The series, which will be launched on September 2 on the Amazon platform, is considered to be a personal obsession of Mr. Bezos, the multi-billionaire founder of the online shopping site which started streaming.
The ambitious adaptation of the universe created by JRR Tolkien in his novels began when Amazon Prime bought the rights for $250 million about five years ago.
The series is planning five seasons, each lasting ten hours.
Jeff Bezos joined the show's stars and producers Monday night at Culver Studios in Los Angeles, where the first two episodes screened before a grand light show featuring dozens of illuminated drones.
Producer Lindsey Weber called the Billion Dollar Budget "a very catchy headline that people like to talk about" but she promised viewers would see "that the money is really on the screen".
#photo1
The staggering cost of the series is explained by "the construction of five seasons", she told AFP from the red carpet.
"If you look at what it costs to make a feature film, by comparison, it's really a bargain," she added, referring to Hollywood studios' mega-budget blockbusters. more prestigious.
"The Rings of Power" takes place 4,000 years before the trilogy of films made by Peter Jackson and the original books, in a "Second Age", a fictional historical period of the universe invented by Tolkien and about which he delivered relatively little details.
The cast of the series is relatively unknown globally.
Morfydd Clark and Robert Aramayo play much-rejuvenated versions of Galadriel and Elrond, characters already familiar to fans of the "Lord of the Rings" films.
#photo2
"It's an epic adventure story, with universal themes, and it's a real labor of love -- we all worked very, very hard on it, and I hope people enjoy it," Robert commented. Aramayo at the Monday premiere.
© 2022 AFP