In May, it will have been three years since Game of Thrones ended its run on HBO. Audiences have been looking for a worthy successor ever since, but few shows have even come close. If any new series stands a chance of standing toe to toe with the reigning champion, it must be Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings TV show. We still don’t know much about the show, but that’s going to change very soon. On Monday, Amazon confirmed that the first teaser trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will air during the Super Bowl.
Amazon’s huge bet on The Lord of the Rings
Amazon bought the television rights for The Lord of the Rings in 2017 for around $250 million. News about the company’s plans has been trickling out ever since.
In March of 2019, Amazon revealed that its untitled live-action Lord of the Rings series would be set in Second Age of Middle-earth. Filming on the first season began in February of 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic shut production down almost immediately. Finally, last August, Amazon officially wrapped filming for the first season of the show.
We didn’t even learn the title of the show until last month. In January, Prime Video shared a trailer which revealed that the show’s subtitle would be The Rings of Power:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhqGCPMfkNM
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.
The Rings of Power trailer airs on February 13th
This brings us to the tweet revealing the release date of the first teaser trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Twitter’s official @TwitterTV account shared a video on Monday with a message written in Elvish. It didn’t take fans long to translate the message to English. The message reads: “Teaser trailer arrives February 13th.” That also happens to be the day the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals will face off in Super Bowl 56.
anyone here speak Elvish 👀 #LOTRROP pic.twitter.com/H5ROHvIulW
— Twitter TV is in Middle-earth (@TwitterTV) February 7, 2022
We don’t know when exactly the trailer will air, but we have a sneaking suspicion it won’t be a mystery for too long. Amazon reportedly spent $465 million on the first season alone. That doesn’t include the $250 million that the company paid for the TV rights. You’d best believe Amazon shelled out for prime placement during the Super Bowl.
J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay will serve as showrunners and executive producers on the series. Amazon has tapped J. A. Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), Wayne Che Yip (Doctor Who), and Charlotte Brändström (The Witcher) to direct. The cast includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, and Nazanin Boniadi.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuts on Prime Video on September 2nd, 2022. The first season will consist of eight episodes. Amazon has already picked up The Rings of Power for a second season, which will shoot in the UK instead of New Zealand.
