Amazon’s Lord of the Rings titled The Rings of Power — here’s what it means

For years now, Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show has gone by a simple title: The Lord of the Rings. But, like The Fellowship of the Ring, Two TowersPlease see the following: The Return of the King The creators of this series had hoped to pay tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien gave the prequel story its subtitle. Prime Video had some simple words to set expectations Wednesday. The September premiere will bring fans the best of both worlds. The Lord of the Rings – The Rings of Power.

Little is known about the whos, whats, whens, and whys of Amazon’s highly anticipated tentpole. Early on in development, Prime Video’s official account for the show promised to whisk viewers back to the Second Age, when the island of Númenor was still above water. And as the trades announced a sprawling cast of young actors who would appear in the series, one name jumped out: Welsh actor Morfydd Clark would star as a Galadriel, the Elven leader of Lothlórien played by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson’s trilogy. Amazon bought the rights to Lord of the Rings in 2017 but that image was not the final word on the direction the show would go.

An announcement was made about The Lord of the Rings – The Rings of PowerThe reveal video is available here, along with some commentary from J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay give a clear sense of where this new saga will begin, and how it culls directly from Tolkien’s work. Amazon literally created the excitement for their series to get it off to a great start. The Rings of PowerTitle treatment with molten steel and redwood ravines. (And wildly, the 4K slo-mo video of metal artist Landon Ryan’s work was shot for Amazon by Klaus Obermeyer and the legendary Douglas Trumbull.)

The teaser also features what sounds like Clark delivering a speech Blanchett did back in the original movies, the words of Tolkien’s “Ring Verse” tracing the lineage of the various rings through the hands of elves, dwarves, men, and the Dark Lord himself. It seems that this passage is in sync with McKay’s vision for the series.

“This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien’s other classics. The Rings of Power unites all the major stories of Middle-earth’s Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord, the epic tale of Numenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men,” Payne and McKay said in a joint statement. “Until now, audiences have only seen onscreen the story of the One Ring — but before there was one, there were many … and we’re excited to share the epic story of them all.”

Brush up on those appendices tucked away in the back of your copy of Tolkien’s trilogy. McKay, Payne, and Gollum are being replaced by Gandalf and Gollum and a host of other hobbits. Callum Greene and Lindsey Weber are the executive producers. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado, and producers Ron Ames and Christopher Newman. Wayne Che Yip is co-executive producer and directs along with Bayona and Charlotte Brändström.

Poised as a “multi-season drama” — and how it could it not be at this scale, with this much ground to cover? — The Lord of the Rings – The Rings of Power Starts on September 2.