Photo: FandomWire
Lord of the Rings Amazon Show: Release date, Casts & Plot. Photo: FandomWire

Amazon Prime is bringing the world of Middle-earth to the small screen with The Lord of the Rings TV show. Set thousands of years before J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved books in Middle-earth's fabled Second Age of history, the series is set to follow an ensemble of new and familiar characters. Filming is currently taking place, and Amazon has revealed the show's official synopsis, but it looks like we've still got a while to wait before we can see what happens for ourselves, Gamesradar noted.

Lord of the Rings Amazon Show: Release date

Photo: Hypebeast
Lord of the Rings Amazon Show. Photo: Hypebeast

This is the million-dollar question. There doesn’t seem to be an official release date for the series just yet … or at least, not one that has been publicly announced. Since production is under way, there is a chance that the series could launch in 2021.

However, one of the requirements of the $250 million rights deal Amazon made to acquire global television rights to The Lord of the Rings was that the company had to begin production on the show within two years of the deal being made, according to IndieWire. Amazon issued a press release in November 2017 confirming the acquisition.

If they want to keep to those contracts — which were written before the Covid-19 pandemic halted production worldwide — we would expect a January 2022 release date at the latest, as Stuff reported that production began in February 2020, according to Radiotimes.

READ MORE: Amazon Prime Video Guide & How Much It Cost?

Lord of the Rings Amazon Show: Casts

Photo: Movieweb
Lord of the Rings Amazon Show. Photo: Movieweb

A series on this scale needs a huge cast, and Amazon's Lord of the Rings ensemble is absolutely stacked. There are currently 35 actors currently listed as appearing in the TV show, according to the official casting page (Budge is still there despite having departed the project). At the time of writing, though, only a few of that number have reportedly had their characters revealed.

According to Variety, Morfydd Clark (Saint Maud) has been cast as a younger version of Galadriel. Lord of the Rings fans will know that the powerful elf was played by Cate Blanchett in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. As this series is set during the Second Age, though, Galadriel will be younger in Amazon's TV show.

Another role that we're fairly certain of is Simon Merrells. According to the actor's biography page on the Warring and McKenna management agency website, Merrells (Good Omens) will be playing an original character called Trevyn.

Additionally, Amazon Studios announced 20 cast members who would play supporting roles in the Lord of the Rings TV show last December (h/t Deadline). British comedian-actor Sir Lenny Henry, Years and Years' Maxim Baldry, Divinity's Maxine Cunliffe, A Discovery of Witches' Trystan Gravelle, and Power's Cynthia Addai-Robinson.

One thing that's definitely certain is that we won't see the likes of Frodo, Sam or Aragorn in this adaptation. For reasons you'll read further down this page, these characters were born in Middle-Earth's Third Age, which places the show outside of their timelines. If you're expecting anything other than a cameo from any of the film trilogy's hobbits or men, you'll be sorely disappointed.

There are key Second Age players, including elven High King Gil-galad, elven smith Celebrimbor, dwarf King Durin III, and Numenorian King Elendil, who haven't had their castings revealed yet either. It's likely that these individuals will be part of the announced cast but, once we have confirmation, we'll update this section.

Lord of the Rings Amazon Show: Plot

Photo: Bosshunting
Lord of the Rings Amazon Show. Photo: Bosshunting

The series will still take place in Middle-earth, but the television adaptation will actually be a prequel occurring before the events of the films. Tolkien estate and HarperCollins representative Matt Galsor said the show will "bring to the screen previously unexplored stories based on J.R.R. Tolkien's original writings,” Ars Technica reported.

"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.

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