It’s time to reread all the “Lord of the Rings” books and rewatch all the movies before the show’s big release.
If you haven’t already heard, Amazon Prime Video is adapting “The Lord of the Rings.”
On Wednesday, the streaming service revealed the name of the show — “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” — through a teaser video ahead of the Sept. 2 release. In the teaser, the title of the show is forged using molten metals.
“This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien’s other classics. ‘The Rings of Power’ unites all the major stories of ‘Middle-earth’s Second Age: the forging of the rings,’ ‘the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron,’ ‘the epic tale of Númenor,’ and ‘the Last Alliance of Elves and Men’,” said showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, per Deadline. “Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring – but before there was one, there were many … and we’re excited to share the epic story of them all.”
The series is a prequel, set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the events in the “Lord of the Rings” films and movies. This is the first time J.R.R. Tolkien’s Second Age of Middle-earth history will appear on screen.
Who is involved?
According to Polygon, Amazon acquired the rights to the “Lord of the Rings” franchise in 2017. The show is still early in development so many of the whos, whats, whens and whys are still unclear but the company listed out names of a few who are involved.
- The showrunners and executive producers are Payne and McKay, who have worked on the original trilogy but now will be calling the shots.
- They are joined by other executive producers — Lindsey Weber from “Star Trek Beyond,” Callum Greene from “Pacific Rim,” J.A. Bayona from “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” Belén Atienza from “The Orphanage,” Justin Doble from “Stranger Things,” Jason Cahill from “Halt and Catch Fire,” Gennifer Hutchison from “Breaking Bad,” Bruce Richmond from “From the Earth to the Moon,” and Sharon Tal Yguado from “Outcast,” and producers Ron Ames from “Bumblebee” and Christopher Newman from “Game of Thrones.”
- Wayne Che Yip from “Preacher” will be the co-executive producer.
- Che Yip will direct along with Bayona and Charlotte Brändström from “The Unlikely Murderer.”