It seems that Amazon isn’t going to mess around in regards to its upcoming The Lord of the Rings TV series. Although the series is still in pre-production season 1, the streaming service has already handed out a season 2 renewal order.
When Amazon acquired the rights in 2017, it made a multi-season commitment to the Tolkein Estate, so season 2 doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Despite this fact, each subsequent season has to receive a formal greenlight, however, and this is the official acknowledgment of that.
The surprise in all of this, however, is that there will be a hiatus in production in the not too distant future. The series is still prepping in New Zealand currently, and after it films the first two episodes it will go on a four to five-month hiatus. This will allow the writing team to map out and write the majority of season 2.
While this may sound like an odd plan, it’s actually going to help Amazon keep the costs down. The series will go into hiatus during the New Zealand winter, and when it comes back they will be able to finish season 1 and move directly into season 2, reducing the costs of ramping up production again. It will also allow them to plan set re-use, keep the cast in place, and so on.
That being said, it also means it is going to be quite some time before we see this series on our TV screens. At this stage, we would suspect a 2021 launch at the earliest.
