By Gavin Mackintosh-
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series has finally got its first teaser and an official title.
The epic show is set during the Second Age of Middle-earth’s history, a relatively unexplored portion of J.R.R. Tolkien’s saga mostly chronicled in the appendices of his novel.
The new series’ title — along with a forging-focused teaser video — makes reference to how the rings’ creation were both tied to the reemergence of a long-dormant evil in the world and to the subsequent hardships that the world’s men, elves, and dwarves would end up facing in the future.
The show takes places thousands of years before the events depicted in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies. It’s set to be a prequel, exploring the Second Age of Middle-earth, preceding the events of Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning, beloved film trilogy.
The Rings of Power will ‘take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness’, as per the official synopsis. The voice over said:
‘Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.’ The Lord Of The Rings Series Gets First Look And Release Date
‘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 furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.’
The forthcoming Lord of the Rings television series: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The series will premiere on September 2, 2022, on Prime Video.he multi-season drama . It will feature exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries around the world in multiple languages with new episodes available weekly.
Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay said they could imagine the title ‘living on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien’s other classics’, as per Empire.
‘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. Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring – but before there was one, there were many… and we’re excited to share the epic story of them all.’
-R ean Astin, Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd in The Fellowship Of The Ring)d expect to
It is not yet certain whether any of the previous cast members (out of all of them, Ian McKellen’s Gandalf is most likely), but Saint Maud’s Morfydd Clark will play Galadriel, earlier portrayed by Cate Blanchett.
This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien’s other classics,” showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay said in a statement. “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.”
They added: “Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring – but before there was one, there were many… and we’re excited to share the epic story of them all.”
In 2017, a Tolkien expert working on the Lord of the Rings adaptation confirmed that Amazon didn’t have permission from the author’s estate to use the bulk of the material from his novel – and, so, the plot would not cross over with the Peter Jackson movies. As a result, the series will be a prequel, set thousands of years before the novel and the book that precedes it, The Hobbit.
Tolkien’s the Second Age begins after the banishment of the dark lord Morgoth. It ends with the first demise of Sauron, Morgoth’s servant and the primary villain in The Lord of the Rings, at the hands of an alliance of elves and men. Amazon’s synopsis describes the show as, “beginning in a time of relative peace”, stating that it will “follow an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared reemergence of evil to Middle-earth.”
The cast includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani.
“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,” said Showrunners J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay. “Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring – but before there was one, there were many… and we’re excited to share the epic story of them all.”
Prime Video chose to physically forge the title in a blacksmith foundry, pouring fiery molten metal into hand-carved wooden ravines shaped to the letterforms. The process was captured in slow motion for a live-action video, which features voice-over narration of lines from Tolkien’s famous “Ring Verse,” describing the intended recipients of the 20 Rings of Power. The bespoke title treatment appears crafted in a silvery metal, with lines of Elvish script inscribed along the crest of each letter form.
The teaser also features what sounds like Clark delivering a speech Blanchett did back in the original movies, the words of Tolkien’s “Ring Verse” tracing the lineage of the various rings through the hands of elves, dwarves, men, and the Dark Lord himself. This passage seems to line right up with where Payne and McKay hope to take the series.
“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, the epic tale of Numenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men,” Payne and 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 them all.