Frodo Baggins himself, Elijah Wood, has responded to the news that Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series will be leaving New Zealand, and he doesn’t seem too thrilled about it.
Last week, Amazon confirmed that the second season of the TV series will move to the United Kingdom for filming and production, leaving the franchise’s homeland of New Zealand.
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Wood — who won’t star in the Amazon series, but played the lead in the original franchise and The Hobbit spin-off — simply responded to the news with the face-palm emoji.
🤦🏻♂️ https://t.co/rq6OES6zde
— Elijah Wood (@elijahwood) August 12, 2021
The Lord Of The Rings has been such a huge part of New Zealand’s identity since the release of the first film back in 2001. So much so that the film is actually used as part of the country’s tourism campaigns. So naturally, it’s pretty disappointing to see production leave NZ shores.
“It’s a shame and I feel for everyone who has put their hearts into this production,” New Zealand Film Commission boss David Strong said.
Amazon is yet to offer much of an explanation as to why it decided to move production, but thanked “the people and the government of New Zealand for their hospitality and dedication and for providing The Lord of the Rings series with an incredible place to begin this epic journey.”
Following the move to the UK, Amazon is expected to make another four seasons of the yet-to-be-released show.
The synopsis for the first season reads as follows:
“The new epic drama brings to screens for the very first time J.R.R. Tolkien’s fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. Beginning in a time of relative peace, thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.”