Amazon’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Series Moves Production To The UK For Season 2
Amazon has decided to move its ‘The Lord of the Rings‘ series from New Zealand to the UK for production on Season 2 the streaming service has announced.
The new epic drama brings to screens for the very first time J.R.R. Tolkien’s fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. Beginning in a time of relative peace, thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ books, 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
“We want to thank the people and the government of New Zealand for their hospitality and dedication and for providing The Lord of the Rings series with an incredible place to begin this epic journey,” said Vernon Sanders, VP and Co-Head of TV, Amazon Studios. “We are grateful to the New Zealand Film Commission, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Tourism New Zealand, Auckland Unlimited, and others for their tremendous collaboration that supported the New Zealand film sector and the local economy during the production of Season One.”
The move is a bit of a surprise, given New Zealand has been the spiritual home of screen adaptations of Tolkien’s work since Peter Jackson’s first film 20 years ago. Couple that with the fact COVID is still out there, and NZ has done an incredible job managing it, plus it means shipping any of the sets they need, quite literally, to the other side of the world, it is something of an eyebrow-raising decision… The reason given by Amazon is to “align with the studio’s strategy of expanding its production footprint and investing in studio space across the U.K., with many of Amazon Studios’ tentpole series and films already calling the U.K. home.” So consolidating everything into one place seems to be the purpose. Season 1 post-production will continue in New Zealand through June 2022, and pre-production on Season 2 will begin concurrently in the U.K. after the first of the year.
Along with consolidating all the Amazon “tentpole” productions in one country, the move does come with some other advantages. For the cast, over half of whom are British, it will allow them to be back home, which, after having been sequestered in NZ for two years due to the pandemic (not that I would complain!), will be nice for those missing their families. Much like ‘Game Of Thrones’ before it, the switch also makes it much easier for the production to utilise other diverse filming locations across Europe if needed for future seasons.
The large cast for the series includes Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Daniel Weyman, Sir Lenny Henry, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Simon Merrells, Geoff Morrell, Peter Mullan, Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker and Sara Zwangoban. However, at the moment, we have no idea who anyone is playing.
J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay developed the series and serve as showrunners. They exec produce alongside Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, director J.A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado, co-executive producer/director Wayne Che Yip, director Charlotte Brändström and producer Christopher Newman.
The ‘Lord Of the Rings‘ series will premiere Friday, 2nd September 2022 on Amazon Prime UK and worldwide.
