The ecommerce giant said production will be moved out of New Zealand when filming concludes for the first season of the blockbuster series in June next year

Amazon.com Inc  has decided to move the production of its Lord of the Rings TV series to the UK for its second season, dealing a blow to Middle Earth’s traditional homeland of New Zealand.

The first season of the series, which is due to be released on Amazon’s Prime streaming service in September next year, was filmed in New Zealand and reportedly cost around US$465mln to film, however, reports said the country’s government had been informed on Thursday that production would move to the UK after filming wraps up next June.