Amazon’s ‘LOTR’ Series Reveals This Shocking Truth About The Teaser Trailer
There has been few and far between news concerning Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series. They are slowly announcing things, but there is still so much we do not know about this major story undertaking that is announced to premiere on Amazon Prime on September 2, 2022.
In the late summer/fall of 2021, Amazon started to release some news regarding the show. They are reportedly spending around $500 million on this series which has a five-season contract and is already one of the highest budgeted television series ever. Amazon also revealed the first image from the show that sparked many questions among fans as to who it could be and where it might be set since all it gave us was a character in an elven dress staring off into a gorgeous city backdrop. We also learned that the first season had wrapped filming in New Zealand.
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Amazon also confirmed that the show would be taking place in the Second Age of Middle Earth. For those who do not know the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books, the events in the Second Age of Middle Earth took place thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Many of the tales from this era are recounted in The Silmarillion and other unfinished works of J.R.R. Tolkien (but edited by his son Christopher Tolkien). The synopsis on Amazon Prime reads:
“Beginning in a time of relative peace, we follow an ensemble cast of characters as they confront the re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests 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.”
Amazon was silent through the holidays, not giving us much of anything until January 18, 2022, when Amazon Prime Video released the first teaser trailer and the title of the Amazon Lord of the Rings series as it was called up until now.
The official title of the series is The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Any major Tolkien fan will know that that title means one thing. The main storyline is going to be centered around the One Ring and probably the nine rings for men, the seven rings for dwarves, and the three rings for the elves. This means the exciting epic series seems to be focused on the forging of the rings of power and all the stories that went along with that.
Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay talked about the show after the teaser trailers release:
“This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien’s other classics. 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.”
The title was not the only fascinating thing to fans. The teaser trailer did not show much except what, to most fans, looked like an intricate piece of CGI showing the stages of a ring being made from molten metal. While it was pretty cool, a lot of fans were disappointed by the content. However, it was announced very soon after the trailer’s release that the sequence was not, in fact, CGI or animated at all. It was the work of a real-life blacksmith. They really truly filmed the ring being made. The press release regarding the reveal said this:
“Just as so many elements of the show itself were hand-crafted, Prime Video chose to physically forge the title in a blacksmith foundry, pouring fiery molten metal into hand-carved wooden ravines shaped to the letterforms... The bespoke title treatment appears crafted in a silvery metal, with lines of Elvish script inscribed along the crest of each letterform.”
Of course, the reveal of the title and the exact-ish information of what the series is going to be about was exciting enough to many fans as they have speculated what the tone of the series will be and what exactly it will include. The fact that the production would go to such lengths for a teaser trailer to make the sequence authentic and beautiful is just astounding.
In creating this beautiful sequence, Director Klaus Obermeyer, special effects advisor Douglas Trumball, and special effects supervisor Lee Nelson used 4K camera systems to work with highly skilled foundryman Landon Ryan who has been practicing and refining his craft for over 28 years. Ryan explained:
“With art, so much of it is about experimentation and materials and using materials in a way that they’re really not designed for and seeing where the limits are. With this [project], it was the freedom to do things that you wouldn’t do in a normal world, because they don’t make sense. But in this sense, it was to achieve a certain look or feeling. It was such a pleasure seeing [Klaus’] vision and then coming up with ways to help him achieve what he was looking for. Experimentation and the willingness to try different things was a lot of fun. I am so thankful that I got to experience metal on that level. Because that’s my world. I pour metal every day and it’s a new understanding.”
Academy Award winner Douglas Trumball, who has worked on several classics that fans know and love including 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner added:
“We all had in mind this idea of molten metal brilliantly glowing -so that there’s no question that what you’re looking at is a hot metal. What we settled on was to mix some of these metals to get a certain color and a certain brightness. It was a combination of bronze and aluminum.”
With all the care and attention that this teaser trailer put into the visuals and the sounds, along with the reveal of the show’s official title, setting, and storyline, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is certainly shaping up to be a masterpiece. It gives many fans hope for the upcoming release, and hopefully, there will be more exciting reveals before the show’s premiere in September.
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Written By Elizabeth Dresdow
Source(s): TheOneRing.net, Amazon, Culture Slate
Syndicated From Culture Slate