Ahead of the second season of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the show-runners have revealed why the show is as expensive as it is.
The Rings of Power season one is one of the most expensive of all time, with the production costs coming in at around $140 million.
Despite this being higher due to the complexities of COVID-19, it doesn’t even begin to factor in the absolutely massive amount of money Amazon paid for the television rights to Lord of the Rings, which came out at $250 million.
According to reports by Deadline when Amazon made this acquisition, the projected $100-150 production budget of each season over a planned five seasons is set to lead to the show costing north of a billion dollars total.
The question is though… where does all that money go?
Advert
While the series is full of spectacle, it doesn’t have any Robert Downey Jr level names who is reported to be raking in $100 million just on his own for the next two Avengers movies.
This is a question UNILAD asked showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay in an exclusive interview with the pair.
While they jokingly added ‘reportedly’ when the show’s expense was mentioned in the question, they stated that most of the money simply goes into holding the show to the highest quality.
Advert
Patrick McKay said: “We're incredibly fortunate that Amazon looked at the scope of Tolkien's imagination and decided that it was worth the resources that it would take to bring it into fruition in the way that it deserved.
“We don't really tend to think about how much, just we tend to think about getting it right.
“We look at each of the worlds, whether it's Khazad Dum with the Dwarves, or Lindon with the Elves, or Numenor and our Halflings, and we say, what is it going to take to realize that world?
“If we can't do it in a way that, you know, is spectacular, we don't do it.”
Advert
This came ahead of the show’s second season, in which ‘spectacular’ is absolutely an adjective you’re likely to hear.
The showrunners revealed that one battle, hinted at in the trailers, is going to be a full on historical-style siege taking place over three whole episodes.
J.D. Payne said: “We wanted to do a proper siege, not just so it takes place over a matter of hours, but a matter of actually, like weeks.
Advert
“We go through a whole series of different kinds of battles within that siege battle, where there's a horse charge, then there's something involving water, then there's an aerial bombardment, and there's sort of almost trench warfare in the muck.
“There's a troll fight. There's a thing at a wall with battlements.”
They even hinted there would be ‘Stalingrad-like’ fighting in the streets, saying: “It's many different kinds of battle all taking place over the course of this one huge, epic siege.”
Rings of Power season episodes 1-3 release August 29, with episodes releasing weekly after this.
Topics: Lord of the Rings, Amazon, Entertainment, Film and TV
Michael Slavin