Last month, Amazon’s Prime Video started teasing fans by posting a blank map of Middle-earth via its upcoming “Lord of the Rings” TV series’ brand new Twitter account.
On Thursday, that map — which has slowly been populated with more and more locations and information over the past few weeks — confirmed when Prime Video’s small-screen adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work takes place: the Second Age.
“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. #LOTRonPrime,” the account tweeted this morning, before sending out one tweet to rule them all: a link to a new version of the map, accompanied by this simple message, “Welcome to the Second Age.”
We promise you now if you scour this iteration of Middle-earth, you will see it is in fact the Second Age we’re working with. And if you are one of the fans who was hoping the series would focus on a young Aragorn — played by Viggo Mortensen in the Peter Jackson films — our condolences.
Details about Amazon’s “LOTR” series — which was first announced in November 2017 and is being developed by “Star Trek 4” duo JD Payne and Patrick McKay — are still scarce, with this being the first major revelation fans have received.
Previously, we had known the show was set Middle-earth and will explore stories that precede the events of Tolkein’s “The Fellowship of the Ring” — we just didn’t know by how much it would precede them.
Amazon Studios has a multi-season commitment for the series, and the deal also includes a potential spinoff series.
The new “LOTR” series will be produced in cooperation with the Tolkein Estate and Trust, HarperCollins and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment.
See the tweet below and explore the map here.
Welcome to the Second Age: https://t.co/Tamd0oRgTw
— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) March 7, 2019