Amazon acquired the television rights for The Lord of the Rings from the Tolkien Estate in November 2017, making a five-season production commitment worth at least US$1 billion.

It begins during a time of relative peace and covers the major events of Middle-earth's Second Age: the forging of the Rings of Power, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the fall of the island kingdom of Númenor, and the last alliance between Elves and Men.

[2] The showrunners were "deep in the writing process" for a third season in October 2024, with a writers' room that included Justin Doble, Ben Tagoe, Ava Wong Davies, Constance Cheng, Jonathan Wilson, Griff Jones, and Sarah Anson.

With the two sides "on better terms", they began offering the rights to a potential television series based on Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954–55) to several outlets, including Amazon, Netflix, and HBO,[32] with a starting price of US$200 million.

[35] Bezos was a personal fan of The Lord of the Rings,[2] and had previously given Amazon Studios a mandate to develop an ambitious fantasy series of comparable scale to HBO's Game of Thrones (2011–2019).

Industry commentators described this amount—before any production costs and without any creative talent attached to the project—as "insane",[32] although some considered the project to be more of a reputational risk for Amazon than a financial one due to Bezos's wealth.

[39] The studio met more than 30 potential writers,[40] including the Russo brothers and Anthony McCarten,[33] and asked for story pitches based on anything in Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937), The Lord of the Rings, and its appendices.

[44] Payne said their pitch felt like "an amazing, untold story" that was "worthy of Tolkien",[41] and McKay added, "We didn't want to do a side thing.

A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado.

Because Amazon only acquired the television rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, the writers had to identify all of the references to the Second Age in those books and create a story that bridged those passages.

[57][58]: 46  After the series was revealed to have hired Jennifer Ward-Lealand as an intimacy coordinator, Tolkien fans expressed concern that it would include Game of Thrones-style graphic sex and violence.

[61] He elaborated on their position in August 2024, explaining that they wanted to honor the tone, themes, and spirit of the source material but their priority was to make an entertaining television series that worked for casual viewers as well as Tolkien fans.

[16] In January 2020, Amazon announced that the series' main cast would include Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, and Daniel Weyman.

[65] In December, Amazon announced 20 new cast members: Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Lenny Henry, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Simon Merrells, Geoff Morrell, Peter Mullan, Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, and Sara Zwangobani.

Amazon also announced the casting of Gabriel Akuwudike, Yasen "Zates" Atour, Ben Daniels, Amelia Kenworthy, Nia Towle, and Nicholas Woodeson.

[71][72] A week later, Amazon further announced the casting of Oliver Alvin-Wilson, Stuart Bowman, Gavi Singh Chera, William Chubb, Kevin Eldon, Will Keen, Selina Lo, and Calam Lynch.

[75] In August 2022, Amazon explained that the deal with Tolkien's estate required the company to keep the series distinct from Jackson's films,[46] though the showrunners still intended for it to be visually consistent with them.

[16] Also returning from Jackson's films to work on the series were costume designer Kate Hawley and special effects company Wētā Workshop.

[83] In June 2018, Salke said the series could be produced in New Zealand, where the film trilogies were made, but Amazon was also willing to shoot in other countries as long as they could "provide those locations in a really authentic way, because we want it to look incredible".

Factors that played a role in the change included Amazon already heavily investing in UK studio space for other productions as well as New Zealand's restrictive pandemic-era border policies.

[6] Amazon provided unlimited cloud-based storage for the production, allowing all technical data and footage to be accessible to anyone working on the series around the world.

[114] They investigated cymatics, using a homemade Chladni plate and slow motion footage to test what shapes could be formed from sand particles using the vibrations of different sounds.

[113][115] For the final sequence, Crawford and Bashore used a 2 feet (0.61 m) wide rig and programmed tones to create basic patterns such as diamonds and swirls.

[113] It was updated for the second season, introducing red sand grains that form "evil tendrils" to indicate Sauron's influence, as well as imagery that represents the Doors of Durin, the Balrog, and Morgoth's crown.

[125] They filmed the video with foundryman Landon Ryan in late 2021 in Los Angeles, after experimenting with different combinations of metals, sparkler dust, argon pours, and liquid hydrogen.

[130][131] Amazon announced that The Rings of Power had been watched by 25 million viewers globally in the first 24 hours that the first two episodes were available on Prime Video, the service's biggest premiere ever.

This was the first time Amazon had publicly stated viewership data for Prime Video and the company did not specify how much of an episode a user needed to watch for them to count as a viewer.

The website's critics consensus reads, "It may not yet be the One Show to Rule Them All, but The Rings of Power enchants with its opulent presentation and deeply-felt rendering of Middle-earth.

The website's critics consensus reads, "The Rings of Power's sophomore season discovers new virtues while retaining some of its predecessor's vices, overall making for a more kinetic journey through Tolkien's world.

[144] Sanders said the second season had not faced the same "racist hostility" as the first and Amazon found the majority of viewers to be open minded, engaged with the series, and not following an "agenda that's separate from the show itself".