​Amazon’s 'Lord of the Rings' TV Series Likely To Be Most Expensive Ever

We know that Amazon isn't exactly short of cash, but the amount it's reportedly set to spend on its latest venture will put all other TV series to shame.

The just-announced Lord of the Rings TV series has already been confirmed for multiple seasons but the extent of it had not been revealed.

Credit: New Line Cinema / Lord Of The Rings

That isn't even the most of it, though, once other costs, such as production budgets, casting, writers, producers and visual effects, are taken into consideration.

If these costs are added on, it's anticipated that the price of the series could even hit the $1bn (£759m) mark.

By these numbers, the five-season show will have spent the entire $281m budget of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy by the middle of its second series. Shitting hell.

However, given the scale of the Lord of the Rings fan-base, Amazon clearly believes that the enormous reported expense is justified.

"This is a unique story to tell new stories in a magical world that is a global phenomenon," Amazon's head of dramas and comedies, Sharon Tal Yguado, told THR.

"As we build our diverse portfolio of programming, we are making some of our big bets on tentpole series."

Although the new Lord of the Rings series will also be set in J.R.R Tolkien's Middle-earth, it will not be a direct sequel to the film trilogy of the same name.

Peter Jackson's early-2000s movie trilogy was a commercial and critical smash hit, demolishing box-office records and winning 17 of the 30 Oscars it was nominated for.

Instead Amazon's new series will explore storylines between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, the first book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

This is not the only big deal made for historical and fantasy TV series in recent years as producers pull out all the stops to impress viewers.

In 2012, HBO reportedly shelled out $8m (£6.1m) for the second to last episode of Game of Thrones' second series, 'Blackwater', which featured the show's first full large-scale war sequence.

Credit: HBO - A Time Warner Company / Game Of Thrones

Every episode of Game of Thrones' upcoming eighth and final series is likely to cost a reported $15m (£11.4m).

That's nothing compared to The Crown, with the Netflix series boasting a $130m (£98.6m) budget in its first season, making it the biggest budget television series of all time.

From the looks of it, Amazon's new Lord of the Rings series will surpass even that lofty price tag. Let's hope that it lives up to the expectation.