Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has officially begun filming in Bray Studios outside of London, England.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon likely switched the filming location from last season's New Zealand because the United Kingdom is a cheaper place to shoot and it's where U.K.-based production company Bray Studios is starting a multi-show hub.
Even though location costs will likely be cheaper for Season 2, it will no doubt still be a very pricey endeavor. Season 1 of The Rings of Power was Prime Video's most expensive season of television yet, costing nearly half a billion dollars to make.
But it appears this risky fiscal endeavor largely paid off. The show earned 1.25 billion minutes watched since its Sept. 1 premiere, beating out its competitor, HBO's House of the Dragon, which only garnered 781 million minutes.
Rings of Power Is a Hit
Viewers will likely continue to watch The Rings of Power in large numbers, as the show's official Twitter account recently came out and promised an epic finale, which is set to air on Oct. 14. The account posted a promo poster, which shows the main characters standing back-to-back. The photo is captioned "It's all led to this."
And the Rings of Power Twitter account isn't the only one that thinks the season's final episode will be worth watching. Charlie Vickers, who plays Halbrand on the show, revealed "the last episode" is his favorite, adding, "I'm not going to say why, because I'm going to leave a few details unexplored." Other members of the cast seconded that opinion.
Though plot details of the final two episodes of The Rings of Power are still mostly unknown, there's reason to believe that they will feature epic stunts. Episode 6, "Udûn," saw Morfydd Clark's Galadriel in a thrilling horseback battle scene. Of the sequence, Clark praised her stunt double, saying, "I can't believe that was possible. Before doing this, I thought so much of horse stunts were CGI, but it wasn't."
The first six episodes of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are currently available to stream on Prime Video. Episode 7 will debut on Oct. 7, and the finale will debut on Oct. 14.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter