by Thinus Ferreira
The most expensive TV series yet, the as-yet-untitled Lord of the Rings drama series, has unveiled a first look image of the production with Amazon Prime Video that revealed that the first season will start on 2 September 2022 on the video streaming service.
According to Amazon Studios, filming on the first season of the multi-season Lord of the Rings series wrapped on Monday 2 August in Auckland, New Zealand.
According to Amazon Prime Video, the Lord of the Rings series takes place during the so-called Second Age of J.R.R. Tolkien's book series, placing it a thousand years before the events of the Third Age in the Lord of the Rings books and The Hobbit which were turned into films.
Since several of the fantasy creatures within his fantasy universe have very long lifespans, the series will follow an ensemble of characters that will include new faces but some who are also "familiar" and likely younger than what they were in the films.
While there is peace in the land and mankind lives in on Númenor, "the kingdom of Men", that has been established on an island brought up out of the sea by the Valar in the early Second Age, the multi-season series filmed in New Zealand will build towards the "long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-Earth".
Previously Amazon Studios said that the series "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" - a clear allusion that viewers might get to experience the origin story of the Dark Lord Sauron.
Amazon Prime Video is available in South Africa at R79.99 monthly and offers a free 7-day trial.
It can also be accessed through the app on MultiChoice's DStv Explora decoder although DStv subscribers will have to pay Amazon directly and not through their DStv bill, while Vodacom offers its subscribers 6 months of Amazon Prime Video for free and thereafter R79.99 monthly.
Amazon's Lord of the Rings series that would have started this year before the global coronavirus pandemic delayed TV and film productions worldwide, will now start on Friday 2 September 2022 and be available in 240 countries and territories, with new episodes that will be released weekly.
It means that the TV series will start 85 years after J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit was first published on 21 September 1937.
A first look still image from the first episode - of which Amazon is deliberately not identifying the character dressed in white in a field or the pastoral setting - depicts a utopian-like city built on a hill with white stone, waterfalls and lush vegetation.
"The journey begins 2 September 2022 with the premiere of our original The Lord of the Rings series on Prime Video," says Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, in a statement.
"I can't express enough just how excited we all are to take our global audience on a new and epic journey through Middle-earth. Our talented producers, cast, creative, and production teams have worked tirelessly in New Zealand to bring this untold and awe-inspiring vision to life."
J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay are the showrunners on the series that is produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment.
"As Bilbo says, 'Now I think I am quite ready to go on another journey'. Living and breathing Middle-earth these many months has been the adventure of a lifetime. We cannot wait for fans to have the chance to do so as well," said J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay in the statement.
The ensemble cast of the Lord of the Rings series 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.
