Amazon will begin pre-production on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 4 this fall — before the show's third season airs.
A production schedule for the mega-budget series laid out by The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Prime Video wants to begin Season 4 pre-production work this year, with shooting then set for early in 2027.
Currently, Prime Video has Rings of Power's upcoming third season set to begin streaming from this November, after a lengthy wait of more than two years from the release of Season 2. The Hollywood Reporter suggests that Amazon wants to keep this wait as short as possible for the series' next run of episodes, though it's still likely they'll arrive in 2028.
It's important to note that Prime Video has yet to formally greenlight the series' fourth season, though the show was originally pitched as featuring a five-season story and Amazon has reportedly assured the series' showrunners that it remains committed to staying the course.
Regardless of questions over the show's viewing figures and whether it is worth its enormous cost — reportedly $1 billion — the show was recently described as sitting "under [Jeff] Bezos' magical halo", with its future safe while other big budget Amazon shows (such as The Wheel of Time) have fallen by the wayside.
"Jumping forward several years from the events of season two, season three takes place at the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron," reads an official synopsis for Rings of Power's upcoming third season, "as the Dark Lord seeks to craft the One Ring that will give him the edge he needs to win the war and conquer all Middle-earth at last."
In the meantime, a glimpse at what to expect has shown Elendil (once again played by Peter McKenzie) training for battle. We see the actor picking up the legendary blade Narsil, and readying himself while standing on a shoreline.
It's a busy time for Middle-earth, with two Lord of the Rings movie spinoffs also in the works. The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will see Andy Serkis, Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen return to their legendary roles as Smeagul, Frodo and Gandalf for a prequel story due out next year. The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past will then follow as a sequel story written by Stephen Colbert, with flashbacks to moments left out of Peter Jackson's original trilogy.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
