Many of us may have, at some point, felt a deep longing (probably spurred by a certain young adult fiction book series) to be swept away to a magical school of spells, potions, and general sorcery. Various games and other media have given us various ways to explore that fantasy over the years, but today, Eastshade Studios has announced a new, musical take on the idea with its upcoming RPG, Songs of Glimmerwick.

Songs of Glimmerwick is a story-driven RPG where magic is cast through music. Players will attend magic classes, learn to play different songs to cast spells, grow a magical garden, make potions, and take on quests to get to know the various denizens of Glimmerwick. There are moth races, forest expeditions, and festivals to attend, mixing plenty of optional mini-games and side quests alongside a main storyline. Characters are customizable, NPCs both major and minor will be voice acted, and the game's music will be composed by Eastshade composer Phoenix Glendinning.

Eastshade, naturally, was the previous game that Eastshade Studios worked on, with the same trio — Glendinning, and developers Danny Weinbaum and Jaclyn Ciezadlo returning for Glimmerwick. Put their screenshots side by side, and Eastshade (a first-person exploration game about painting) looks absolutely nothing like Songs of Glimmerwick (a top-down RPG about attending a magical university). And yet, the two are more alike than they appear.

Weinbaum and Ciezadlo tell IGN that just as with Eastshade, they wanted to create a world with an extremely strong sense of place. At its core, they say, Songs of Glimmerwick is about exploring a new location and getting to know its citizens. Players should feel that Glimmerwick is a character in its own right.

"A lot of developers will say they want their games to feel like real places, but then they’ll have all these other goals too, and truthfully, a sense of place is just gravy to them," Weinbaum says. "It’s not just gravy to us. We literally sacrifice every other design goal at the altar of sense of place. We really mean it. So when players step into Glimmerwick for the first time, if they don’t get the overwhelming feeling that they’ve arrived somewhere, we’ve failed."

How are Weinbaum and Ciezadlo accomplishing this "sense of place"? One key way is through design. Ciezadlo says that in both Eastshade and Glimmerwick, they stuck to a hard-and-fast rule of asking themselves, "Why would this be here?" every time they placed something in the world, be it as small as a footstool or as big as a cave.

"Having even a quick narrative about why something is in a specific place, how it got that way, or who put it there, etcetera, lends a stability that helps so much with world-building," she continues. "For example, say I (as the designer) want to place a tent out on a beach — so I ask myself, 'Who is staying here, why are they out on the beach?' Let's say it's someone fishing — so maybe I'll put some baskets of fish and fishing poles. 'Okay, are they here alone or did they bring their kids, how long are they staying, did they bring anything to pass the evenings?' They're almost silly questions, especially if the NPC has no dialogue and this is stuff that the player doesn't need to know about, or is even introduced to, but I think it does translate and make the world feel more alive to consider these things."

Weinbaum says that this very thing — designing worlds with a "strong sense of place, explored through non-combat mechanics" — is the core goal of Eastshade Studios.

While Eastshade's primary mechanic was painting, Glimmerwick delves into music. Players will learn different spells as three-to-four note melodies they can play to interact with the world, whether that's speaking with trees or causing clouds to make it rain on their magical garden. Longer versions of these melodies can be practiced in class as minute-long rhythm games to improve spell efficacy and power.

"I've always loved games that use music as a gameplay verb and I also love any and all media about witches and magic schools," Ciezadlo says. "I really wanted to combine the two and see a world where magic and music are intertwined. So often in games, magic is a click that we have no hand in performing. I wanted to explore learning and casting spells in a way that felt a little more personal and hands-on."

Though officially called an RPG, Songs of Glimmerwick doesn't feature combat. It does include a skill tree allowing for customization, and potentially different ways to solve various problems the player might run into as they explore. And players can also express themselves through different dialogue options and quest decisions as they interact with the various citizens of Glimmerwick, get to know them, and help them with their problems. It's another way in which Glimmerwick shares roots with Eastshade, which didn't have a skill tree, but did encourage creative, alternative solutions to various problems.

In that regard, Weinbaum reflects, Glimmerwick and Eastshade both are almost adventure games, too.

"That word [adventure] is starting to lose meaning with regards to genre, but in principle, an adventure game contrives impasses for the player, and they need to figure out what item or person is needed to surmount it," he says. "We’ve noticed a lot of great games fundamentally have these adventure game bones, even if nobody thinks of them as adventure games. We think we’ve gotten pretty good at making adventure game bones, pacing it well, and tying auxiliary loops into the impasses we create as goals for the player. We feel if the impasses align with the story well, and the solutions are kept fresh, when we layer other game loops on top of that, and tie them in natural ways, we’re confident we’ll have a great game."

Alongside the magic, music, and questing, players will also have charge of a magical garden where they can cultivate different plants using the spells they've learned at school. Weinbaum says that there are some farming sim mechanics involved here, but the team aims to "design away a lot of the tedium that is common in the genre."

"Stylistically the farming sim genre is fairly grind-heavy, which I think is a conscious choice for a lot of titles, both because some find relaxation in the repetition, and to extend playtime," he continues. "We want Glimmerwick to feel denser, like you come across something fresh every play session, whether that be interesting story beats, a new area, or a plant that surprises you when it gets to full growth."

With elements of RPG, farming sim, adventure, and even rhythm game, it can be a bit tricky to pin down exactly what genre Songs of Glimmerwick belongs in — a question Weinbaum says the team struggled with, too.

"I did a whole research dive on the history of the term RPG, and read a lot of reddit posts from people arguing over 'Is X game an RPG or not' to try to understand what the word means to most people nowadays," he says. "Some people think an RPG is a game that offers multiple 'roles' to you and you pick a playstyle, and others have a looser definition where you simply pretend to be a particular character. At the end of the day we felt like RPG was closest."

Songs of Glimmerwick is currently planned for PC and consoles sometime in 2023. When it does arrive, Ciezadlo hopes that the magical university at Glimmerwick and its surrounding areas comes across to players as a "real living and breathing place" that offers "a sense of peace and calm to players as well as offering interesting stories."

"After Eastshade we got a lot of messages from people who picked up painting after playing the game," she concludes. "I thought that was amazing. If anyone got inspired to take up an instrument after playing Glimmerwick I think I'd just be over the moon!"

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Many of us may have, at some point, felt a deep longing (probably spurred by a certain young adult fiction book series) to be swept away to a magical school of spells, potions, and general sorcery. Various games and other media have given us various ways to explore that fantasy over the years, but today, Eastshade Studios has announced a new, musical take on the idea with its upcoming RPG, Songs of Glimmerwick.

Songs of Glimmerwick is a story-driven RPG where magic is cast through music. Players will attend magic classes, learn to play different songs to cast spells, grow a magical garden, make potions, and take on quests to get to know the various denizens of Glimmerwick. There are moth races, forest expeditions, and festivals to attend, mixing plenty of optional mini-games and side quests alongside a main storyline. Characters are customizable, NPCs both major and minor will be voice acted, and the game's music will be composed by Eastshade composer Phoenix Glendinning.

Eastshade, naturally, was the previous game that Eastshade Studios worked on, with the same trio — Glendinning, and developers Danny Weinbaum and Jaclyn Ciezadlo returning for Glimmerwick. Put their screenshots side by side, and Eastshade (a first-person exploration game about painting) looks absolutely nothing like Songs of Glimmerwick (a top-down RPG about attending a magical university). And yet, the two are more alike than they appear.

Weinbaum and Ciezadlo tell IGN that just as with Eastshade, they wanted to create a world with an extremely strong sense of place. At its core, they say, Songs of Glimmerwick is about exploring a new location and getting to know its citizens. Players should feel that Glimmerwick is a character in its own right.

"A lot of developers will say they want their games to feel like real places, but then they’ll have all these other goals too, and truthfully, a sense of place is just gravy to them," Weinbaum says. "It’s not just gravy to us. We literally sacrifice every other design goal at the altar of sense of place. We really mean it. So when players step into Glimmerwick for the first time, if they don’t get the overwhelming feeling that they’ve arrived somewhere, we’ve failed."

How are Weinbaum and Ciezadlo accomplishing this "sense of place"? One key way is through design. Ciezadlo says that in both Eastshade and Glimmerwick, they stuck to a hard-and-fast rule of asking themselves, "Why would this be here?" every time they placed something in the world, be it as small as a footstool or as big as a cave.

"Having even a quick narrative about why something is in a specific place, how it got that way, or who put it there, etcetera, lends a stability that helps so much with world-building," she continues. "For example, say I (as the designer) want to place a tent out on a beach — so I ask myself, 'Who is staying here, why are they out on the beach?' Let's say it's someone fishing — so maybe I'll put some baskets of fish and fishing poles. 'Okay, are they here alone or did they bring their kids, how long are they staying, did they bring anything to pass the evenings?' They're almost silly questions, especially if the NPC has no dialogue and this is stuff that the player doesn't need to know about, or is even introduced to, but I think it does translate and make the world feel more alive to consider these things."

Weinbaum says that this very thing — designing worlds with a "strong sense of place, explored through non-combat mechanics" — is the core goal of Eastshade Studios.

While Eastshade's primary mechanic was painting, Glimmerwick delves into music. Players will learn different spells as three-to-four note melodies they can play to interact with the world, whether that's speaking with trees or causing clouds to make it rain on their magical garden. Longer versions of these melodies can be practiced in class as minute-long rhythm games to improve spell efficacy and power.

"I've always loved games that use music as a gameplay verb and I also love any and all media about witches and magic schools," Ciezadlo says. "I really wanted to combine the two and see a world where magic and music are intertwined. So often in games, magic is a click that we have no hand in performing. I wanted to explore learning and casting spells in a way that felt a little more personal and hands-on."

Though officially called an RPG, Songs of Glimmerwick doesn't feature combat. It does include a skill tree allowing for customization, and potentially different ways to solve various problems the player might run into as they explore. And players can also express themselves through different dialogue options and quest decisions as they interact with the various citizens of Glimmerwick, get to know them, and help them with their problems. It's another way in which Glimmerwick shares roots with Eastshade, which didn't have a skill tree, but did encourage creative, alternative solutions to various problems.

In that regard, Weinbaum reflects, Glimmerwick and Eastshade both are almost adventure games, too.

"That word [adventure] is starting to lose meaning with regards to genre, but in principle, an adventure game contrives impasses for the player, and they need to figure out what item or person is needed to surmount it," he says. "We’ve noticed a lot of great games fundamentally have these adventure game bones, even if nobody thinks of them as adventure games. We think we’ve gotten pretty good at making adventure game bones, pacing it well, and tying auxiliary loops into the impasses we create as goals for the player. We feel if the impasses align with the story well, and the solutions are kept fresh, when we layer other game loops on top of that, and tie them in natural ways, we’re confident we’ll have a great game."

Alongside the magic, music, and questing, players will also have charge of a magical garden where they can cultivate different plants using the spells they've learned at school. Weinbaum says that there are some farming sim mechanics involved here, but the team aims to "design away a lot of the tedium that is common in the genre."

"Stylistically the farming sim genre is fairly grind-heavy, which I think is a conscious choice for a lot of titles, both because some find relaxation in the repetition, and to extend playtime," he continues. "We want Glimmerwick to feel denser, like you come across something fresh every play session, whether that be interesting story beats, a new area, or a plant that surprises you when it gets to full growth."

With elements of RPG, farming sim, adventure, and even rhythm game, it can be a bit tricky to pin down exactly what genre Songs of Glimmerwick belongs in — a question Weinbaum says the team struggled with, too.

"I did a whole research dive on the history of the term RPG, and read a lot of reddit posts from people arguing over 'Is X game an RPG or not' to try to understand what the word means to most people nowadays," he says. "Some people think an RPG is a game that offers multiple 'roles' to you and you pick a playstyle, and others have a looser definition where you simply pretend to be a particular character. At the end of the day we felt like RPG was closest."

Songs of Glimmerwick is currently planned for PC and consoles sometime in 2023. When it does arrive, Ciezadlo hopes that the magical university at Glimmerwick and its surrounding areas comes across to players as a "real living and breathing place" that offers "a sense of peace and calm to players as well as offering interesting stories."

"After Eastshade we got a lot of messages from people who picked up painting after playing the game," she concludes. "I thought that was amazing. If anyone got inspired to take up an instrument after playing Glimmerwick I think I'd just be over the moon!"

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

French actor Gaspard Ulliel, one of the stars of Marvel's upcoming Moon Knight series, has reportedly died at the age of 37.

According to Deadline, Ulliel was transported by helicopter to a hospital in Grenoble after suffering a serious head injury during a skiing collision in the Savoie region of the Alps on Tuesday. The actor's family and local agent have reportedly since informed the news agency AFP that Ulliel has not survived the tragic accident.

Ulliel is perhaps best known for his role as the young Hannibal Lecter in 2007's Hannibal Rising, which served as an adaptation of Thomas Harris' 2006 novel of the same name. He also starred in the likes of Saint Laurent, It's Only the End of the World, and A Very Long Engagement, for which he won a César Award for Most Promising Actor in 2017.

It's understood that he had also recently completed work on Marvel's Moon Knight series alongside Oscar Isaac's mercenary-turned-vigilante Marc Spector/Moon Knight and Ethan Hawke's villainous mad scientist Arthur Harrow. A former listing on Ulliel's talent agency page showed the actor as taking on the role of Anton Mogart aka Midnight Man in the series.

French prime minister Jean Castex shared a tribute to the late actor on Twitter, writing that Ulliel "grew up with cinema and cinema grew with him."

Ulliel is survived by his long-term partner Gaëlle Piétri and their six-year-old son Orso.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Thumbnail image credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for La Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco.

French actor Gaspard Ulliel, one of the stars of Marvel's upcoming Moon Knight series, has reportedly died at the age of 37.

According to Deadline, Ulliel was transported by helicopter to a hospital in Grenoble after suffering a serious head injury during a skiing collision in the Savoie region of the Alps on Tuesday. The actor's family and local agent have reportedly since informed the news agency AFP that Ulliel has not survived the tragic accident.

Ulliel is perhaps best known for his role as the young Hannibal Lecter in 2007's Hannibal Rising, which served as an adaptation of Thomas Harris' 2006 novel of the same name. He also starred in the likes of Saint Laurent, It's Only the End of the World, and A Very Long Engagement, for which he won a César Award for Most Promising Actor in 2017.

It's understood that he had also recently completed work on Marvel's Moon Knight series alongside Oscar Isaac's mercenary-turned-vigilante Marc Spector/Moon Knight and Ethan Hawke's villainous mad scientist Arthur Harrow. A former listing on Ulliel's talent agency page showed the actor as taking on the role of Anton Mogart aka Midnight Man in the series.

French prime minister Jean Castex shared a tribute to the late actor on Twitter, writing that Ulliel "grew up with cinema and cinema grew with him."

Ulliel is survived by his long-term partner Gaëlle Piétri and their six-year-old son Orso.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Thumbnail image credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for La Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will lean into its eclectic mix of art styles with a different style for each dimension.

During an interview with Collider, filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller explained their “ambitious” approach to the Spider-Verse sequel.

“It is, as Phil said, a very ambitious sequel because we didn’t want to just sort of do the same thing again,” said Miller, who co-wrote the script. “And so, the idea that we’d be going to different dimensions really opened up an opportunity artistically to have each world have its own art style, and to be able to push the folks at ImageWorks to develop a way to have each dimension feel like it was drawn by a different artist’s hand.”

We already got a taste of the different styles from other parts of the Spider-Verse in the previous film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

There, we were introduced to Spider-Man Noir (voiced by Nicolas Cage), Spider-Ham (voiced by John Mulaney), and Peni Parker (voiced by Kimiko Glen) among others – each new Spider-Man appearing with their own unique art style. But while the characters clearly leaned into retro comic book and animé stylings, it looks as though entire dimensions will now get a unique look and feel in the upcoming sequel.

“Seeing the development of that stuff is breathtaking,” added Miller, “and really, it’s the reason we keep doing it because it’s so hard to get it right.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time Miller has spoken about the sequel’s impressive art style.

“The development of new groundbreaking art techniques being done for the next Spider-Verse movie are already blowing me away,” he said previously. “It's going to make the first movie look quaint.”

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse gained critical acclaim for its interdimensional story and vibrant art style. Focussing on the origin story of Miles Morales, the film was a huge hit and gained an instant following of Spider-Fans. Now, the upcoming sequel looks set to push boundaries yet again.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse stars Shameik Moore as Miles Morales, Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacey, Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara, Issa Rae as Jessica Drew, and Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker.

Although Tom Holland was approached for Into the Spider-Verse, nothing ever came of it. But that could leave the door open for an appearance in the upcoming sequel. Especially after recent multidimensional shenanigans in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Phil Lord and Chris Miller will produce the film alongside Avi Arad, Amy Pascal and Christina Steinberg. Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson will direct the movie, based on a script by Lord, Miller, and David Callaham.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse debuts in theaters on October 7, 2022.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will lean into its eclectic mix of art styles with a different style for each dimension.

During an interview with Collider, filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller explained their “ambitious” approach to the Spider-Verse sequel.

“It is, as Phil said, a very ambitious sequel because we didn’t want to just sort of do the same thing again,” said Miller, who co-wrote the script. “And so, the idea that we’d be going to different dimensions really opened up an opportunity artistically to have each world have its own art style, and to be able to push the folks at ImageWorks to develop a way to have each dimension feel like it was drawn by a different artist’s hand.”

We already got a taste of the different styles from other parts of the Spider-Verse in the previous film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

There, we were introduced to Spider-Man Noir (voiced by Nicolas Cage), Spider-Ham (voiced by John Mulaney), and Peni Parker (voiced by Kimiko Glen) among others – each new Spider-Man appearing with their own unique art style. But while the characters clearly leaned into retro comic book and animé stylings, it looks as though entire dimensions will now get a unique look and feel in the upcoming sequel.

“Seeing the development of that stuff is breathtaking,” added Miller, “and really, it’s the reason we keep doing it because it’s so hard to get it right.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time Miller has spoken about the sequel’s impressive art style.

“The development of new groundbreaking art techniques being done for the next Spider-Verse movie are already blowing me away,” he said previously. “It's going to make the first movie look quaint.”

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse gained critical acclaim for its interdimensional story and vibrant art style. Focussing on the origin story of Miles Morales, the film was a huge hit and gained an instant following of Spider-Fans. Now, the upcoming sequel looks set to push boundaries yet again.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse stars Shameik Moore as Miles Morales, Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacey, Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara, Issa Rae as Jessica Drew, and Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker.

Although Tom Holland was approached for Into the Spider-Verse, nothing ever came of it. But that could leave the door open for an appearance in the upcoming sequel. Especially after recent multidimensional shenanigans in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Phil Lord and Chris Miller will produce the film alongside Avi Arad, Amy Pascal and Christina Steinberg. Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson will direct the movie, based on a script by Lord, Miller, and David Callaham.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse debuts in theaters on October 7, 2022.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Ahead of its January 28 release date, a number of leaked gameplay and story elements from Nintendo's upcoming Pokémon Legends: Arceus have begun cropping up online. For those of you looking to head into the game spoiler-free, you may want to stray away from social media - at least until the initial storm passes.

While Nintendo has been relatively quick in its attempts to take down images that contain copyrighted material from Pokémon Legends: Arceus, many screenshots from throughout the game are still currently doing the rounds online.

Unlike previous Pokémon leaks, this most recent wave of content appears to have come from boxed retail versions of the game as opposed to digital review copies. Photographs of a number of players holding copies of the game have begun popping up on social media over the last 24 hours alongside a number of screenshots of the game itself.

While we won't be sharing exact details pertaining to the content that has been leaked itself, Twitter user Stealth40k gave a rundown of what you should look to avoid. According to Stealth, that list of features includes the game's opening movie, new Pokémon, and, well, pretty much everything else that you wouldn't want to be ruined.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus has leaked... the opening movie, new Pokémon, pretty much everything is being spoiled, so definitely take precaution!

— Stealth (@Stealth40k) January 19, 2022

With a little over a week left before the official launch of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, mute words and a cautious approach to scrolling may help you to navigate any unsightly spoilers. In the meantime, to supplement the rebellious part of your brain that might be tempted to go hunting for Pokémon content, Nintendo recently shared thirteen additional minutes of gameplay from the game that was both intended for release and packed with a number of satisfying scenes.

The clip itself explores a number of new features that are set to be included in Arceus such as how Pokémon will be caught out in the wild, the game's overhauled combat system, and how Noble Pokémon boss battles will work.

For more from the world of Pokémon, make sure to check out this article detailing the fan-made Pokémon first-person shooter that is just as disturbing as it sounds.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Ahead of its January 28 release date, a number of leaked gameplay and story elements from Nintendo's upcoming Pokémon Legends: Arceus have begun cropping up online. For those of you looking to head into the game spoiler-free, you may want to stray away from social media - at least until the initial storm passes.

While Nintendo has been relatively quick in its attempts to take down images that contain copyrighted material from Pokémon Legends: Arceus, many screenshots from throughout the game are still currently doing the rounds online.

Unlike previous Pokémon leaks, this most recent wave of content appears to have come from boxed retail versions of the game as opposed to digital review copies. Photographs of a number of players holding copies of the game have begun popping up on social media over the last 24 hours alongside a number of screenshots of the game itself.

While we won't be sharing exact details pertaining to the content that has been leaked itself, Twitter user Stealth40k gave a rundown of what you should look to avoid. According to Stealth, that list of features includes the game's opening movie, new Pokémon, and, well, pretty much everything else that you wouldn't want to be ruined.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus has leaked... the opening movie, new Pokémon, pretty much everything is being spoiled, so definitely take precaution!

— Stealth (@Stealth40k) January 19, 2022

With a little over a week left before the official launch of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, mute words and a cautious approach to scrolling may help you to navigate any unsightly spoilers. In the meantime, to supplement the rebellious part of your brain that might be tempted to go hunting for Pokémon content, Nintendo recently shared thirteen additional minutes of gameplay from the game that was both intended for release and packed with a number of satisfying scenes.

The clip itself explores a number of new features that are set to be included in Arceus such as how Pokémon will be caught out in the wild, the game's overhauled combat system, and how Noble Pokémon boss battles will work.

For more from the world of Pokémon, make sure to check out this article detailing the fan-made Pokémon first-person shooter that is just as disturbing as it sounds.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Amazon Studios officially announced the title of its forthcoming Lord of the Rings television series: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The series will premiere on September 2, 2022, on Prime Video.

The epic fantasy show is set during the Second Age of Middle-earth’s history, a relatively unexplored portion of J.R.R. Tolkien’s saga mostly chronicled in the appendices of his novel. The show takes place thousands of years before the events depicted in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies.

You can see a title reveal in the video below:

"This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien's other classics,” showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay said in a statement. “The Rings of Power unites all the major stories of Middle-earth's Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.”

They added: “Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring - but before there was one, there were many... and we're excited to share the epic story of them all."

In the title video, various shots of Middle-earth are seen as molten metal is poured into a forge and cooled to create the series’ title in silver, its lettering in Elven script. Over this, a female voiceover – a young Galadriel perhaps? – recites Tolkien’s epigraph to Lord of the Rings:

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

The voiceover omits the passage’s next lines – “One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them” – which were famously heard in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, suggesting that’s a story we already know.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power cast includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani.

In addition to Payne and McKay, the show’s executive producers include Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, J.A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado, and producer Christopher Newman. Wayne Che Yip serves as co-executive producer and also directs episodes along with J.A. Bayona and Charlotte Brändström.

Check out how they made the Lord of the Rings title sequence as a practical effect:

Season One of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power wrapped filming in New Zealand in August 2021. Envisioned as a multi-season saga, Season 2 will film in the U.K. Amazon Studios previously announced that pre-production on Season 2 will begin in early 2022.

Amazon Studios officially announced the title of its forthcoming Lord of the Rings television series: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The series will premiere on September 2, 2022, on Prime Video.

The epic fantasy show is set during the Second Age of Middle-earth’s history, a relatively unexplored portion of J.R.R. Tolkien’s saga mostly chronicled in the appendices of his novel. The show takes places thousands of years before the events depicted in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies.

You can see a title reveal in the video below:

"This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien's other classics,” showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay said in a statement. “The Rings of Power unites all the major stories of Middle-earth's Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.”

They added: “Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring - but before there was one, there were many... and we're excited to share the epic story of them all."

In the title video, various shots of Middle-earth are seen as molten metal is poured into a forge and cooled to create the series’ title in silver, its lettering in Elven script. Over this, a female voiceover – a young Galadriel perhaps? – recites Tolkien’s epigraph to Lord of the Rings:

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

The voiceover omits the passage’s next lines – “One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them” – which were famously heard in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, suggesting that’s a story we already know.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power cast includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani.

In addition to Payne and McKay, the show’s executive producers include Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, J.A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado, and producer Christopher Newman. Wayne Che Yip serves as co-executive producer and also directs episodes along with J.A. Bayona and Charlotte Brändström.

Check out how they made the Lord of the Rings title sequence as a practical effect:

Season One of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power wrapped filming in New Zealand in August 2021. Envisioned as a multi-season saga, Season 2 will film in the U.K. Amazon Studios previously announced that pre-production on Season 2 will begin in early 2022.