The series is expected to be the most expensive TV show in history, with Amazon expected to spend at least $1 billion on its production.
In J.R.R. Tolkien's "Concerning Hobbits," there are three different breeds of Hobbits: Harfoots, Stoors and Fallohides. Harfoots are the breed depicted in The Rings of Power. Like the Hobbits seen in the Third Age stories, these Second Age Harfoots share the same love of song, dance and light-hearted humor. One way they differ is that Harfoots lead a more nomadic and migratory lifestyle, and they prefer to hide away from people and creatures they don't know.
Amazon's original pitch for the television rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' novels was to make the series a new adaptation of the latter (effectively a retelling of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)), but the Tolkien estate rejected this proposal. Amazon finally obtained the rights under the conditions that the series be distinct from Peter Jackson's earlier adaptations, and that they couldn't contradict anything that Tolkien had previously written. Early ideas that were proposed included prequel stories featuring characters such as Aragorn, Gimli and Gandalf, but the showrunners preferred to focus on important untold events from the novels' lore rather than simple side stories, so they settled with the studio that the series would take place during the books' Second Age. Since they didn't have the rights to Tolkien's 'The Silmarillion', 'Unfinished Tales' and 'The History of Middle-earth' (which explore the First and Second Ages), they checked the Lord of the Rings novels and appendices for passages about and references to the Second Age that they could set their story in. They consulted with the estate and several Tolkien lore experts (including grandson and novelist Simon Tolkien) about the inclusion of new characters and plot elements.
Amazon was in a bidding war with Netflix for the rights to the addendums of the novels, with Amazon acquiring the rights in the end at a cost of $250 million.
The series is slated to run for at least five seasons.