I'm pretty sure Wheel of Time is going to have to have a pretty big budget too, and the effects in the first episode of The Boys were pretty damn impressive, so that's probably got at least a decent size budget.
A few more bits of info have come out of an interview that Tom Shippey did with Deutsche Tolkien. The first season will have 20 episodes, which is pretty long for these kinds of streaming series. He also said that they are being given a pretty good amount of freedom, since Tolkien did go into a ton of detail about The Second Age, but they are being required to follow everything that Tolkien did establish. So they can come up with their own characters, and plots, but everything will have to line up with the stuff that Tolkien did say happened.
Well Tolkien's stuff from the Second Age was "Big Picture" stuff, so it's not really any different than telling a story against the backdrop of say, WW2, or something. I'm much happier about a Second Age series than a young Aragorn series though.
Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey will represent the Tolkien estate during the production and has creative veto power to ensure that “the main shape of the Second Age is not altered.” Apparently anything from the First and Third Ages are completely off limits.
I’m not gonna lie: I’m hoping that a line of 6-inch action figures is produced as well! I have already got a sizeable collection of Toy Biz LOTRs action figures, and a bunch of the Bridge Direct Hobbit action figures - so to add some Second Age Numenoreans (soldiers, Kings, Queens, mariners, etc) and some more Elven characters to the mix would be fantastic! Not to mention Sauron himself!
So, I got my Ages mixed up. Still very excited about Second Age stories. Happy no 3rd Age. I've had enough there. Why is First Age off limits though? Hopefully that ban gets lifted after 3000 years of stories a few years from now. Working backwards by Age works real well though from a viewing standpoint. I gotta reread Silmarillion.
Will Poulter (Black Mirror: Bandersnach, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Maze Runner) has joined the cast in an unknown role.
Elrond was a half-elf who chose to an Elven/immortal life Elros was Elrond's twin brother who chose to live as a man with a extremely long(500 years) lifespan, but not immortal. He became the first King of Numenor. So they could be going with Poulter as a descendent of Elros with a similar look.
If they were going to use Elrond they'd probably go with an actor the same age as Hugo Weaving. He looked pretty much the same in the Fellowship of the Ring as he did in the body of the movie, so he didn't age between the second and third ages.
Kids these days have no idea how lucky they are. Back when I was growing up, fantasy movies or tv always equaled horrendously low budget and usually cheesy. Really looking forward to this.
Elves are magic beings in the books so... You can choose to be immortal (which has it's own price) or a very long lived mortal instead.
Elrond has a complicated family tree, with ancestors that were Elven, Human and of the Maia. From the wiki page: "Elrond, along with his parents, his brother, and his children, were granted a choice between Elven or human fates by the Valar. Elrond chose to live as an immortal Elf, while his twin Elros chose the mortality of Men." However, Elros's descendants were bound by his choice (were born, lived, and died as mortal Men) whereas Elrond's children were not (which allowed Arwen to make her choice.)
When one has a direct line of communication with the angels/lesser gods, you get to have these choices.