The first season of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). Set thousands of years before the novel in Middle-earth's Second Age, the series begins in a time of relative peace and follows various characters as they face the re-emergence of darkness. The season includes a mystery about the whereabouts of the Dark Lord Sauron and concludes with the forging of the first Rings of Power. It was produced by Amazon Studios in association with New Line Cinema and with J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay as showrunners.
Amazon acquired the television rights to The Lord of the Rings in November 2017. Payne and McKay were set to develop the series in July 2018. They intended for it to be visually consistent with Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014) film trilogies, despite being separate from them. A large international cast was hired and each Middle-earth culture was defined through designs, dialects, and music. Filming began in February 2020 in New Zealand, where the films were produced, but was put on hold in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Production resumed in September and wrapped in August 2021, taking place in Auckland and on location around the country. J. A. Bayona, Wayne Che Yip, and Charlotte Brändström directed episodes. Special effects company Wētā Workshop and visual effects vendor Wētā FX returned from the films.
The season premiered on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video on September 1, 2022, with its first two episodes. This followed a marketing campaign that attempted to win over dissatisfied Tolkien fans. The other six episodes were released weekly until October 14. Amazon said the season was the most-watched of any Prime Video original series and third-party analytics companies also estimated viewership to be high. Initial reviews were generally positive, particularly for the visuals, but there were mixed feelings on the season's Tolkien connections and criticisms for its structure. Commentary about the season focused on vocal responses from Tolkien fans, online backlash to the diverse cast, and comparisons with concurrent fantasy series House of the Dragon. The season received various accolades including six Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award nominations.
Episodes
Cast and characters
Starring
Supporting
Production
Development Amazon acquired the television rights for J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954–55) in November 2017. The company's streaming service, Amazon Prime Video, gave a multi-season commitment to a series based on the novel and its appendices, to be produced by Amazon Studios in association with New Line Cinema and in consultation with the Tolkien Estate. The budget was expected to be around per season.
Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014) films, was discussing his involvement with Amazon by April 2018. By early June, he was not expected to be involved, but later that month Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke said discussions with Jackson were ongoing. The studio was meeting with potential writers and hoped the series could debut in 2021. J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay were hired to develop it in July. They were an unlikely choice, having only done unproduced or uncredited writing at that point. In December, Jackson said he and his producing partners would read scripts and offer notes, but later said this did not happen. Amazon explained that the deal with Tolkien's estate required the company to keep the series distinct from Jackson's films. Amazon executive Sharon Tal Yguado advocated for his involvement, but the estate was against this after not being consulted on Jackson's films. The showrunners attempted to discuss the series with Jackson, and intended for it to be visually consistent with the films.
After signing an overall deal with Amazon, Game of Thrones (2011–2019) writer Bryan Cogman joined as a consultant in May 2019. Amazon was also interested in having Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss consult on the series as part of a potential overall deal, before they signed with Netflix instead. In July, J. A. Bayona was hired to direct the first two episodes and executive produce alongside his producing partner Belén Atienza. Amazon confirmed that Payne and McKay were showrunners and executive producers, and the rest of the creative team was revealed: executive producers Bayona, Atienza, Bruce Richmond, Gene Kelly, Lindsey Weber, and Yguado; producer Ron Ames; costume designer Kate Hawley; production designer Rick Heinrichs; visual effects supervisor Jason Smith; Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey; and illustrator/concept artist John Howe. Hawley and Howe returned from the films, along with special effects company Wētā Workshop and visual effects vendor Wētā FX. Cogman, Kelly, Yguado, Heinrichs, and Shippey left during development for various reasons.
Ramsey Avery was hired as the new production designer around the end of August 2019. He said ten episodes were planned, but this was reduced to eight not long before he joined. Filming was scheduled to begin in January 2020 and was structured into blocks, with the first block covering the first two episodes. Due to concerns that writing and design work would not be ready for the second block, a two-and-a-half month break was planned following the first. By November, this break was expected to last four or five months so the newly ordered second season could be written. Callum Greene, a producer on Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013), joined as an executive producer by December. Wayne Che Yip was hired as co-executive producer and director for four episodes, with Charlotte Brändström directing the other two. Ames, who oversaw the technical departments, asked Amazon for unlimited cloud-based storage, allowing all technical data and footage to be accessible to crew around the world. The season was the first production to be completely cloud-based, which became crucial when the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. Prime Video announced the series' title, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, in January 2022.
Writing A writers' room opened in Santa Monica, California, by mid-February 2019. It included Payne, McKay, Gennifer Hutchison, Justin Doble, Cogman, Jason Cahill, Stephany Folsom, Helen Shang, and Nicholas Adams. They started each day discussing a quote from Tolkien that inspired them. The scripts were being rewritten by the end of August 2019 when the episode count was reduced from ten to eight.
The series is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the Third Age events of Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings. The First and Second Ages are primarily explored in Tolkien works that Amazon did not acquire the rights to, so the writers had to identify all of the references to the Second Age in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the appendices, and create a story that bridged those passages. One of their earliest ideas was a new "origin story" for the dark land of Mordor, introducing it as the Southlands which are devastated by a volcanic eruption. Another was a being falling from the sky and meeting a halfling; the showrunners believed the series would not feel like Middle-earth without Hobbits and Wizards, and wanted to have a "Tolkienian relationship" between a Wizard and a halfling similar to the characters Gandalf and Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings. Hobbits are associated with the Third Age, so they explored secretive precursors to the Hobbits called Harfoots. One version of Tolkien's history has two Blue Wizards arrive in Middle-earth during the Second Age, which the showrunners used as the basis to include "The Stranger", who is revealed to be a Wizard in the season finale.
Though the Rings of Power for Elves were made after those for Men and Dwarves in Tolkien's history, the writers chose to follow the more widely-known order used in the Ring Verse poem and focus on the Elven rings first. Tolkien wrote that the power of the Elves in Middle-earth is fading during the Second Age, and it is the Elven rings that slow this. To explain this, the writers determined from Tolkien's writings that the light of the Two Trees of Valinor should counteract the Elves' fading power; the light of the Trees was captured in the Silmarils, powerful jewels from the First Age; and one of the Elven rings contains the rare ore mithril, which has special properties. They suggested a "grand unification theory" in which mithril is created from one of the Silmarils, giving it the power to save the Elves, and is then used to make all three Elven rings. The writers wanted the season's central storylines to justify the "Faustian deal" that the Elves accept when they make the rings: Elrond attempts to reverse the Elves' fading power while Galadriel gathers an army to fight the forces of evil; when they both fail, they turn to the creation of the Rings of Power out of desperation.
One of the Tolkien quotes discussed by the writers was a line from The Lord of the Rings where Galadriel says "I know [the Dark Lord Sauron's] mind, and he gropes ever to know mine". They inferred that the two could have met and wanted to explore that. Believing it could only happen if Sauron was in disguise, which he often is in Tolkien's writings, the showrunners saw an opportunity to have Sauron deceive the audience in the same way that he deceives other characters. They created a new disguise, the human "Halbrand", instead of using his "Annatar" disguise from the books, and hoped Tolkien fans could be surprised as well. McKay said hiding Sauron until the finale meant they were not rushing to focus on his evilness, and could begin the series by introducing the Second Age and its heroic characters.
The writers condensed Tolkien's Second Age timeline from thousands of years to a short period of time. This allowed major human characters from later in the timeline to be introduced in the season, including Isildur and others from Númenor. The showrunners said visiting Númenor, a kingdom of Men that is destroyed near the end of the Second Age, was one of the key reasons for making a Second Age series. The season uses a vision of the future to reveal that Númenor will eventually be destroyed. This was done so all viewers would be aware of the tragic ending that is coming, similar to the film Titanic (1997).
Location
In June 2018, Salke said the series could be produced in New Zealand like the films, but Amazon was willing to film in other countries. Pre-production reportedly began around that time in Auckland, while location scouting took place in Scotland around the Isle of Skye, Portpatrick, Scourie, Perthshire, and Loch Lomond. Amazon held talks with Creative Scotland about using studios that were under construction in Edinburgh, and had a "crisis meeting" with the New Zealand government regarding a lack of available studio space. Amazon ultimately decided to film in New Zealand, and was reportedly influenced by the potential effects of Brexit in Scotland.