Amazon is already lining up work on Rings of Power Season 4, even though Season 3 has not reached Prime Video yet. According to a production schedule reported by The Hollywood Reporter, pre-production on the fantasy series expected to start this fall, with filming planned for early 2027.
For a show built around ancient grudges, immortal beings, and very expensive scenery, the timing is the practical part: Amazon appears to be trying to keep the gap between seasons from turning into another long wait.
Why Amazon is starting Season 4 planning now
Prime Video has Season 3 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power set to begin streaming in November. That will come more than two years after Season 2 arrived, a delay that is not exactly ideal for a series asking viewers to keep track of elves, dwarves, Númenóreans, Sauron, and the slow-motion collapse of several civilizations.
The Hollywood Reporter says Amazon wants to shorten that wait for the next run of episodes. Even with pre-production beginning this year when cameras are expected to start rolling in early 2027, Season 4 would still most likely arrive in 2028.
That would make the new schedule less of a sprint and more of a controlled attempt not to lose the audience between chapters. In streaming terms, this now counts as urgency.
Season 4 still has not been formally greenlit
There is one important caveat: Prime Video has not officially renewed the series for a fourth season.
That sounds dramatic, but it may be more procedural than ominous. The show was originally pitched as a five-season story, and Amazon has reportedly reassured showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay that it remains committed to seeing that plan through.
The series has long carried a unusual level of corporate expectation. Its total cost has been reported at around $1 billion, a number large enough to make most television budgets look like petty cash. Questions have followed about its viewership, its cultural impact, and whether any fantasy series can justify that kind of spending without actually forging gold in Mount Doom.
Still, the show’s position appears stronger than some of Amazon’s other large-scale genre bets. The Hollywood Reporter recently described it as sitting “under [Jeff] Bezos’ magical halo,” suggesting its future remains protected even as other expensive Amazon fantasy projects, including The Wheel of Time, have been cancelled.
What Season 3 will cover
The upcoming third season jumps ahead several years after Season 2.
According to the official synopsis, Season 3 takes place “at the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron,” as the Dark Lord works to create the One Ring, the weapon he believes will give him the advantage needed to win the war and “conquer all Middle-earth at last.”
That places the series closer to one of the central mythological events behind The Lord of the Rings: Sauron’s rise to open war and the creation of the ring that will later ruin everyone’s schedule for several thousand years.
A recent look at the new season also teased Elendil preparing for battle. The footage showed the character training and taking up the legendary sword Narsil while standing on a shoreline. In Prime Video’s series, Elendil is played by Lloyd Owen.
Middle-earth is getting crowded again
Amazon’s series is not the only Tolkien project on the calendar. Warner Bros. is also developing two Lord of the Rings film spinoffs, expanding a franchise that continues to prove Middle-earth is less a fictional continent than a long-term industry plan.
The first, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, is expected next year. Andy Serkis is set to return as Sméagol, also known as Gollum, with Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen returning as Frodo and Gandalf for a prequel story.
A second film, The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, is planned to follow. The project is described as a sequel story written by Stephen Colbert, with flashbacks to moments not included in Peter Jackson’s original trilogy.
For viewers, the larger picture is simple enough: Amazon is acting as though The Rings of Power has a future beyond Season 3, even if the formal paperwork has not yet caught up. The company appears determined to keep its Middle-earth saga moving, which is probably wise when the alternative is asking fans to wait another age of the world between seasons.
