By The hotly-anticipated, immodestly-budgeted, and hobbit-crammed Lord of the Rings series from Amazon is now officially The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, with an atmospheric title reveal video to ring in the new title.
Principal photography wrapped back in August of last year following pandemic delays, with the epic series now on track for a streaming premiere September 2, 2022.
Serving as a far-flung prequel to the events of JRR Tolkien’s novels and Peter Jackson’s films, The Rings of Power video released today also acts as the series’ title sequence, and is actually not an entirely-digital construction, per an IGN featurette. Gotta love some good old fashioned “movie” magic. Give the vid a look, it’s really incredible.
Amazon released an official synopsis of what we can expect from Rings, alluding to the series’ Second Age setting taking place millennia before the films and books. A time where “great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested,” and “hope hung by the finest of threads.”
With a proper title, a snazzy opening sequence, and a date set in wood stone, the stage is set for The Rings of Power to make a splash later this year. It’s interesting to see whether a new Lord of the Rings series will have the power to bottle the lightning of Jackson’s films or develop into the pop cultural phenomenon Game of Thrones became at its height at HBO. Certainly the void was left by Thrones, with Netflix’s Witcher adaptation seemingly picking up some of the slack. But with Tolkien on the menu, the king has returned.
We shall see, come September.