With plans for it to debut sometime in 2021, Amazon has now brought out the premise for what their multi-season TV series is supposed to be about. While initially people rolled their eyes at the project, believing it to be a remake of the film or just another adaptation of the novel, it turned out to be something very different as it’s set to work through the Second Age of Middle-earth, which takes place before the films.
There’s an extensive cast announced for it so far, though with no roles tied to them, and J.A. Bayona has directed the first two episodes. Things were delayed due to the pandemic for awhile but it restarted production back in September 2020 and we’ll hopefully get something soon. but until then, this premise is the first firm piece on what we might see in the series.
The series is produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema, with J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay McKay serving as showrunners.
Plot Concept: 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.
