Featured Image Credit: Amazon Studios
Topics: Lord of the Rings, Amazon Prime, Film and TV, Entertainment
Cameron Frew
Topics: Lord of the Rings, Amazon Prime, Film and TV, Entertainment
The first trailer for Amazon's Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is finally here.
Later this year, we'll embark on an adventure through Middle-earth's Second Age. The upcoming Amazon Prime series is easily the platform's most anticipated show ever, exploring the rise and fall of Sauron and the events preceding Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning, beloved film trilogy.
Amazon swooped the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's works for $250 million, with plans for at least five seasons. However, that's nothing compared to the show's budget: an estimated $1 billion, making it the most expensive production in television history.
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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.
In the first teaser, we heard Morfydd Clark's Galadriel, earlier played by Cate Blanchett, reading a classic speech, '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 where the shadows lie.'
Alongside Clark, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur and Nazanin Boniadi are among the leading stars, and they’ll be supported by Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith and Charlie Vickers. It's unclear whether any of the previous actors will make an appearance — Ian McKellen is most likely, given his character of Gandalf.
Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in the original movies, also told ScreenCrush, 'It sounds incredible, but I don’t see myself being any part of it. I think it’s a completely fresh, new approach to it all, so I don’t think I’d imagine myself to be anywhere near it really.'
Jackson isn't involved at all with the project. Showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay earlier said they felt 'like Frodo, setting out from the Shire, with a great responsibility in our care — it is the beginning of the adventure of a lifetime'.
'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,' they continued.
'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.'
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Amazon Prime on September 2, 2022.
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