by Thinus Ferreira
In a shocking announcement, Amazon Studios says it's moving Mordor: The as-yet-untitled Lord of the Rings fantasy drama series is exiting production in New Zealand after its first season following millions saved after tax breaks and relocating to the United Kingdom.
The world's most expensive TV series to date - $465 million alone just to film the first season - has already been renewed for a second season even before the debut of the first episode that will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on Friday 2 September 2022 in 240 territories around the world.
While post-production work is ongoing and will continue in New Zealand until June 2022, sets will now be shipped to the UK along with the cast and a new UK-based crew assembled for filming the next season. The series will have to find several big new sound stages for the fantasy series' expansive sets.
Amazon Studios says that pre-production on the second season will begin in early-2022.
New Zealand is where Peter Jackson filmed the Lord of the Rings films and The Hobbit film series with the New Zealand backdrop that originally influenced author J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy universe that he created.
Amazon Studios and the Lord of the Rings series production got a whopping 20% tax break from New Zealand of $114 million to start filming the series in Auckland, but the show will now forfeit many millions more in another 5% tax break for upping and leaving.
"The shift from New Zealand to the UK aligns with the studio's strategy of expanding its production footprint and investing in studio space across the UK, with many of Amazon Studios' tentpole series and films already calling the U.K. home," Amazon Studios said in a statement released on Thursday night.
"We want to thank the people and the government of New Zealand for their hospitality and dedication and for providing The Lord of the Rings series with an incredible place to begin this epic journey," said Vernon Sanders, vice president and co-head of TV, Amazon Studios.
"We are grateful to the New Zealand Film Commission, the ministry of business, innovation and employment, Tourism New Zealand, Auckland Unlimited, and others for their tremendous collaboration that supported the New Zealand film sector and the local economy during the production of season one."
Albert Cheng, COO & co-head of TV, Amazon Studios, says "As we look to relocate the production to the United Kingdom, we do not intend to actively pursue the season one MoU 5% financial uplift with the New Zealand government or preserve the terms around that agreement, however we respectfully defer to our partners and will remain in close consultation with them around next steps".
Filming on the first season of the Lord of the Rings series wrapped on Monday 2 August in Auckland.
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.
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.
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.
