Amazon is getting into the fantasy saga game thanks to its upcoming Lord of the Rings TV series, which is already one of the highest-profile projects in the streamer's history despite only being in pre-production on its first season. Well, folks already excited for Season 1 can now rest easy about the question of a Season 2; the Lord of the Rings series has already been renewed for Season 2.
Lord of the Rings is in pre-production in New Zealand, where the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings film trilogy famously filmed, and Deadline reports Amazon brought the writers room back together to get to work on a second season. This isn't the first time Amazon has handed down a renewal before the first season of a series even premiered, but it's a sign that the studio has a great deal of faith in LOTR for the renewal to come in such an early stage.
That said, it makes sense that Amazon would want to film the first two seasons as consecutively as possible. All signs point toward a production of all but unprecedented size, after all. As a sign of how remarkable this production actually is, the Lord of the Rings series goes into a hiatus of 4-5 months after filming just the first two episodes of the first season, and the writing team along with showrunners/executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay will take advantage of the break to write most of Season 2.
Unlike Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, the writers for the series won't have the blueprint of a beloved trilogy of novels. Although the Amazon show will be set in Middle Earth, the stories will take place before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring.
The renewal news comes more than two years after rumors first began to circulate about a LOTR TV show actually happening, with Sean Astin weighing in with his thoughts shortly thereafter. More than one season for the pricy project was pretty much to be expected; the early announcement of the renewal is still a sign that Amazon is working to make this a stellar series with more than just the LOTR name recognition to it.
The Bizarre Way Amazon Is Hyping Its Lord Of The Rings Series
The early stages of production presumably means that it'll be a while before viewers get a look at the Lord of the Rings series, and the tight security measures could mean a shortage of spoilers leaking ahead of time as well. Will there be a female Gandalf, as one Two Towers actress suggested? Will there be a Gandalf at all? Will we have much more confirmed than that "hairy people" will be part of the cast? Only time will tell.
For now, there are plenty of TV options to fill the time. Swing by our 2019 Fall TV premiere schedule for what remains to debut this year, and then check out our 2020 Winter and Spring TV schedule for what's coming up in the new year.
