Director J.A. Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) will set up the world of Middle Earth in its second age with his two episodes debuting as the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. And we’re going to get eight episodes full of the rich and dense Tolkien for a new generation.

Director J.A. Bayona recently talked to us about the series and why it was a particularly intriguing jumping off point to re-enter the world, “I remember that I read about the show and I was curious like, ‘Oh, that seems like a very good idea,’ because television allows you to give the space and the time that Tolkien spent in telling the story and the story of these characters.” he said, “I think it was very smart and clever to do a Second Age [story], which is something that Tolkien planned, but was never that specific. So it gave us a lot of freedom to create new storylines and characters, but at the same time be faithful to the plan that Tolkien already had.”

The show will explore the various lands and civilizations of Middle Earth in new ways which Bayona was game for, “it’s such a rich and complex universe and so different. So if you want to go for [nature], you would find the Harfoots. If you want to get more political, you will go to the Elves. There’s melodrama when you go to humans. It feels very rich and complex, and I really enjoy it a lot working with each of the worlds. I love movies in general and I love all genres. And somehow the world of Tolkien allows you to pick up a little bit of all of them in the story.” he said.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will premiere slightly earlier than its original September 2nd release date, dropping at September 1 at 9 p.m. EDT/ 6 p.m. PDT. It will resume a weekly schedule drop of episodes at 12 a.m. EDT on Fridays/9 p.m. PDT on Thursdays on Amazon Prime.

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