Despite having been announced last year, not much is known about Amazon Prime's long-awaited Lord of the Rings series, which is believed to be coming our way in 2021.
However, we have at least been introduced to the show's creative team - who were announced in a video titled 'Meet our Fellowship' - and one of them has now given us a little insight to the programme's production, revealing how many episodes we can hope to expect for the first season.
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While the series length has not yet been confirmed by Amazon, in an interview with Deutsche Tolkien last month, Tolkein scholar Tom Shippey, who is part of the show's creative team, discussed the logistics behind shooting the programme.
Addressing rumours that locations for filming included Scotland and New Zealand, Shippey said: "The exact locations are of course uncertain and it could well be several. The shooting itself does not take place chronologically, but is oriented towards the locations.
"Logically, you try to bundle all the scenes that take place in one location and film them so that you have it done and don't have to return to that place several times. But this also implies that everything has to be clear at the start of filming, you have to know the end.
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"There's supposed to be 20 episodes for the first season. So, until they've decided what the end is going to be, they can't start filming."
We still don't know anything particularly firm about the plot, with Twitter posts from Amazon Prime's official Twitter account hinting it could be a prequel to the original trilogy, taking place during Middle-earth's Second Age and the forging of the rings.
One of the most recent posts said: "One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne. In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie." Fans think this could mean the series will be set before the movies.
However, hopefully the series will remain faithful to Tolkien's original source material. While Shippey admitted Amazon has 'a relatively free hand when it comes to adding something,' the Tolkien Estate still has a big say in what goes down, ensuring that nothing changes 'the boundaries which Tolkien has created'.
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"The Tolkien Estate keeps a very careful eye on everything and is quite capable of saying no," Shippey said.
"They retain a veto over everything that concerns Tolkien."
The series is set to premiere at some point in 2021 on Amazon Prime Video.
Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film, Amazon, Lord Of The Rings
