Yesterday, Amazon announced that its upcoming, untitled Middle-earth series has a release date: September 2nd, 2022. The studio revealed that it wrapped production on the series down in New Zealand on its first season yesterday, and released a first picture that looks like it'll be congruent with Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies.

We've got another 415 days left to go before it premieres, and I feel like that helps underscore just how big this show will be for Amazon: they've got more than a year to get all of their special effects and other ducks in a row before the series debuts next fall.

Today's news has me thinking about something interesting and somewhat unique in the world of science fiction and fantasy literature: how an author's appendices help build out a much larger world beneath the surface of their narrative.