Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series has officially announced where the series is set to shoot, New Zealand. As if there was another choice.
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series is becoming more and more of a real thing, and we’re so excited. While we’ve still got lots of questions about what to expect from the series, we finally know that they plan to shoot in the best location possible, New Zealand.
Fans of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies from Peter Jackson know the epic films were shot in New Zealand, and that location has sort of unofficially become Middle Earth for all of us, so it makes sense that this new series would also shoot there. According to Variety, shooting will begin in Auckland in the coming months.
Showrunners and executive producers for the show J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay told Variety, “We knew we needed to find somewhere majestic, with pristine coasts, forests, and mountains, that also is a home to world-class sets, studios, and highly skilled and experienced craftspeople and other staff.” One look at Peter Jackson’s movies will definitely tell you that New Zealand is a great place for that, and we love the cohesive nature of continuing to bring Middle Earth to life in the same place.
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series is certainly a gamble as expanding on that world is always a gamble–even Peter Jackson himself got a tepid reaction from fans on his Hobbit trilogy compared to the intense fan love for his Lord of the Rings movies. However, we’re pretty excited to see J.R.R. Tolkien’s world open in a way we’ve never seen on the big screen before while also keeping us grounded in the physical location that made us fall in love with Middle Earth and the characters adventuring within it.
With production kicking off in the next few months, it stands to reason that we’ll slowly begin getting more information about the series. We’ll keep you posted as more news breaks from the set.
The Lord of the Rings series doesn’t yet have an official release date, but it’s expected to air sometime in 2021.