It’s widely known that ads that run during the Super Bowl are the most expensive commercials out there, so it seems fitting that the first trailer for the most expensive television series ever made would drop during the annual sporting event.
The official first look at the first season of Amazon’s Lord of the Rings made its debut during Super Bowl LVI, with the first season of the epic series said to have cost at least USD $465 million to make.
The football game, this year saw a showdown between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams at LA’s SoFi Stadium, is a popular platform via which to tease highly anticipated film and television events. In 2021, the Super Bowl featured the trailers for shows like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Y: 1883, and films such as F9 and M. Night Shyamalan’s Old.
Titled, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the official synopsis for the series explains that, “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 re-emergence 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 furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.”
Season one of the fantasy series was filmed in New Zealand, like the Peter Jackson directed films, but its second season is being produced in the UK, with sources saying that it would be a more economical choice moving forward — especially as Amazon has already been heavily investing in studio space in the country and is shooting several other titles there. Given that the first season cost what it did to make, you can hardly blame Amazon for wanting to pinch a few pennies with the second.
In addition to being treated to the first trailer for The Rings of Power, viewers also bore witness to the spectacle of the famed halftime show, which this year consisted of performances from Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar.
The Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show marked the first time the five artists had performed together on stage, with their appearance at the event holding special significance for the greater Los Angeles community. Dre, Snoop and Lamar are all LA natives and 2022 marks the first time the city has hosted the Super Bowl for nearly 30 years.
If you’re keen to watch the hotly anticipated trailer for the Lord of the Rings TV series but missed it during the Super Bowl, check it out below.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is slated for a worldwide debut on Amazon Prime Video on September 2, 2022.
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