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Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings show is one of the most anticipated series set to arrive in the next few years. Although it’s yet to start production and no release date has been announced, it’s been reported that Season 2 has already been greenlit.

According to Deadline, Amazon has renewed the Lord of the Rings series for a second season. Season 1 is currently in pre-production, and like Peter Jackson’s movies, will be filmed in New Zealand. There have been no official cast announcements yet either, but it’s been rumored that Will Poulter, Markella Kavenagh, and Joseph Mawle are among the actors who have been cast so far.

The Season 2 renewal isn’t a huge surprise. The massive deal that Amazon signed with JRR Tolkien’s estate in 2017 included a multi-season commitment, although, as Deadline states, the studio still has to officially greenlight each season.

The new Lord of the Rings show is being written by JD Payne and Patrick McKay, with former Game of Thrones series producer Bryan Cogman joining the team in September. Jurassic World: Forbidden Kingdom director JA Bayona is set to direct the first two episodes of Season 1. The show will go on a 4-5 month hiatus after the first two episodes have been shot, to allow producers to evaluate the footage so far and work on scripts for Season 2.

As for what the show will be about, it will be set in the Second Age, which is a 3,441-year period that covered major events like the forging of the Rings of Power, including the One Ring; the War of Sauron, the beginning of the Ringwraiths, and when Numenor the island sank into the ocean. Also, it was during the Second Age that the Elven city of Rivendell was developed and the great battle where men, elves, and dwarves fought together for the first time against Sauron.

In other news, a new Lord of the Rings video game focused on Gollum is in development at Daedalic Entertainment, while a AAA online Lord of the Rings game is also on the way.

It’s been a busy year for Respawn Entertainment. The studio, known for its shooter franchise Titanfall, announced it would be branching away from its signature series – for now, at least – to try something new. That something was Apex Legends.

The success of the battle royale notwithstanding, Respawn had another challenge ahead of it: creating and releasing a game set in the Star Wars universe. And now, with Jedi: Fallen Order releasing to near universal acclaim, we’re taking a look at what it means for the developer moving forward.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Fast & Furious: Spy Racers, the upcoming animated spin-off from the Vin Diesel-led action film series, will hit Netflix on December 26, 2019. In the lead-up to the series’ debut, several images of the series have been shown off, along with a cast list and brief synopsis.

The series will focus on Tony Toretto (Tyler Posey), the teenage cousin of series protagonist Dom Toretto. Much like his older cousin, he’s recruited by a government agency to take on a car-focused crime group: in this case, it’s called SH1FT3R. He and his friends have to stop SH1FT3R from taking over the world, and it seems that’s going to involve plenty of fast driving. The series will be youth-focused, and the image below of Tony with a giant glowing glove hints at some fantastical elements. Click through the gallery below for a first look at the series.

The series will also feature Camille Ramsey, Luke Youngblood, Charlet Chung, and Jorge Diaz in the main cast. Guest stars will include Similce Diesel, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Manish Dayal, Jimmy Tatro, Carlos Alazraqui, Eric Bauza, Grey Griffin, Kevin Michael Richardson, Fred Tatasciore, and Tru Valentino. The series is executive produced by Neal H. Moritz, Chris Morgan, Tim Hedrick and Bret Haaland. It’s not clear whether or not Vin Diesel, or any of the other cast members from the film series (which will see a ninth entry next year), will make appearances in the series; if they do, it will likely be kept a surprise.

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Amy Hennig, the director and writer of Uncharted 1, 2, and 3, as well as Jak 3, Battlefield: Hardline, and Visceral’s cancelled Star Wars game, is launching a new games studio. Hennig has joined Skydance Media, the company that produced such films as Mission Impossible Fallout, Gemini Man, Annihilation, and Terminator: Dark Fate. She will oversee the company’s new game development label, working alongside her former Electronic Arts co-worker Julian Beak. This news comes via a report from VentureBeat, and Skydance has since issued a press release welcoming Hennig and Beak on board.

In a statement to VentureBeat, company CEO David Ellison says that the pair have been hired because “the interactive media landscape is continually changing and Amy and Julian are creative and visionary leaders of this evolution.” Hennig, whose first credit is 1989’s ElectroCop, says that her studio will make games aimed at both traditional gamers and “non-gamers,” and will work on “story-focused experiences” for “both traditional and emerging streaming platforms.” Hennig left EA after the closure of Visceral, the studio behind the Dead Space series, and the cancellation of the Star Wars game she was working on. At Skydance Media, she says, she met “kindred spirits” who believed in her work.

Hennig says that, while they haven’t settled on exactly what they will work on first, she will take on an “interactive showrunner” role, while Beak will serve as an executive producer on their titles. Her aim is to work as “a storyteller” with her games. She believes that the studio will remain “small and focused” under her supervision, working on smaller titles.

Skydance Media has some involvement in games already, and are working on The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, as well as their previous VR title Archangel. The company courted controversy earlier this year after hiring disgraced former Disney/Pixar animation chief John Lasseter, who left the company after allegations of sexual harassment arose. Lasseter’s hiring eventually led to Emma Thompson exiting a movie produced by the company.