Hello, Middle-earth

After a bit of a lead-up, we finally have our first look at Amazon's Lord of the Rings series. The studio launched its first teaser during the Super Bowl, and it's an intriguing introduction.

I have something of a theory for trailers and teasers, and I don't generally think it's worth looking too much into them as an indication of quality, for a couple of reasons. First, we're a good distance from the point where we'll actually see the series, and anyone complaining about the quality of the CGI or effects are should keep in mind that stuff will change: look at how blatantly Marvel will remove things from its teasers, for example.

The first teaser is an introduction to the world: we're a bit past the twenty year mark since we were first introduced to Middle-earth in The Fellowship of the Ring, and this teaser is doing a good amount of work to reassure us that "yeah, this is the Middle-earth you fell in love with from Peter Jackson's films." It's obviously not a 1:1 match — this series is set thousands of years prior to those, but it's at least familiar.