LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER Creative Team Already Prepping Season 3
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power showrunners Patrick McKay and JD Payne have signed a new deal with Amazon MGM Studios, and with that deal comes the news that they are already working on developing the stories for Season 3 of the Middle Earth-set series.
It’s explained that the writers’ room for the third season isn’t open yet, but the “showrunners are at work on the initial story outline.” It’s expected that Season 3 of The Rings of Power will shoot at Shepperton Studios in the U.K., at a new production facility.
According to Amazon, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (which launched in fall 2022) was the most-watched Amazon Original in every region and debuted at #1 on Nielsen’s streaming chart.
Amazon MGM Studios TV head Vernon Sanders said in a statement: “We began this remarkable journey with JD and Patrick more than five and a half years ago and have never looked back. We continue to be amazed by the scope and scale of their vision and the enormous global success achieved by The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power in its record-breaking first season. We can’t wait for Prime Video customers to experience the epic adventure and high-stakes drama that JD and Patrick are continuing to build throughout season two and beyond. Naturally, the studio is thrilled to extend our overall deal with these brilliant creative minds as they continue to deliver on their passion for great storytelling.”
Season 2 of the series is currently in production and it was previously explained that it is ramping up the pace of storytelling and the scope of battle scenes. Producer Vernon Sanders shared: “We now get to have the fun of seeing the story ramp up as Sauron is revealed. And I think audiences can look forward to a show that, while it feels true to itself, feels like the stakes are ever higher and now that the rings are in play, seeing what they can do and seeing how the various factions within the world deal with those implications. I think it’s going to be really compelling.”
When talking about the pacing and scope of the upcoming season, he went on to say: “We’ve never done anything like this. So the whole production model, how to produce a show like this, the scale work, all that were things that we needed to learn for the first time in the process of making the show. We are going to be faster. We are going to be able to put more money on screen, just in terms of the scale and scope of what we’re doing now that we know how to do it. And I also think the pace of our story is going to increase in part because the story is demanding that now that everyone’s been established, the stakes are established, that we’re going to watch some characters in some lands go to war.”
He also teased even bigger battle sequences, saying: “Yes, I can say you will see bigger battles in season two including some iconic moments from the appendices and the books.” It’ll be interesting to see those moments play out!
Season 2 director Charlotte Brändström also talked about the series and said that it will continue to lean into more boundary-pushing themes and give fans a "gritty" and "edgier" take on the Middle Earth than what we saw in Season 1. Brändström said: "What I know and what I can say for a fact is that it's going to be darker, and it's going to be edgier and more character-driven. I still think that we have some very interesting episodes coming up. I watched all of them over Christmas, just the cuts. I think it's going to be a very good season. We tried to make it more gritty, a little bit more dirty I guess. And not in the image, but to make it as authentic as possible. We have some very surprising twists and turns in it as well."
The series is based on the appendices from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of Rings books, and the story is set in the Second Age of Middle-Earth, “thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, 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 the greatest villain 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 re-emergence 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 furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.”