Although showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay have been preparing for the next season's story for months, the lack of an official green light has been a source of speculation and concern among some fans - especially since the second season had already been ordered for years before the first season came out. But the news will likely be announced this month.
The decision follows this week's Prime Video UK Upfront presentation to advertisers in London, where Amazon MGM Studios presented The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and several cast members (Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Charlie Vickers and Sophia Nomvete) during the presentation to advertisers. At these events, studios normally only present series to buyers if they have every intention of going ahead with them.
Studio head Jennifer Salke told buyers that season two generated more than 55 million viewers and the company expects the latest season to eventually overtake the first season, which reached more than 150 million viewers (Amazon declines to define what a viewer is, but has said that the series remains a top 5 series for the streamer). The Rings of Power also topped the Nielsens chart during its last reported second week, with more than 1 billion minutes streamed. In terms of reception, Rotten Tomatoes scores for critics and viewers were slightly better for the second round than for the first.
It was previously reported that Amazon is currently sticking to the original 50-hour plan for the series. Payne and McKay — who also have multi-year deals — have assembled their third season of writers. The writers on board are Justin Doble (Executive Producer), Ben Tagoe (Consulting Producer), Ava Wong Davies (Consulting Producer), Constance Cheng (Consulting Producer), Jonathan Wilson (Consulting Producer), Griff Jones (Staff Writer) and Sarah Anson (staff writer).
For more on the finale of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, see The Hollywood Reporter's interview with Payne and McKay about the second season finale, in which the duo explain some of the key creative decisions they made and a shares a sneak peek into Sauron's future in season three.
