Fresh from comic con ....$1billion for the 5 series
The Rings of Power is the most expensive show ever made, at $1bn (£832m) for five seasons - and this is fans' best guide to how it will look, sound and feel.
But what everyone really wants to know is, can it compete with Peter Jackson's beloved Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the winner of 17 Oscars, benchmark for composers, and populariser of second breakfast?
Wisely, it's not trying - instead setting the action 4,000 years before the Hobbits Frodo and Sam journeyed through Middle Earth.
This is the Second Age, where the 20 Rings of Power are forged and the evil Sauron, Lord of Mordor, rises to assault the realms' hard-won peace.
The source material is Tolkien's appendix to the Lord of the Rings books. The core question: "How far into the darkness would you go to protect the things you care about the most?" says McKay's fellow showrunner JD Payne.
It's a mix of new characters, some of them original to the show, and old favourites in younger form, like the immortal Elves Galadriel and Elrond (Morfydd Clark and Robert Aramayo), who are seen sharing a tender moment in one exclusive clip played at Comic-Con.
Another atmospheric scene showed Elrond and the dwarf King Durin IV (Owain Arthur) competing to split rocks in a high-stakes test of strength. And orcs - the blighted race that formed Sauron's army in Tolkien's books - featured in combat with the elf Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova) as he battles his way out of enslavement.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-62276842
I'm really looking forward to this