Amazon Studios has revealed the official title for its long-awaited The Lord of the Rings prequel series. Scheduled to premiere in September, the series is titled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power will feature an ensemble cast of characters during the Second Age of Middle-earth, when evil rises to threaten the world of elves, dwarves, humans, and other inhabitants of the franchise’s fantasy world.
Amazon debuted the title for the series on Twitter in a video that soars over misty canyons and mountains of Middle-earth, then transitions from a molten river flowing through a valley to molten metal coursing through a blacksmith’s mold. Over the video can be heard Tolkien’s description of how the powerful, magic rings created by the Dark Lord, Sauron, were distributed among the dominant species of Middle-earth — all part of his sinister plan.
A new age begins September 2, 2022. Journey to Middle-earth with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. #LOTRonPrime #LOTR #LOTRROP pic.twitter.com/KWAokaVeWW
— The Lord of the Rings (@TheRingsofPower) January 19, 2022
“Three Rings for the elven-kings under the sky, seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, nine for mortal men doomed to die, one for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the land of Mordor…”
First announced back in 2017, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power earned attention early on as it was reported to be one of the most expensive television series ever created. The series has been the subject of intense speculation about its setting and the story it will follow in Tolkien’s far-reaching timeline of Middle-earth.
Although the series won’t overlap with the events of the film franchises, it is expected to feature some characters from the films, given certain species’ long lifespans in Tolkien’s universe.
The Rings of Power will premiere September 2, but was already green-lit in 2019 for a second season, and future seasons are in the works. Filmmaker J.A. Bayona, who directed 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and 2016’s A Monster Calls, directs the first two episodes of The Rings of Power. Directors Wayne Che Yip (Doctor Who, Doom Patrol) and Charlotte Brändström (Jupiter’s Legacy, The Witcher) also direct several episodes in the first season.
