First look at characters from Amazon's LOTR series

Author: NZ Herald,
Publish Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2022, 10:27am

A first look at the characters in Amazon's Lord of the Rings series has been released.

The images and details about the upcoming series were released by Vanity Fair today. The series is set thousands of years before The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The show is created by Patrick McKay and JD Payne, features 22 stars, and will cover multiple storylines.

"It's the story of the creation of all those powers, where they came from, and what they did to each of those races," McKay says.

He adds the series is aimed at a wide variety of age groups.

A first look at Galadriel, played by Morfydd Clark. Photo / Ben Rothstein, Amazon Studios

McKay shared the driving question behind the production, teasing what could be in store when LOTR fans are transported back to Middle Earth: "Can we come up with the novel Tolkien never wrote and do it as the mega-event series that could only happen now?"

The images released today show a sylvan elf named Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova). He is the first person of colour to play an elf on screen in a Tolkien project and is a Brit of Jamaican descent.

A character LOTR fans will be very familiar with is Galadriel - and the regal elf features in the new series. Previously played by Cate Blanchett and LOTR and the Hobbit trilogy, Morfydd Clark plays the iconic character in the brand new series.

In January, Amazon revealed the title of the highly anticipated series - Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power. The title teases that the show will draw from the major events of Tolkien's Second Age.

Ismael Cruz Córdova plays a silvian elf called Arondir. Photo / Ben Rothstein, Amazon Studios for Vanity Fair

Amazon revealed the show's synopsis in January 2021.

"This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of JRR 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," Amazon reveals.

The Amazon production was estimated to cost a staggering $1.43 billion overall, and the franchise was set to be filmed entirely in Aotearoa.

But in August, Amazon announced that season two will be filmed in the UK instead.

The government quickly pulled support from the production and decided not to go ahead with part of the deal to support the LOTR series.

Economic Development Minister Stuart Nash said he was disappointed by the decision. According to Nash, the decision impacts more than 1200 people who were working on the first season of LOTR.

Nash revealed that Amazon would lose the incentive it had been offered but was still eligible for a 20 per cent rebate for the work done in New Zealand.