Lindon! Númenor! Other words! Amazon is finally giving us some specifics about its upcoming Lord of the Rings series.
Venerable Lord of the Rings fanpage TheOneRing.net has gotten its hands on an internal description for Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings TV show, on which it is spending an ungodly amount of money. Amazon later confirmed that it was accurate.
Even as the show has been filming in New Zealand, we knew very little about it. We knew some of the cast and that it would be set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, back when Sauron was busy forging the Rings of Power. But much else was shrouded in darkness…until now. Check out the description:
"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."
“The greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen” definitely refers to Sauron (sorry, Morgoth stans). The descriptions finally gives us specifics about some of the places we’ll be visiting, like the elf-capital of Lindon on the western shore of Middle-earth, ruled in those days by the High King Gil-galad. Númenor, meanwhile, was an island nation populated by a race of humans granted long life, the ancestors of Aragorn. I won’t give away what happens to Númenor but it…ah, it doesn’t end well. Should make for good TV, though.
The Second Age plays out over a period of over 3,000 years, so it could be a challenge to show us all of the big events and keep the timeline from getting muddled. Then again, a lot of the main players are immortal or at least have very long life, so maybe they could swing it depending on where they stop and start.
Amazon is committing to at least five seasons of this show, with the first two being filmed back to back. We still don’t have a release date, but we’re started to get truly excited.
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