An official teaser website for Amazon’s The Lord Of The Rings TV show seems to have confirmed that the upcoming series will be set in the Tolkien universe’s ‘Second Age’, which would place it around 3,000 years prior to the events of the book and film trilogies.

“Welcome To The Second Age”, an official tweet said, before linking off to this teasing website about Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings project:

Welcome to the Second Age: https://t.co/Tamd0oRgTw

— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) March 7, 2019

Because the Lord Of The Rings book series (and the films it inspired) were set in the Third Age, it is clear that Amazon’s show is taking place millennia before any of the familiar characters from the novels or movies were born. To casual fans, this will essentially guarantee a whole new experience that is very far removed from familiar faces.

To more hardcore followers of Tolkien’s texts, this raises some interesting possibilities. Most of all, it’s tantalising to know that this series could visit the island of Númenor.

Númenor, which is included in the bottom-left corner of the map from Amazon’s webpage, was an island that crumbled into the sea at the end of the Second Age. By the time that Frodo and his chums came into existence, Númenor had fallen into legend like a Middle Earth version of Atlantis.

We don’t have a release date for Amazon’s project yet, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated on this intriguing series as we hear more.