WITH the second season of Amazon’s Lord of the Rings set to be filmed in the UK, we look at whether the South Downs could be transformed into Middle Earth.
Amazon Studios has confirmed that the production of the currently untitled fantasy series will be moved from New Zealand to an unidentified location in the UK.
The news is a big blow to the New Zealand entertainment industry which has been boosted by the filming of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies.
So could Sussex be used for filming of the series, which is set to be based thousands of years before JRR Tolkien's books?
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Although it has not yet been confirmed just where filming and production will take place, Sussex could certainly stand in for Tolkien's Middle Earth.
The rolling hills of the South Downs could be the perfect setting to represent Pelennor Fields outside of the city of Minas Tirith in Gondor.
While the historic Sussex villages could replicate the small shire towns that are the home of the hobbits.
The i360 could even be transformed into the tower of Barad-dur, home to the Eye of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings films.
Amazon Studios already knows Sussex well after its My Policeman production was filmed in Brighton, with former One Direction star Harry Styles spotted shooting around the city.
The county has been used for numerous other productions with Worthing recently hosting actor Bill Nighy while he filmed scenes for his new film Living, in which he plays a civil servant.
Amazon Studios, the film and TV department of the technology business, has already spent £336.5 million on the first season of the Lord of the Rings show.
It said the change in locations was part of a plan to expand its production space and consolidate its footprint in the UK.
The first season of the show will finish filming in New Zealand and will be aired on Amazon Prime in September next year.
After this production will be moved to the UK, where it is expected four more seasons will be made.
If Amazon do decide to use Sussex you can expect to see orcs, elves, dwarves and hobbits battling it out on the South Downs in the coming months and years.
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