Lord of the Rings TV show plot details and settings revealed

Three years after the Lord of the Rings TV show was announced, we’ve finally got an official synopsis for the Amazon Prime series. The plot overview mentions some key Middle-earth locations that will appear in the show, including the Misty Mountains, the elf capital of Lindon, and the island kingdom of Númenor.

The series will take place in Middle-earth’s fabled Second Age of history, thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's books. As reported by TheOneRing.net, Amazon Studios says it “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 also confirmed that the series will begin in a time of relative peace and follow an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar (some of the residents of Middle-earth have very different lifespans to humans, after all) and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to their world.

Who these familiar faces may be has yet to be announced, but Morfydd Clark will reportedly be back as Galadriel and Elrond is expected to play a part in the story, too. Played by Hugo Weaving in the movies, there’s no word who has been cast to play him in the series.

Unfortunately, there’s no release date for the Lord of the Rings TV show yet. While we wait, check out our list of the other best shows on Amazon Prime that you can watch right now.

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related. I help bring you all the latest news, features, and reviews, as well as helming our Big Screen Spotlight column. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.