Tolkien fans, pop culture fans, and football fans alike paused during the third quarter of Super Bowl LVI on Sunday when Amazon transported them on a long-awaited journey back into Middle-earth.
The 60-second commercial spot for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power offered Super Bowl viewers their first-ever audio-visual glimpses of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fabled Second Age, unveiling a brand-new legend from Amazon Studios and showrunners J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay set to begin on September 2. Featuring a selection of characters from the ensemble cast—such as Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs—and Arda-spanning environments, the teaser trailer takes viewers on an action-packed journey filled with wonder and excitement in true cinematic splendor.
The debut of the teaser trailer during the Super Bowl LVI on February 13 marks the latest breakout moment for what will arguably be one of the biggest global marketing campaigns of 2022. Early this year, Prime Video forged the show’s title treatment in molten metal, fuelling fans’ insatiable appetite for this series and organically reaching an estimated 1 billion impressions worldwide within the first 24 hours. This campaign milestone was quickly followed with the unveiling of 23 intricately detailed posters featuring only the hands of the series’ stars, sparking huge online conversation regarding the identity and backstories of these characters.
Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and one of the greatest villains that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness.
Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared reemergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains to the majestic forests of the elf capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the farthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.
The series is led by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay. They are joined by executive producers Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, J.A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado, and producers Ron Ames and Christopher Newman. Wayne Che Yip is a co-executive producer and directs along with J.A. Bayona and Charlotte Brändström.
The multi-season drama will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories around the world in multiple languages on Friday, September 2, with new episodes available weekly.
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