We now have our first look at the return to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth as Amazon Studios has dropped the first image from the still-untitled The Lord of the Rings series, as well as announcing a premiere date of September 2nd 2022, with new episodes arriving weekly.
The first-look image above is reportedly from the first episode. No other details on the location or person in the photo have been announced. Now begins a year of fan speculation!
“As Bilbo says, ‘Now I think I am quite ready to go on another journey,'” said showrunners J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay. “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.”
“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!” added Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke. “Our talented producers, cast, creative, and production teams have worked tirelessly in New Zealand to bring this untold and awe-inspiring vision to life.”
SEE ALSO: Amazon executive addresses $465 million budget for The Lord of the Rings season one
Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings is set to be directed by Charlotte Brändström (The Witcher, Jupiter’s Legacy), who will helm two episodes, J.A. Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), who will direct the first two episodes and British Chinese director Wayne Che Yip who will helm four episodes, while JD Payne and Patrick McKay serve as showrunners.
Amazon Studios’ forthcoming series brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and 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. 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. 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.
Lord of the Rings will star Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Daniel Weyman, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Maxim Baldry, 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.
