The Lord of the Rings TV show has cost Amazon a lot of money, that much is for sure. In fact, it was previously reported that the budget for season 1 was $465 million, which would make Lord of the Rings the most expensive series ever.
"This is a full season of a huge world-building show," Amazon Studios CEO Jennifer Salke explained to The Hollywood Reporter. "The number is a sexy headline or a crazy headline that’s fun to click on, but that is really building the infrastructure of what will sustain the whole series."
While this large sum of money may be necessary for the vast world-building of J.R.R. Tolkien's universe, it still means it's important for the studio that people tune in, to put it lightly. "As for how many people need to watch Lord of the Rings?" Salke added. "A lot. A giant, global audience needs to show up to it as appointment television, and we are pretty confident that that will happen."
Set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the series will follow an ensemble cast of characters as they confront the re-emergence of evil in Middle-earth. Season 1 is due to premiere sometime in 2021, but we don't have anything more specific than that at the moment.
The show is currently filming in New Zealand and Charlotte Brändström has recently joined the team behind the camera to direct two episodes, continuing the work of J.A. Bayona and Wayne Che Yip. Brändström has previously worked on shows like The Man in the High Castle, The Witcher, and Jupiter's Legacy.
