Amazon's Middle-Earth TV Series Gets Season 2 Renewal

Amazon either must the pre-production plans they are getting or the costs were higher then expected for their Middle-Earth TV series. The first season isn't even halfway filmed and its been officially renewed for a second season. While other sites keep referring to it as "The Lord of the Rings Series", remember it isn't. The streamer is contractually obligated to avoid using anything related to The Lord of the Rings with possibly (unconfirmed) exceptions for characters that were alive during the Second Age (such as Sauron).

The first season is still in pre-production with filming expected to start next year in New Zealand. After the first 2 episodes of season 1 is filmed, the production will take a four to five month break while writers and producers look use this sorta of pilot to tweak season 1 scripts and now plan and write most of season 2. Filming on season 1 then will continue but with a fully planned season 1 and 2 it will allow them to effectively film both seasons at the same time which should save Amazon a whole lot of money on production. After all this was the same reason Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema chose to do all three films at the same time. Its cheaper to say build the an Elvan set out in the New Zealand woods and film everything needed in over the course of a few months then it is to maintain multiple sets and locations over the course of potentially years just in case the story later requires them to return to the location later. That high cost of on location set building and maintenance is the primary reason most sci-fi and fantasy films tend to film in studios on a few primary sets or just in the open woods or cities.

So the good news is 2 guaranteed season of Middle-Earth. The bad news that line of "back to back" filming to save money effectively will delay the release of season 1 mid to late 2022 2021 at the earliest (brain was thinking month away from 2021, nope not on drugs).