIE to run an "innovation program" to benefit New Zealand companies and research groups. Details of the memoranda were revealed in April 2021, when New Zealand's Minister of Economic Development and Tourism, Stuart Nash, revealed that Amazon was spending NZ$650 million (US$465 million) on the first season, making it eligible for NZ$160 million (US$114 million) in tax rebates. James Hibberd at The Hollywood Reporter noted that the US$465 million amount "almost certainly" included additional costs to the season's production budget, including the startup costs of building sets, costumes, and props that would be used in future seasons as well. Salke soon confirmed this, describing the cost as a "crazy headline that's fun to click on, but that is really building the infrastructure of what will sustain the whole series". In August, Amazon announced that it was moving production of future seasons to the United Kingdom and would not preserve the terms of the memoranda that they had signed. Nash confirmed that the series was no longer eligible for the additional rebate (around NZ$33 million or US$23 million).

Season 1

J. A. Bayona directed the first two episodes

Table reads with the cast began in New Zealand by mid-January 2020, ahead of the start of filming in early February. The production was based in Auckland, primarily at Kumeu Film Studios and Auckland Film Studios, and used the working title Untitled Amazon Project or simply UAP. J. A. Bayona directed the first two episodes, and acknowledged that there were "massive expectations" for the series, especially following the "high bar" set by Jackson's films. Óscar Faura was the director of photography for the first two episodes, after serving the same role on all of Bayona's previous films. As part of the production's approach to secrecy, actors were often stopped from entering sets that they did not have scenes in. Different techniques were used to make the Dwarf and Harfoot actors appear smaller than the rest of the cast, including oversized props and prosthetics and actors looking over the heads of their scene partners.

The sequence in the opening episodes where Galadriel and Halbrand are trapped in the Sundering Seas during a storm took three to four weeks of preparation, including weeks of training for Clark and Vickers with Olympic swimmer Trent Bray to learn how to "properly swim", free dive, and hold their breath for minutes at a time. The sequence, consisting of 195 shots, was filmed over three weeks in two water tanks: an outdoor tank that was 10 feet (3.0 m) deep and held 2.5 million liters of water; and a smaller dive tank that was 16 feet (4.9 m) deep and held 1.2 million liters or water. Several diggers were used to create waves in the outdoor tank, which was covered by a retractable roof that Bayona and Faura requested based on a similar set-up that they used on the film The Impossible (2012). The tank was big enough that some shots require no or minimal additions from the visual effects team. The raft that Galadriel and Halbrand are on was controlled by a gimbal to prevent it from drifting during filming. The next sequence, in which the characters are confronted by a sea creature, was mostly filmed in the smaller dive tank.

Location filming took place around Auckland in February. Filming for the first two episodes was expected to continue through May, followed by a longer-than-usual four or five month production break to allow all the footage for the episodes to be reviewed and so the writers could begin work on the second season. Production was set to resume in mid-October and continue until late June 2021. However, filming was placed on hold indefinitely in mid-March 2020, after 25 days of filming, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Around 800 cast and crew members were told to stay home. Filming was allowed to resume in early May under new safety guidelines from the New Zealand government, when the majority of filming for the first two episodes was confirmed to have been completed. Instead of finishing the episodes then, the filming shutdown segued into the intended production break and the two episodes were set to be completed once filming on further episodes was ready to begin. The series was one of seven film and television productions that were granted exemptions to allow cast and crew members to enter New Zealand while its borders were closed to non-New Zealanders due to COVID-19. The exemptions were granted before June 18 by Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford, and applied to 93 members of the production as well as 20 family members. Around 10 percent of the series' crew were believed to be non-New Zealanders, and many of them had remained in the country during its pandemic lockdown and did not require exemptions. Pre-production for further episodes began by July 2020, and filming resumed on September 28.

Bayona completed filming for his episodes by December 23. Production on further episodes was set to begin in January 2021 following a two-week Christmas break. Yip confirmed that he had begun filming his episodes by March, and Brändström was in New Zealand for production on the series in May. Aaron Morton and Alex Disenhof were the cinematographers for their episodes. Walker said in June that he was unsure how much longer the cast was required to stay in New Zealand, saying the production's timeline was "a bit nebulous" and Amazon would "let us go when they're done with us"; many of the series' international cast members were unable to leave New Zealand during filming due to the country's restrictive pandemic-era border policies putting limits on who could leave and return as well as requiring a two-week quarantine for anyone entering the country. This meant many actors were trapped in the country for nearly two years, and Boniadi said the cast "became a fellowship [who] were forced to lean on each other. We didn't have anybody else. We were on an island, away from our support systems, mid-pandemic." Addai-Robinson added, "We had to be there for each other in a way that is different from other on-location jobs. It really was about that protective bubble, and trying to focus on the task at hand." Other cast members helped Nomvete and her husband look after their newborn baby during filming. The closed border also meant that Amazon executives could not visit and monitor the expensive production.

In July 2021, several stunt performers alleged that a senior stunt supervisor for the production had created an "uneasy environment" that contributed to an unsafe workplace. At least three stunt performers were seriously injured on the set, including stuntwoman Dayna Grant who suffered a head injury in March and was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm and upper spinal injury; fans crowdfunded NZ$100,000 to help Grant pay for surgery. Stuntwoman Elissa Cadwell was injured when she struck her head falling into a water tank while rehearsing a stunt in February 2020. Amazon notified New Zealand's workplace health and safety regulator WorkSafe a week later, when Caldwell was recovering from her injuries after being treated in hospital. Amazon paid Caldwell NZ$500,000, in part to help her return home to Australia. Responding to the allegations, the production's head of safety Willy Heatley said the injury rate was 0.065 percent across the 16,200 days of stunt work since filming began, and this was mostly due to "common stunt-related sprains, bruises and muscle and soft tissue strains".

Filming wrapped on August 2, 2021. Around a third of filming for the season took place on location around New Zealand, including at the Hauraki Gulf, the Coromandel Peninsula, the Denize Bluffs in the King Country, Mount Kidd in Fiordland, Piha, and Rangitikei. The showrunners noted that, unlike the films, they were able to use New Zealand's coastlines for this story. They had also intended to film in the Waitomo Caves for scenes set in the city of Khazad-dûm, but this proved to be impractical. More than 1,000 New Zealanders were contracted for the season and around 700 more were indirectly engaged by it.

United Kingdom

At the end of filming for the season, the crew were unsure when filming for the second season would begin though there was expected to be a hiatus of at least one year to allow post-production on the first season and writing for the second season to be completed. Amazon retained its lease on Auckland Film Studios and Kumeu Film Studios, and reportedly Studio West also, for the duration of the hiatus, which allowed the series' sets to remain at the studios and prevented other productions from using the space.

The week after filming ended, Amazon announced that it was moving production of the series to the United Kingdom starting with the second season. At that time, Amazon was in the process of booking studio space in the UK, with Scotland reported to be the frontrunner for new shooting locations. The company planned to ship all of the sets that were built for the first season to the UK, and hire a new UK-based crew since the majority of the first season's crew was New Zealand-based. Factors that played a role in the change included Amazon already heavily investing in UK studio space for several other productions; a belief that the UK would be a "more economical choice" following the high cost of making the first season in New Zealand; the opportunity to film in other European countries near the UK as was done for the series Game of Thrones; the Tolkien Estate wanting the series to be filmed in the UK since Tolkien was inspired by locations there for his books; and the fact that New Zealand's restrictive pandemic-era border policies had prevented Amazon executives from visiting and monitoring the production, while many international cast members (more than half of whom are British) were unable to leave the country for nearly two years during filming of the first season. Amazon had offered in August 2020 to pay for the use of hotels and rental properties as private quarantine facilities to give the production more flexibility with travel, but this idea was rejected by the New Zealand government due to the need for additional services related to quarantining. In the UK, 80 per cent of expenditure is eligible for a 25 per cent tax rebate through the government's "high-end television" tax relief program.

Season 2

Pre-production for the second season is expected to begin in the UK in the second quarter of 2022, taking place concurrently with post-production for the first season which is continuing in New Zealand until June 2022. Bray Film Studios and Bovingdon Airfield, both outside of London, will be the initial production locations for the season. The showrunners were scouting for additional filming locations in June 2022, and the cast was preparing to travel to the UK in August ahead of an October filming start.

Visual effects

In addition to Wētā FX, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) also provided visual effects for the season. ILM worked on the Sundering Seas sequence, combining aerial photography from New Zealand's coastline and oceans with footage from the on-set water tanks. The vendor also provided additional water effects and waves that could not be captured in the tanks, due to their size or because of actor safety, and Ames said the result was "50/50" in terms of how much water in the shots was practical versus digital.

Music

Further information: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (soundtrack)

Howard Shore, the composer for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, was reported to be in discussions with Amazon about working on the series in September 2020. He was said to be interested in developing musical themes but not necessarily composing the entire score. Shore was confirmed to be in talks for the series a year later, when composer Bear McCreary was reported to be involved as well. Their hiring was officially announced in July 2022, with McCreary composing the score and Shore writing the main title theme. McCreary said the main theme was created independently of the score, but he felt the two "fit together so beautifully".

McCreary began working on the series in July 2021, and said it was a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to work on such an ambitious score with the creative freedom that he wanted. He spent two months writing new musical themes based on the scripts, which he compared to writing a symphony, and then used those to compose nine hours of music for the first season over eight months. He wanted to honor Shore's musical legacy and hoped to create a "continuity of concept" between the series and films, with the 15 new themes he wrote for the season being added to the "pantheon of memorable melodies" that Shore had written. He did note that his music would reflect the series' depiction of "these societies at their peak" compared to Shore's music for the Third Age which had "a wistfulness and a melancholy". McCreary used different approaches for the different groups in the series: the music for the Elves features "etheral voices" and choir, the Dwarven music has "deep male vocals", the Harfoots have music based in natural sounds, and the harmonic language for Númenor has Middle Eastern influences.

The score for each episode took four days to record, using up to 90-piece orchestras at Abbey Road Studios and AIR Studios in London as well as a 40-person choir at Synchron Stage in Vienna. For the choral music, McCreary pulled text from Tolkien's writings and worked with the series' language experts to write new lyrics in Tolkien's fictional languages, including the Elvish languages Sindarin and Quenya, the Dwarvish language Khuzdûl, Black Speech, and the Númenórean language Adûnaic. Soloists were recorded in Los Angeles and across Europe playing folk instruments such as the hardanger fiddle, nyckelharpa, bagpipes, and bodhrán drums. McCreary was still writing music for the first season in Los Angeles while recording for most of the episodes took place, but he was able to conduct the orchestra for the final episode at AIR Studios in April 2022.

Two singles from McCreary's score, "Galadriel" and "Sauron", were released on Amazon Music on July 21. They were followed by a full soundtrack album featuring Shore's main theme and selections from McCreary's score. The album was released on all major streaming services on August 19 and will be physically released by Mondo on CD (October 14) and vinyl (January 13, 2023). The Amazon Music version of the album includes two exclusive tracks. Additional soundtrack albums featuring the full score for each episode will be released after the episode premieres.

Marketing

Early promotions for the series on social media used several maps of Middle-earth's Second Age, as well as excerpts from the novel The Lord of the Rings. The maps were designed and created by illustrator John Howe and overseen by Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey to ensure they were accurate to Tolkien's works. Howe and Shippey spent a lot of time working on the maps, which were based on Tolkien's maps of Númenor during the Second Age as well as his maps of the Third Age. Despite their efforts, HarperCollins received complaints from fans shortly after the maps were released online regarding two mistakes that were made on them.

Amazon considered the reveal of the series' full title in January 2022 to be crucial due to it beginning the series' marketing campaign at the start of its premiere year. Instead of just using visual effects to create the title reveal, the studio released an announcement video in which the letters of the title are physically cast from molten metal while an excerpt of the "Ring Verse" from The Lord of the Rings is read in voiceover. The video was directed by Klaus Obermeyer, who worked with special effects supervisor Lee Nelson under advisement by veteran special effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull. They filmed the video with foundryman Landon Ryan in late 2021 in Los Angeles, after experimenting with different combinations of metals, as well as sparkler dust, argon pours, and liquid hydrogen, to create the desired look. The final metal was a mixture of bronze and aluminum which was poured into moulds of compressed sand that could be used multiple times. The pouring was filmed at 5,000 frames per second with a Phantom Flex4K camera so it could be shown in ultra-slow motion. For the final title card, the forged letters were inscribed with Elvish writing and placed on a large piece of redwood. Staff from the Tolkien fan website TheOneRing.net and entertainment journalists were invited by Amazon to watch the filming of the video. Prologue Films provided previsualization for the sequence as well as compositing and additional visual effects. They recreated the final title card digitally, taking care to maintain the "integrity of the live action shots and lighting".

Twenty-three "character posters" for the series were released on February 3, though unusually they do not feature actor or character names and focus on the hands and torsos of the characters rather than their faces. Amazon said this was to "fuel fan speculation and discussion", and it did lead to speculation and analysis about who each character could be. A first look at some of the series' main characters was then revealed on February 10 along with story details, before the first teaser trailer was released on February 13, during Super Bowl LVI. TheOneRing.net hosted an official "watch party" for the trailer on YouTube, while some "high-profile" fans were flown to Bellver Castle in the Balearic Islands, Spain, to help promote the teaser globally. Commentators noted that the teaser did not reveal many new details about the series, but Graeme Guttmann of Screen Rant felt it did not hold back on "epic" spectacle. The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd also described the teaser as epic, and felt it showed off the series' large budget, while Susana Polo at Polygon said it "wastes no time reintroducing viewers to the lush fantasy setting many know" from Jackson's film adaptations. Writing for IGN, Amelia Emberwing said the most successful aspect of the teaser was that "it feels like The Lord of the Rings" and appeared to balance the "serenity and dangers of Middle-earth" like the films did. In contrast, Jack Butler of National Review had felt the first look images were "Tolkienesque" but was less sure about the teaser, which led him to think that the series would be more reliant on visual effects than the "grounded approach" of Jackson's films. Kevin E G Perry of The Independent was even more critical of the visual effects, saying the trailer looked "cheap" and like a "cut scene from an old Final Fantasy computer game". RelishMix reported that the teaser trailer had 80.34 million views in 24 hours across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, which was the third highest among those airing during the Super Bowl according to their metrics. Amazon reported 257 million views within 24 hours, which they said was a record for any film or television trailer released during the Super Bowl.

The early marketing material led to a "cacophony" of online fan discourse, including concerns about accuracy to the source material and the series' compression of Tolkien's Second Age timeline. Discussing these responses for The Escapist, Darren Mooney said "extreme reactions" from online media fans were now expected due to cultural forces, "an entire online economy running on manufactured outrage", and the "near-religious reverence" that modern fans have for media. He said the online reaction was likely not representative of general opinions on the series and noted that Jackson's films, which were "beloved by mainstream audiences", faced similar complaints from Tolkien fans. In response to the fan concerns, Amazon invited several Tolkien critics, fan websites, and influencers to a screening in May 2022. They were flown to Merton College, Oxford, where Tolkien worked as a professor, and shown 20 minutes of completed footage from the series. They also talked to the showrunners and Howe. Justin Sewell of TheOneRing.net said they were unable to discuss details, but the footage "looks like it should, sounds like it should, and feels like a return to the comfortable universe we all love", addressing the concerns of most of the fans in attendance. Kaitlyn Facista, writing for the Tea with Tolkien blog, said the footage immersed her in Middle-earth in a way that the teaser trailer did not, and she was impressed by the showrunners' knowledge of the source material. Others reported that the screening and discussion with the showrunners made them "cautiously optimistic" about the series. Corey Olsen, an academic and podcaster known as the "Tolkien Professor", felt after meeting the showrunners that the series was in "very good hands".

Television host and avid Tolkien fan Stephen Colbert moderated the series' panel at San Diego Comic-Con

An "exclusive sneak peek" of the series was made available to Amazon Prime members for 48 hours on July 6, before being widely released online, ahead of "Amazon Prime Day" on July 12 to 13. This was followed by a second teaser trailer on July 14 which Hibberd described as "a more extensive look at the show's rendition of Middle-earth". Cydney Contreras at E! Online said the teaser and locations were awe-inspiring and breathtaking, Jim Vorel of Paste said it was "visually splendid" and reflected the large budget, and Gizmodo's Germain Lussier said it felt like fans of Middle-earth were "going home". Adam B. Vary and Wilson Chapman at Variety acknowledged the locations and visuals, but felt the teaser did not explain the story for audience members who were unaware of Tolkien's writings. Writing for Forbes, Scott Mendelson said the teaser was likely not connected enough to the Lord of the Rings films in terms of cast and story to entice general audiences, putting it on par with other fantasy properties inspired by the films that were not successful. Blake Hawkins at Comic Book Resources felt the teaser's inclusion of more Tolkien mythology and lore would help assuage the concerns of Tolkien fans, but TechRadar's Matt Evans said it was unlikely to win over those fans. He explained that many fans had come to accept the changes Jackson made to adapt The Lord of the Rings, but the same could not be said for his Hobbit films. Evans felt The Rings of Power would likely be treated similarly to the Hobbit films due to it being a "blockbuster ploy to keep our money" which was "the absolute antithesis of Tolkien's work". He added, "being a good fantasy show on its own merit is simply not going to be enough. It has to be truly great to justify its own existence".

The series was promoted at the San Diego Comic-Con in late July with a meet-and-greet between 21 cast members and a group of Tolkien fans; a private dinner with the cast, crew, Amazon executives, and media; branding on San Diego trains and at the convention's entrances; and a two-hour panel moderated by Stephen Colbert, who was flown in for the day as a surprise for those in attendance. The panel began with McCreary conducting a 25-piece orchestra and 16-person choir, performaning a suite of his original score. A full trailer and five clips were shown, and Colbert interviewed the cast and crew. Marketing executive Sue Kroll said the convention was "our first real opportunity to show fans our dedication" to the source material. Several outlets included the series on lists of "winners" at the convention, such as TheWrap whose staff said Amazon "took the exact right approach" to its Comic-Con presence. For IGN's list, Adam Bankhurst said the panel "changed the conversation" and created positive "buzz" for the series in a way that the teaser trailers did not. The trailer from the panel was also released online, and Vary noted that it explained the series' premise, unlike the teasers. He and several other commentators highlighted the appearance of a Balrog. James Whitbrook at Gizmodo said there was a lot going on in the trailer and it was "looking quite fantastic", while Jack Shepherd of GamesRadar+ called it the best look yet at the series.

A new book chronicling the events of Middle-earth's Second Age was announced in June 2022. Titled The Fall of Númenor, it was compiled and edited by Tolkien scholar Brian Sibley from Tolkien's writings about the Second Age. The book will be published in November 2022, following the release of the first season of The Rings of Power, to capitalize on new interest in Tolkien's works arising from the series' release.

Release

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is scheduled to premiere on the streaming service Prime Video in the United States on September 1, 2022, with its first two episodes. The rest of the eight-episode first season will be released weekly from September 9 to October 14. Episodes are released on Prime Video around the world, including in Brazil, the UK, Europe, India, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, at the same time as the U.S. release.

Reception

Henry revealed in October 2021 that he and other people of color had been cast as Harfoots in the series, which aligned to Tolkien's description of the Harfoots as being "browner of skin". Several non-white actors were also cast as Elves and Dwarves for the first time in the franchise. After this was revealed through casting announcements and promotional images, Amazon received online backlash from some groups complaining that the series did not primarily feature white characters and actors. The series' official social media accounts removed some comments deemed to be racist. The producers expected to receive responses like this, but they wanted to ensure that the series reflected "what the world actually looks like" and felt this would be closer to the spirit of the books. Weber stated, "Tolkien is for everyone. His stories are about his fictional races doing their best work when they leave the isolation of their own cultures and come together." Addai-Robinson reiterated this, stating that Tolkien explores the theme of "people of different ethnicities, backgrounds, and walks of life all coming together for a common cause. For me personally, as a viewer, I would have the expectation that [the series] would reflect the real world, as well as the world as I aspire it to be."

Mooney described these responses to the more diverse cast as "the reactionary backlash accompanying any modern project with female characters or characters of color". Andrew Blair at Den of Geek discussed how this was an example of the increasing racist and sexist complaints made by certain online groups about different media projects over the prior decade (such as the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot and the Star Wars sequel trilogy), using some established techniques such as "spamming and overwhelming conversation". As part of the backlash on various online forums and comment sections, members of these groups often used the following quote which they incorrectly attributed to Tolkien: "Evil is not able to create anything new, it can only distort and destroy what has been invented or made by the forces of good." Blair felt this was "colossally lacking in self-awareness". TheGamer's Ben Sledge compared the backlash to homophobic complaints about Ian McKellen's casting as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films. Sledge acknowledged the argument that Tolkien had hoped to create a mythology and fictional history for Britain in his writings, but said the assumption that all people in Britain's history were white was not historically accurate and did not actually apply to a fantasy story; Dimitra Fimi, an academic researching Tolkien's writings and his depiction of race, wrote a piece with Mariana Rios Maldonado for The Conversation that concurred with Sledge in this view, discussing Britain's history of diversity, the freedom of adaptations to make changes where needed, and the fact that Tolkien often did not discuss the biology of his characters but did suggest the existence of dark-skinned Elves in drafts of The Silmarillion.

Official trailer reaction, overall, is disapproval.

External links

• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power at IMDb 
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Twitter