One Show to Rule them All

Want to see what $1 billion looks like?

That’s how much Amazon’s Prime Video agreed to spend on its Lord of the Rings TV series, based on the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. The deal to produce the show including a commitment to make five seasons worth of it. The first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuts next month, and it certainly looks like a big chunk of the money Amazon spent wound up on screen. The show looks expensive.

It has massive (CGI) sets and locations, a large cast of dwarves, elves, and others, and tons of elaborate monsters and special effects. Take a look in the new trailer below:

Here is the show’s official synopsis:

This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, and 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 one of the greatest villains that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared reemergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the farthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.”

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on September 2. If you live near a Cinemark, you can watch the two-episode premiere in theaters.