Season 1 of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” came to a close in mid-October 2022. Since that time, fans of the show have eagerly awaited news about when Season 2 will drop on Prime Video. Shortly after the Season 1 finale, showrunner Patrick McKay vaguely hinted at the lengthy timeline — possibly even a couple of years — before Season 2 would be ready. In mid-2023, the show’s second installment still seems eons away.
However, little tidbits of information have slowly trickled out over time, letting fans know that things are still moving along behind the scenes. Before Season 1 even ended, it was already confirmed that Season 2 was in production. In December, an Amazon exec even went so far as to tease that Season 3 was already unofficially in the works. Rumors have swirled about various production milestones and complications, too, including an on-set fire in April of 2023.
This trail of breadcrumbs recently arrived at a more substantial bit of information: Filming for Season 2 has wrapped. Fan site Fellowship of Fans announced in early June that filming had officially finished in London, England and a wrap party was scheduled for June 9th. Earlier reports added that in the months preceding this announcement, principal photography had taken place across Europe in multiple units codenamed after various Middle-earth races, including Ents, Eagles, and Wargs.
The Rings of Power thankfully wasn’t derailed by the WGA strike
“The Rings of Power” had been filming Season 2 for months by the time the WGA strike began. When that started, Variety reported that the series’ showrunners, JD Payne and Patrick McKay, would be joining the picket lines to fight for the future for themselves and their fellow writers.
The outlet also claimed that it had confirmed there were only 19 days of filming left, and the show would go on without the showrunners on set. According to WGA rules, Payne and McKay weren’t allowed to participate in any writer-related activities or creative decisions while on strike. Instead, the remaining filming was overseen by various directors, producers, and crew members.
Despite the awkward finish, based on the recent news the show appears to have narrowly avoided being derailed by the strike. Other popular movies and series haven’t been so lucky. Marvel’s upcoming Thunderbolts flick was forced to pause production. The same studios’ “Wonder Man” show was also temporarily held up, as was “The Mandalorian” Season 4 and “The Last of Us” Season 2.
“The Rings of Power” may have had to hobble to the finish line. But at least the show made it, which is more than many other productions can say at the moment.
The Rings of Power took much longer to film Season 1
The fact that “The Rings of Power” has finished filming halfway into 2023 is a significant improvement on its previous track record. The pandemic shut down the production of Season 1 in March 2020 after only filming the first two episodes. It didn’t fully resume again until September. In a recent interview with Collider, J.A. Bayona, who directed that pair of opening episodes, clarified that the original filming timeline had been nine months. The pandemic had doubled it.
Thankfully, Season 2 got things going much faster. Despite the fact that the production moved halfway across the world between seasons (Season 1 was filmed in New Zealand while Season 2 moved to Europe), it took only nine months from the announcement that Season 2 was kickstarting production to finish the first round of filming.
Of course, now we enter the period defined by months of editing, reshoots, and all of those fun little details. Season 2 may be moving along, but there’s still no guarantee we’ll see it any time soon. All the same, we’ll take the little victories as they come along.
