Amazon's First Look at New 'Lord of the Rings' Series Has a Few Clues

It’s an exciting day for fans of the Lord of the Rings franchise. Amazon released its first photo of the upcoming spinoff series slated to release later in 2022. While very few details are available yet, the first image looks like the Two Trees of Valinor might be in play. And people are very excited because another battle for Middle-earth is upon us.

Amazon Studios announced a new development for a Lord of the Rings television series in the works. Based on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien and his idea of Middle-earth, the new show would take fans into the world years before The Fellowship of the Ring.

Amazon shared its first look at the long-anticipated series on Aug. 2. The first season has wrapped up filming in New Zealand, the same location the movie trilogy was shot. While the first photo doesn’t give a whole lot away, there are some hints that fans have been able to pull out of it.

In the first official photo from the upcoming series, we see a mysterious figure in the center wearing a flowy white gown, sort of resembling what the Elves would wear. However, since we can only see the figure from the back, we cannot see much in detail. And so, there’s no hint of the unique Elves’ ears.

However, the background does give off a clue that could be huge for the new series. It appears to be the Two Trees of Valinor — Laurelin and Telperion — the ancient light sources crafted by the Valar to give light to all Middle-earth before the sun and the moon existed.

Could these be the fabled trees? In that case, it plays well into the Elf-like figure in the photo since Valinor, the holy place, was home to the angelic and powerful Valar. The Elves lived there in peaceful times as well.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy was set in the Third Age. However, it’s already been revealed that the new series will occur in the Second Age, the period before the whole Gollum, Sauron, ring, and Frodo situation went down.

However, what makes that interesting is that the Two Trees were destroyed a lot earlier than the Second Age. So, either the first episode will give a long flashback to catch the viewers up to the time after the Two Trees, or it starts far earlier than previously revealed.

The series is set to take place “thousands of years before the events chronicled in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books,” according to The Verge. “And it will follow characters ‘both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.’”

The new Lord of the Rings series will premiere on Amazon on Sept. 2, 2022, with new episodes rolling out each week.