The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Amazon Prime Video on September 2

It has been dubbed the most costly show made, yet producers of Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” described its $1 billion sticker price as a “bargain” at a lavish world premiere in Los Angeles Monday.

The exceptionally expected TV series, launching September 2 on Amazon’s streaming platform, is supposed to be an individual obsession of Jeff Bezos, multi-billionaire founder of the online shopping giant-turned-streamer.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

History met fantasy in Hollywood today, as one of the city’s most established studios – Culver Studios, where iconic films like Gone with the Wind and King Kong were filmed – played host to the premiere of the most recent prestige streaming series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

With a price tag of a portion of a billion dollars, the Amazon series is the most costly show in television history, a title it has wrested from two genuinely late claimants: the Netflix streaming drama The Crown and Baz Luhrmann’s music history series The Get Down.

Set in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, thousands of years before the Oscar-winning “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy, the series is set to unfold over five, sprawling seasons, each of 10 episodes.

Bezos joined the show’s stars and filmmakers for a launch event at California’s Culver Studios on Monday night, where the initial two episodes were screened before a spectacular light show featuring dozens of illuminated drones.

Hitting the red carpet in Los Angeles today were the Australian stars of The Rings of Power, Markella Kavenagh, Sara Zwangobani, Charlie Vickers, and Tyroe Muhafidin. They were joined by the show’s different stars, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Robert Aramayo, Morfydd Clark, and Amazon manager Jeff Bezos.

The series fills in as a prequel to the famous film franchise and is set thousands of years before J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterwork The Lord of the Rings. Kavenagh plays a hobbit-like “harfoot” named Elanor Brandyfoot, whose inclination for adventure starts off the 10-part first season of the show.

Zwangobani plays Elanor’s mom, Marigold Brandyfoot. Muhafidin plays Theo, the child of a human healer. The series likewise stars Charlie Vickers as Halbrand, a human whose destiny is entwined with that of Galadriel (Clark), the future mythical being sovereign, who was one of the central characters in Tolkien’s works and was played by Cate Blanchett in the films.

Executive producer Lindsey Weber said the show’s $1 billion cost was “a very grabby headline people like to talk about,” but promised that viewers would “see the money is really on the screen.”

Speaking to AFP on the red carpet, Weber said the eye-watering cost came from “setting up for five seasons.”

“If you look at what it cost to make a feature tentpole film, by that comparison, really we’re quite a bargain,” she added, involving a term for mega-budget blockbusters released by Hollywood’s top studios.

“The Rings of Power” is set 4,000 years before the film trilogy and original books, in a fictional “Second Age” — a historical period sketched out in less detail by Tolkien’s writings.

The show features an enormous ensemble cast of actors who are not well known to global audiences.

Morfydd Clark and Robert Aramayo play younger versions of elves Galadriel and Elrond – – characters currently recognizable to fans of the “Lord of the Rings” films.

“It’s an epic adventure story, with universal themes, and a real labor of love — we’ve all worked very very hard on it, and I just hope people enjoy it,” said Aramayo at Monday’s premiere.

“They built a city, with a dock and ships floating in it — it’s mind-blowing and really, really incredible to get to play on some of these sets.”

Other VIPs in attendance incorporated the head of Amazon Studios Jennifer Salke, Upload star Allegra Edwards, Stranger Things’ Dacre Montgomery, Australian actor Luke Mitchell, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

The story of the series happens in what is referred to as “the second age” of Middle-earth, the setting for Tolkien’s iconic novels The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion.

It will chronicle the ascent of Sauron, the “dark lord” who later returns as the principal villain in The Lord of the Rings. In The Rings of Power, Sauron is engaged with the manufacturing of the eponymous magical rings, and the “one ring”, whose ability to corrupt will cast a shadow across Middle-earth.

The premiere episode that was screened to guests was written by showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, and directed by Bayona. Other episodes of the main season were directed by British director Wayne Che Yip and Swedish director Charlotte Brandstrom.

Filming for The Rings of Powers endured just about two years, with production commencing in January 2020, and wrapping in August 2021. The first season will showcase various story locations never seen before in Tolkien adaptations, including the elven city of Lindon and the kingdom of Numenor.

Culver Studio is one of the most iconic settings in Hollywood and has at different times been known as either the DeMille Studios, Pathé Studios, RKO-Pathé Studios, or Desilu-Culver Studios. Quite a while back streaming goliath Amazon moved onto the site, assuming command over around half a million square feet of space.

The studio’s most popular landmark is a 1918-built Colonial-style mansion in the style of George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Amazon Prime Video on September 2.