Short answers, pulled from the story.
Amazon paid close to one billion dollars for the global television rights in November 2017. This figure represented a five-season commitment that would make it the most expensive television series ever produced.
The story begins thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings novels. It covers the major events of Middle-earth's Second Age including the forging of the Rings of Power and the rise of Sauron.
Robert Aramayo plays Elrond and Morfydd Clark plays Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. These actors were chosen to look like they could feasibly grow up to be their film counterparts.
Filming for the first season began in Auckland in February 2020 where the films were originally produced. Production officially wrapped on the 2nd of August 2021.
The opening title sequence took seven months to complete and was directed by Katrina Crawford and Mark Bashore. They investigated cymatics using a homemade Chladni plate to test shapes formed by sand particles vibrating to different sounds.