Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings series takes TV FX to a new level

Unless you’ve been holidaying in a parallel universe for the past month, you’ll have noticed that there’s a new sheriff in telly town. Amazon Studios’ much-vaunted The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (a full-strength Tolkien-esque title, if ever we saw one) has been hyped as the most expensive TV series ever made. Sure, a lot of that was the cool $250 million Jeff Bezos coughed up for the rights to JRR Tolkien’s mythology-rich world, but it’s also about the sheer amount of moolah the streamer is throwing at Middle-earth that’s really bringing it to life.

If you’ve seen the three Rings episodes so far, you’ll have noticed how truly draw-dropping and enchanting the VFX are. And of course, they have to be. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films may be 20 years old, but their on screen impact still hits you full on. From the innovative motion-capture technology of Gollum, to the Balrog to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Wētā FX’s (formerly WETA Digital) work on that trilogy earned them a clutch of Academy Awards. So, how did Amazon’s show go about matching the stellar work crafted two-plus decades ago?

According to Variety, this first season of The Rings of Power features a staggering 9,500 visual effects shots – that’s even more than Avengers: Endgame! To put it into perspective, Peter Jackson estimates that The Return of the King, the final and the most effects-laden of the LOTR trilogy, featured around 1,500 VFX shots. That really takes TV VFX to the next level!

As is only right, WETA worked on the programme, but the heavy load of effects shots meant that an additional 19 VFX studios, including Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Rodeo FX, Method Studios, DNEG, Rising Sun Pictures, Cause and FX, Cantina Creative, Atomic Arts, and Outpost VFX were all approached to work their digital magic. In total, 1,500 VFX artists were signed for the show.

VFX producer Ron Ames spilled the beans on how the eight-episode series is designed to play like a feature film: “Our target was the 65-inch screen at home,” he said. “But we made it so that it would play technically beautifully in everything up to an IMAX screen. It is finished to a theatrical resolution.” (Hey, what about those of us with a 55-inch, Ron?)

Ames also let it be known that getting the right FX houses involved was crucial. “It wasn’t hard to get people to work on the show,” he told Variety. “It was finding the right partner and who should do what, how do they work together?”

“We found a way that all assets could be shared and they all talked to each other,” he said. “So we were all working and pulling in the right direction.”

If you’ve already grabbed a few episodes, then you’ll have got an eyeful of the digital craftwork that created the worlds of Valinor, the Sundering Seas, Forodwaith, Rhovanion, Lindon, Eregion and Khazad-Dum. The Rings of Power has a mean reputation to live up to, considering the Oscar-hoovering work done by WETA Digital during Peter Jackson’s epic journey – but judging by how it’s rocketed off the starting blocks, we’re putting money on a Best Visual Effects Emmy in 2023.