Television Series
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season 1)
2022
Filmed In
Auckland · Waikato · Otago · Fiordland & Southland
Towns & Areas
Hauraki Gulf, Piha and Coromandel Peninsula, Auckland · Denize Bluffs, Mangaotaki Valley, near Piopio · Earnslaw Burn, near Glenorchy · Mount Kidd, Fiordland National Park
The Story
The most expensive television production ever mounted. Set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit, this sweeping epic chronicles the history of the Second Age of Middle-earth, the forging of the rings, and the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron.
The Stars
Morfydd Clark, Robert Aramayo, and Ismael Cruz Córdova.
Behind the Lens
Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. Payne and McKay developed the series over several years before production began, working from Tolkien's appendices rather than a single novel.
Why NZ?
To maintain the cinematic visual continuity established by Peter Jackson's films, Amazon returned to New Zealand for its massive first season. In Otago specifically, the exteriors of the dwarven realm of Khazad-dûm were filmed at Earnslaw Burn, near Glenorchy — the same valley The Hobbit trilogy used years earlier for the approach out of Rivendell. Returning to a location already used by an earlier Tolkien production added a genuine sense of visual continuity between the two projects.
On Set
Morfydd Clark, playing Galadriel, has spoken about the untranslatable Welsh word "hiraeth" — a longing for home — and has said she quietly worked Welsh phrasing into at least one scene as a personal touch.
Legacy
Reported as the most expensive television series ever produced by budget, the show returned Amazon's production to New Zealand specifically to maintain visual continuity with Peter Jackson's earlier films.
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