In 2017, Amazon struck a blockbuster deal to bring J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved epic, The Lord of the Rings, to Prime Video as an original series. It’s been a long and winding road, with a few COVID-related delays along the way. However, the first season has finally wrapped filming and Prime Video has set a date for the series premiere: September 2, 2022.

“I can’t express enough just how excited we all are to take our global audience on a new and epic journey through Middle-earth!,” said Amazon Studios Head Jennifer Salke. “Our talented producers, cast, creative, and production teams have worked tirelessly in New Zealand to bring this untold and awe-inspiring vision to life.”

Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay also shared a new joint statement to mark the end of production.

“As Bilbo says, ‘Now I think I am quite ready to go on another journey.’ Living and breathing Middle-earth these many months has been the adventure of a lifetime. We cannot wait for fans to have the chance to do so as well.”

Prime Video’s announcement came with the first-ever picture from the show (see above). There are no details about which character is featured, but the image is gorgeous all the same.

It’s important to note that Prime Video’s LOTR show won’t simply retread the stories that have already been told in director Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogies. Instead, the series will be set thousands of years earlier, during the Second Age of Middle-earth. Tolkien mapped out a complex history for his novels, and the events of the Second Age helped set the stage for his stories. Within the new series, “an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new” will have to confront the re-emergence of evil on Middle-earth.

There’s a very large cast on this show, including Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani.

At the moment, we have no idea who any of these actors and actresses are playing. But now that a September 2022 release date is in place, we will likely learn a lot more in the next 13 months.