Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings TV series gets a full synopsis, season plans revealed

Like a Dark Lord’s brooding army, Amazon is setting to conquer the streaming media landscape as it pumps a ton of cash into headline-grabbing content for Prime Video. And leading the charge will be The Lord of the Rings, a TV series adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s epic fantasy work that will be the most expensive TV production ever made (Amazon paid $250 million for the rights alone!).

We’ve previously heard that the series won’t be rehashing the material adapted by Peter Jackson in his multiple Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy. So what will this show be about? Well, LOTR fan-site TheOneRing.net has debuted the official synopsis teasing the era and location we will be visiting.

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.

Confirming previous reports, the show will be set 1000 years before the events covered in the movies. Combine that with the mentions of locations like Lindon and Númenor, and it looks like the series may be pulling its inspiration from The Silmarillion, Tolkien’s posthumously published collection of epic mythological stories telling the ancient history of Middle Earth. This also may shut down the early rumours that the central focus of the show would be a young Aragorn (who would presumably have been played by Robert Aramayo, the lead in the massive ensemble cast).

The Lord of the Rings started shooting in New Zealand early 2020 but production was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming resumed this past September though, and a second season was officially ordered two months later to be shot back to back with the first. But now, along with the synopsis, we also have confirmation that Amazon has actually billed The Lord of the Rings as a five-season show with eight to ten episodes per season. The corporate giant has reportedly set aside $1 billion dollars to make those five seasons happen with the highest production quality. Now word yet though on just when the first season will debut this year.

Last Updated: January 14, 2021