Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power gets slightly earlier release date – and a two-episode premiere

(Image credit: Amazon Studios)

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will now arrive on Amazon Prime Video a few hours earlier than expected – and we're getting a two-episode premiere, too.

Originally scheduled to hit the streamer on September 2, the first two episodes will now be available to watch from 9pm ET/6pm PT on September 1. If you're in the UK, you'll still have to wait until September 2 – but only until 2am. After that, new episodes will be released every Friday at 12am ET – so that's 9pm PT and 5am in the UK.

The first two episodes of the series are directed by Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom helmer J.A. Bayona, who said the show has a life of its own outside of Peter Jackson's beloved movies.

"We all love what Peter Jackson did," Bayona recently told SFX magazine in the new issue, featuring Andor on the cover. "And at the very beginning, we thought about establishing some kind of a bridge between the show and the movies. But then, as you realise the complexity of each world, you get invested in your own story. Then, unconsciously, you start to create something that has its own life.

"The bar was set very high, and I’m glad that Amazon had the ambition of going there – I tried to at least match what Peter Jackson did – but the more we were working with the characters and the story, the more we were unconsciously disconnecting from the movies."

While we wait for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power to arrive on the streamer, check out our picks of the other best shows on Amazon Prime Video.

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I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.