Friday, February 14, 2025

The Rings of Power Renewed for Season 3

After its feet way longer than expected, Prime Video have announced that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has been renewed for season 3 with preproduction starting. Not entirely clear but it seems production has moved yet again to Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom so suspect lot of the delay was discussions with the showrunner on how to cut the budget for the show. 

As for the story, not much was revealed except there will be a time jump with the description saying “Jumping forward several years from the events of season 2, season 3 takes place at the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron, as the Dark Lord seeks to craft the One Ring that will give him the edge he needs to win the war and conquer all Middle-earth at last.”

The five year plan is said to be in place but that description makes you wonder if they condensed that plan to just one or two more seasons as all indications are the ratings for the show are lower than Amazon was seeking. Technically the entire show is nothing but time compression considering its covering the Second Age with events spanning thousands of years so a time jump isn't as dramatic as it would be for most shows especially since I am sure they still plan on using the same human characters and their limited lifespans so maybe looking at ten or so years at most. The end game for the series remains the end of the Second Age, as shown at the very beginning of The Lord of the Rings trilogy with the defeat of Sauron. 

Thursday, December 26, 2024

The War Of The Rohirrim Hitting Digital On December 27

After a failed box office run of only two weeks, The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim will become available for rent or purchase on the various digital home streaming services (Prime Video, AppleTV, Fandango at Home, etc.) starting December 27. 

The movie will remain in theaters for probably a few more weeks but if you wanted to see the film and going to a theater was too much trouble, now you can. The $30 million production so far has a worldwide box office total of $15.5 million and unlikely to crack $20 million. Not really sure what killed the film but best guess is interest in Middle-Earth's past in animation style just doesn't interest the masses. 

The commercial failure is unlikely to have any impact on The Hunt For Gollum since it will be using more famous Middle-Earth characters but chances are whatever further animation plans that may have been in the works have been tossed.

Thursday, December 19, 2024

War Of The Rohirrim Physical Copies of Soundtrack Available for Pre-Order

Physical copies of The Lord Of The Rings: War Of The Rohirrim Soundtrack by Stephen Gallagher is now available to pre-order on Made By Mutant or Amazon. The soundtrack is also available on music streaming services now. The vinyl 4 LP edition ($~60) is currently showing a release date of March 7, 2025 while the 2 CD set (~$20) may come out that day or a week earlier on February 28, 2025. Below is one of the tracks from the soundtrack.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Music by Stephen Gallagher. Featuring the original song "The Rider," performed by Paris Paloma. Pressed on 4x 140gm Vinyl, housed in an M-Pack (double gatefold) style jacket. Also available on 2x CD, housed in a 6-panel digipak with a 24-page booklet. Featuring liner notes by Producer/Writer Philippa Boyens, Director Kenji Kamiyama, and Composer Stephen Gallagher Mutant, in partnership with WaterTower Music, is proud to present the premiere physical release of Stephen Gallagher's original score to the animated epic The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, in theaters December 13.