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Here’s something you might not expect from a show set in Middle-Earth: a season filmed on-location. That’s pretty close to what fans are going to get, though, with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3. The upcoming chapter of Prime Video’s fantasy prequel will feature the founding of an iconic elven refuge, and in order to get the feeling right, the cast & crew made their way to the closest possible approximation:

That is, the Swiss Valley that probably inspired J.R.R. Tolkien himself to create Rivendell.

We learned about the filming during the Rings of Power panel Amazon hosted at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. Attending the panel were showrunners JD Payne & Patrick McKay, who teased season 3’a introduction of city that will eventually be home to the Council of Elrond from The Fellowship of the Ring. The panel’s moderator, Benjamin Walker, wanted to know more, although as the actor who plays High King Gil-galad in the series, we expect he was asking on our behalf.

Anyway, what Payne and McKay revealed was that season 3 spent at least a little bit of time filming in Lauterbrunnen Valley, which as you may know if you’re a Tolkien scholar, is a place that Middle-Earth’s creator spent a pivtoal point of his life in. As such, it very likely used as his inspiration for the refuge of Rivendell (Imladris for all you real ones out there). For context, check out this image that Tolkien himself drew of Rivendell:

Now take a look at this shot of Lauterbrunnen Valley:

Pretty dang similar, no? (Shoutout to the Redditor that pointed us toward this)

What we don’t know is how much of the Valley we’ll actually see in this season, and unfortunately, there’s reason to believe that it’s not much. Rings of Power season 3 takes place just 5 years after the fall of Eregion in season 2, a time when, presumably, Rivendell will be in its infancy. But hey - at least we know that Amazon has guaranteed to produce Rings of Power out until season 5, so it may be that we get much more footage from Switzerland once the next two seasons get off the ground. 

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 streams on Prime Video November 11.  

Whether you're Shirefolk, Elven, Dwarven, or something else, there's a good reason to love Lord of the Rings. We do! With that in mind, we have a dragon's horde of goodies for you:

• Lord of the Rings reading guide 
• Lord of the Rings watch guide
• The Lord of the Rings reunion panel you can watch 
• The OG Hobbit actors stay in touch every day on a groupchat 
• The true message of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, according to Gimli himself - John Rhys-Davies.