Amazon Studios announced on Thursday that its untitled The Lord of the Rings original series will film its second season in the United Kingdom, moving away from New Zealand in an effort to expand its production footprint.
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“We want to thank the people and the government of New Zealand for their hospitality and dedication and for providing The Lord of the Rings series with an incredible place to begin this epic journey,” said VP and Co-Head of TV at Amazon Studios Vernon Sanders. “We are grateful to the New Zealand Film Commission, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Tourism New Zealand, Auckland Unlimited, and others for their tremendous collaboration that supported the New Zealand film sector and the local economy during the production of Season One.”
The highly anticipated series based on the legendary stories by J.R.R. Tolkien recently wrapped principal photography on the first season in New Zealand, sharing an image from the show alongside a September 2, 2022 premiere date.
Post-production efforts for the first season will continue in New Zealand all the way through June 2022, with pre-production for Season 2 set to begin concurrently in the U.K. after the first of the year.
“As we look to relocate the production to the U.K., we do not intend to actively pursue the Season One MoU five percent financial uplift with the New Zealand government or preserve the terms around that agreement, however we respectfully defer to our partners and will remain in close consultation with them around next steps,” said COO and Co-Head of TV at Amazon Studios Albert Cheng.
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The new epic drama brings to screens for the very first time J.R.R. Tolkien’s fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. Beginning in a time of relative peace, thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.
