Amazon's THE LORD OF THE RINGS Series is Moving to the UK for Season 2

Amazon Studios recently announced that their upcoming The Lord of the Rings series will be changing locations for the second season. The first season has wrapped up principle photography and will finish post-production in New Zealand while pre-production for the second season will begin concurrently in the U.K. after January 1, 2022. Thanking New Zealand for everything, Vernon Sanders of Amazon Studios said:

We want to thank the people and the government of New Zealand for their hospitality and dedication and for providing The Lord of the Rings series with an incredible place to begin this epic journey. We are grateful to the New Zealand Film Commission, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Tourism New Zealand, Auckland Unlimited, and others for their tremendous collaboration that supported the New Zealand film sector and the local economy during the production of Season One.

Albert Cheng of Amazon Studios added:

As we look to relocate the production to the U.K., we do not intend to actively pursue the Season One MoU five percent financial uplift with the New Zealand government or preserve the terms around that agreement, however we respectfully defer to our partners and will remain in close consultation with them around next steps.

J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay are serving as showrunners and executive producers for The Lord of the Rings which is a going to be the first screen exploration for J.R.R. Tolkein’s Second Age of Middle-earth. The series will take place before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The upcoming series is set to premiere on Prime Video on September 2, 2022.