Two decades ago, Peter Jackson‘s “The Lord Of The Rings” trilogy ushered in a new age of big-budget filmmaking. On a $286 million budget, Jackon’s films brought in nearly $3 billion in the worldwide box office and won 17 Academy Awards. Jackson’s later “The Hobbit” trilogy failed to measure up to those films, but all six left a lasting influence on 21st-century cinema.
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So, how does one follow up two Tolkien-based projects of such colossal scale and technical wizardry? Up the ante, of course. That’s the ambitious strategy of Amazon Studios for their new series “The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power,” set to premiere on Amazon Prime this September.
Already announced to last 50 hours over five seasons, the show is the most expensive television series ever. The first season’s production budget is $486 million alone. The entire series’s estimated cost is $1 billion, not to mention the $250 million bidding war Jeff Bezos won to acquire the rights to make the show in the first place.
What’s a show this high-cost about, anyway? The series takes on the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the adventures of Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf, and Aragorn. Based on the Appendices to “The Lord Of The Rings” that Tolkien wrote to outline Middle-earth’s history, the show is an original take on the author’s already immersive world. Expect new characters and multiple storylines that pivot around the Second Age’s major event: the forging of the rings of power and the rise of Sauron.
“The Rings Of Power” boasts a massive ensemble cast with 22 starring roles. Morfydd Clark, Owain Arthur, Robert Aramayo, and Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charlie Vickers, Markella Kavenagh and Lenny Henry are just some of the many principal cast members.
Patrick McKay & JD Payne are showrunners for “The Rings Of Power.” Joining them are “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” director J.A. Bayona, who directs the show’s first two episodes, and “Game Of Thrones” executive producer Bryan Cogman.
Will Amazon’s massive scale for “The Rings Of Power” help it surpass Peter Jackson’s achievements, or will it be the show’s undoing? Amazon Prime members find out when the series premieres on September 2. Watch the new trailer below.