The release date and first official image for Amazon's long-awaited The Lord of the Rings TV show have been revealed. While fans have to wait until September 2022 to watch, the first teaser image may contain some clues about what to expect from the fantasy show.

　　In particular, the image displays two trees faintly in the distance. They are emanating a lot of light into the clouds, and some fans believe these could be the fabled and bright-shining Two Trees of Valinor.

　　This is noteworthy in part because it suggests at least some of the show will take place in Valinor, or the Undying Lands. As people on Reddit point out, the Trees were felled by Melkor and Ungoliant (the spider-mother of Shelob), which may suggest this first image is part of a prologue sequence of a flashback of some kind. That's because Amazon's TV show is set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, so the Trees would have been long gone by this point, Redditors agree.

　　The first image from Amazon's Lord of the Rings TV show is full of mysteryIf those are indeed the Two Trees, then the city in the foreground could be Valmar. As for the person standing in front of the image with the white robe, people are theorizing that it could be Galadriel. According to reports and unconfirmed rumors, the show will feature a young Galadriel who is played by Morfydd Clark.

　　Whatever the case, the Second Age--which is thousands of years before the events of The Lord of the Rings--was an eventful period for Middle-earth. As Fandom reminds us, it is a 3,441-year period during which Sauron rose to power, leading to the creation of the One Ring. The Second Age was also when Numenor rose and fell.

　　The setting of Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ opens up a world of possibilities pic.twitter.com/LO0YtLHw85

　　— Fandom Wikis (@FandomWikis) August 2, 2021

　　Amazon is keeping things mysterious for now, only confirming that Season 1 will follow an "ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth."

　　With a reported budget of $465 million for Season 1, The Lord of the Rings TV show is one of the most expensive TV productions in history.

　　"The number is a sexy headline or a crazy headline that's fun to click on, but that is really building the infrastructure of what will sustain the whole series," Salke said of the budget. "As for how many people need to watch Lord of the Rings? A lot. (Laughs.) A giant, global audience needs to show up to it as appointment television, and we are pretty confident that that will happen."