When is The Rings of Power set - is it before The Lords of the Rings?

Following the success of Peter Jackson’s award-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Rings of Power series on Amazon Prime is due to expand the vast universe even further. With just under two weeks until its release, excitement levels are rising, while producers will likely be getting anxious over how the most expensive TV series of all time will be received.

The Rings of Power is somewhat of a prequel to the original film blockbusters. The series is set thousands of years before J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, during a period known as the Second Age.

However, the showrunners would prefer not to consider it a prequel to the films, hence why they chose to go way back to find a story that could exist on its own and be watched in isolation. While it remains unclear just how the series will fit in with the original stories, viewers will have a whole new host of personalities to fall in love with across eight episodes.

Read more: When is House of the Dragon set - is it before Game of Thrones

Events of the Second Age of Middle-Earth will be explored during The Rings of Power. The series looks like it is being set in the mid-Second Age, circa SA 1500-1701, according to a preliminary interactive map on the Amazon Prime Video website.

Characters from a later time in the Second Age will also feature, including Elendil and Isildur. To prevent sudden jumps in time, these two timelines will be condensed to form a single one, also preventing the need for characters to be aged up or see new actors portray them further down the line.

In total, the Second Age lasted for nearly 3,500 years, ending with Sauron’s defeat thanks to the Last Alliance of men and elves. That battle opened the film The Fellowship of the