The Lord of the Rings TV series has finished filming, and it has a release date

Today, Amazon Studios announced that its new TV series based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings has finished filming its first season. The season is expected to premiere on September 2, 2022, “with new episodes available weekly,” Amazon says.

Additionally, Amazon tweeted out one of the first visuals from the series, seen above. It depicts a person standing in a field looking out at a spectacular fantasy landscape.

Thirteen months might seem like a long gap between the conclusion of filming and the airing of the series, but a series like this is likely to have many visual effects that could contribute to a prolonged post-production period.

The season has been in production since early 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays. When it does debut, the series will air exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service. It has already been renewed for a second season.

The new series (which does not have a name) takes place in the Second Age, a time period that is alluded to frequently in The Lord of the Rings but that has not been depicted onscreen apart from a few flashbacks. Those flashbacks notably included the opening battle scene of Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring adaptation. That sequence caps the centuries-long Second Age and marks the beginning of the Third Age, which is when The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books and movies take place.

The series has a large cast, most of whom are relative unknowns compared to stars fans know from the movies, like Elijah Wood or Sean Bean. (Though it’s worth noting that the movies also had several relative unknowns who went on to fame after they debuted, like Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom.) The series’ showrunners are J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, who are also likely to be unknown to audiences.