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Amazon’s Prime Video has finally revealed the official, full title for its upcoming Lord of the Rings series, and for fans of the books and movies, it’s a doozy: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will premiere on Friday, September 2. And not only that, we’ve got a first, epic video reveal for the series featuring an actual forging of things (power of said things TBD).
“This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien’s other classics,” showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay said, in a statement provided to Decider. “The Rings of Power unites all the major stories of Middle-earth’s Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring — but before there was one, there were many… And we’re excited to share the epic story of them all.”
In the minute long tease, a voice-over intones some of the most iconic lines from Tolkien (though sadly, not “looks like meat’s back on the menu, boys”):
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
As the (unnamed) female voice repeats these lines, molten metal is poured into divets cut in wood, ultimately getting cooled down to reveal the full title. And if you think it was all CGI, think again: Amazon pulled out all the stops, putting Game of Thrones’ ice-melting stunt to shame, and actually filmed the forging.
Working with metal artist Landon Ryan, director Klaus Obermeyer, and SFX artist Douglas Trumbull, the team used sustainably sourced redwood to carve the mold, aluminum and bronze forged at 1750 to 2100 degrees Fahrenheit for the letters, sand casts of the redwood for each letter to make sure the molten metal wouldn’t burn the wood, and slow motion filming to make it all look, and this is a technical term: pretty neat.
Super nerds will note that there is writing on the edges of the lettering, and if you guessed that it’s the verse quoted above (and again, sadly not “looks like meat’s back on the menu, boys”) you would be correct. Rings gonna ring, I say!
Set thousands of years before both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power will stream weekly starting September 2, and a second season of the reportedly incredibly expensive series is already in the works. The series stars Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani. To name a few.
Stay tuned, as we have a while to go still until Rings of Power premieres, but chances are Prime Video is going to hit that drum-beat harder than orcs on the prowl. Looks like hype’s back on the menu, boys!
Check out a few work shots of making the video below, and the title reveal itself, above:
