Amazon Studios shared its first image of the coming 'The Lord of the Rings' series, due to premiere next year. Amazon Studios
Amazon Studios shared its first image of the coming 'The Lord of the Rings' series, due to premiere next year. Amazon Studios
Amazon Studios shared its first image of the coming 'The Lord of the Rings' series, due to premiere next year. Amazon Studios
Amazon Studios shared its first image of the coming 'The Lord of the Rings' series, due to premiere next year. Amazon Studios

Culture

Television

First look at 'The Lord of the Rings' series as Amazon sets release date

The first season of the yet-to-be-titled show finished filming in New Zealand on Monday

The National

August 03, 2021

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The most expensive series in television history finally has a release date.

Amazon Studios announced that the first season of The Lord of the Rings series finished filming in New Zealand on Monday, and that the show – which cost $465 million to make – is now set to premiere on September 2, 2022. The first season of the series will feature eight episodes shown weekly.

The studio also shared one of the first visuals from the show. The teaser image shows a person standing in a field looking out at what appears to be the city of Valmar, the heaven of Middle-earth, known for its great golden gates.

Both the plot and the title of the series remain under wraps, but the story is believed to be set during the Second Age of Middle-earth’s history, thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The time period has been frequently alluded to, but never depicted on screen apart from a few flashbacks, including the opening sequence of the 2001 film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

“As Bilbo says: ‘Now I think I am quite ready to go on another journey,’” showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay said. “Living and breathing Middle-earth these many months has been the adventure of a lifetime. We cannot wait for fans to have the chance to do so as well.”

The cast includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry and Nazanin Boniadi.

The series will premiere on Prime Video, said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios. “I can’t express enough just how excited we all are to take our global audience on a new and epic journey through Middle-earth. Our talented producers, cast, creative and production teams have worked tirelessly in New Zealand to bring this untold and awe-inspiring vision to life.”

Amazon Studios first announced the project in November 2017, when it bought the television rights for The Lord of the Rings for $250 million and made a five-season commitment worth more than $1 billion.

Payne and McKay began developing the series in 2018 and filming began in New Zealand – where the film trilogy was made – in February 2020. Production came to a stop in March because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but resumed in September.


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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Updated: August 04, 2021, 11:13 AM
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