Image: Amazon Prime Video

Amazon’s upcoming Middle-earth series is still years away from debuting on the company’s streaming service, but it’s already granted the series an early second season renewal, according to Deadline.

The news isn’t a huge surprise: when Amazon initially acquired the rights to the series, it was for multiple seasons, as well as a potential spinoff series. The show is expected to be set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, prior to the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The show’s social media accounts have hinted that the series will focus on the fall of Númenor, and the War of the Last Alliance. That’s a lot of territory to cover, and the show’s writers have their work cut out for them.

Deadline reports that the Amazon has reassembled its writers’ room to begin the work of plotting out the show’s second season, and that director J.A. Bayona will shoot the first two episodes before the production goes on an extended, 4-5 month production hiatus.

“The road goes ever on and on.” #LOTRonPrime https://t.co/ELdcU0n17p — The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) November 19, 2019

“The writing team of the series, led by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay,” Deadline writes, “will use the time to map out and write the bulk of Season 2 scripts.” The idea here is that the production team will evaluate the first couple of episodes and take stock, and then move on to shoot the rest of Season 1 and potentially Season 2. Deadline notes that shooting the two seasons back-to-back could mean a shorter wait between seasons for fans.

Amazon hasn’t announced when the series will debut, but production is set to begin soon in New Zealand.