THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER Concept Artist Explains "This Isn't the Middle-Earth You Remember"

I’m very excited about Amazon’s upcoming epic fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The film is set in the Second Age, which is thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings. This is around the time of the forging of the rings of power and the rise of Sauron.

With the film being set in a completely different age, I was expecting Middle-Earth to be very different than what we’ve seen in the past. As we’ve seen in the first trailer that was released, the show does has a similar visual style as Peter Jackson’s films, but things are definitely going to be different.

During a recent interview with Empire, Rings Of Power concept artist John Howe, teased some of the surprises that are in store:

“This isn’t the Middle-earth you remember. This is a world that’s very vibrant. The elves are not hidden away in Mirkwood or lingering in Rivendell. They’re busy constructing kingdoms. The dwarven kingdom of Moria is not an abandoned mine and the Grey Havens is not yet an abandoned city. I loved having the opportunity to explore that unseen history.”

He went on to share that the series will finally explore the oceans of Middle-Earth and says that there will be a set of seafaring elves:

“We’re finally sailing on the oceans of Middle-earth. They’re daunting and enterprising and are almost colonising the world. They were a lot of fun to imagine. It’s something neither Lord Of The Rings nor Hobbit movies went anywhere near.”

Well, that just sounds absolutely fantastic and I can’t wait to jump into this new Middle-Earth adventure!

The Lord of the Rings “brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth's history. 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, 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.”

The series is set to premiere on September 2, 2022.