Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Trailer, cast, and more

Amazon will be making a huge move this year. Come this fall, they’ll officially drop their blockbuster new series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The subtitle of the series is quite interesting, although Amazon has been very cautious about releasing details. Aside from a handful of calculated drops, they haven’t released much by way of explainers on the series, or how it’ll fill in the blanks on a lesser known time in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth history. This is no doubt because it is quite a risk for an streaming service that is supported by one of largest corporations in the world. Amazon hopes to demonstrate that it is capable of handling large prestige shows and also compete for the fantasy title that HBO won with. Game of Thrones.

As such, there’s a sense that The Rings of PowerThe rollout process is heavily deliberative. The information is starting to accumulate, which tells us a lot. SomeThese are the goals of this series. Here’s everything we know about the story and history of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

What date is The Rings of Power due for release?

September 2nd will be the premiere date for this show. Amazon Prime Video does not know how many episodes will be available at one time.

Where’s The Rings of Power trailer?

Here! San Diego Comic-Con’s latest trailer featured the deepest look yet at Middle-earth. As is ominously teased by Queen Regent Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to Galadriel: “It is here, the moment we feared.”

Of that line, Addai-Robinson said in a Q&A at SDCC that when viewers tune into the show they will “know exactly what it means.”

“In terms of where we find Queen Regent Míriel,” Addai-Robinson continued, “there is that foreboding sense of, you know, something is about to happen, that sense of worry. And so we see this civilization at its peak, but there are those rumblings in the streets and just this sense of impending — you know, maybe it’s doom. But that sense that something is happening.”

Who’s in The Rings of Power cast?

Image: Amazon Studios

Though the character lineup was initially limited to just a series of character posters of purely hand close-ups, new details have filled in throughout the year of who’s playing who.

We’ve long known that Morfydd Clark (Saint Maud) was cast as a younger Galadriel, who’ll be hunting down collaborators of the recently defeated first great Dark Lord, Morgoth. Along for the ride are Prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur), scion of the underground kingdom of Khazad-dûm (aka Moria); Disa (Sophia Nomvete), a dwarven princess; and Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova), a newly invented elven character in a forbidden relationship with human village healer Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi).

As familiar faces go, The Rings of Power will feature a young Elrond (Robert Aramayo), an “ambitious” architect and politician who’s rising to prominence. We’ll also get to see Isildur (Maxim Baldry), long before he cuts the one ring to rule them all off Sauron’s hand. Fans of books will be familiar with Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), a sham elvensmith, who tricked Sauron into making rings. Gil-Galad was also known as Benjamin Walker, High King of Elfs.

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Megan Richards and Markella Kavenagh will be playing Poppy Proudfellow and Marigold Brandyfoot, respectively — “two lovable, curious harfoots,” per Vanity Fair’s February feature on the series. Dylan Smith will play Largo Brandyfoot (a character that is harfoot), presumably in some way related to Marigold. The magazine reports that the showrunners have built out a pastoral, secretive harfoot society so they can have a “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Both Dead story in the margins of the bigger quests.”

Simon Merrells was also announced as the new Trevyn character. In mid-April, Amazon revealed the name of a new character, Theo, who’s played by Tyroe Muhafidinis.

Photo: Ben Rothstein/Prime Video

Then there’s the rest of the show’s cast: Cynthia Addai-Robinson (ArrowLenny Henry, (BroadchurchGeoff Morrell (Underground RailroadAugustus Prew (Kick-Ass 2) — their character names were all being kept under a shroud of secrecy.

Anson Boon plays Sauron

Yes, no, maybe — all of the above, really. While Anson Boon’s ominously lurking character certainly gets his share of moments in the SDCC 2022 trailer, he’s also far from confirmed as the figure that audiences know as Sauron.

Image: Amazon Prime Video

But though Amazon hasn’t confirmed the character he’s playing, it maySauron is still alive and able to formshift at the time of this story. During this period, he’s described in the books as the “Lord of Gifts,” and as having a fair (meaning pale, but also pretty) appearance, all the better to achieve his dastardly aims. Boon’s profile certainly CouldYou will fit the bill.

Amazon is still withholding key information about how the initial season will be filmed. Rings of Power will go, it seems like it’s a bit too early to call.

What year is The Rings of Power released?

The answer to this question is simple: it’s the Second Age. That is the Tolkien Universe. Rings of Power It is well ahead of the timeframe for Peter Jackson’s movies which takes place in the Third Age (primarily). Many things take place in the Second Age, which is crucial for the setting up of the Lord of the Rings movies and books. They will include the hundreds leading up to and ending with the Last Alliance of Elves and Men and Sauron’s fall.

It is also a practical term. The Rings of Power will not be focusing on most of the beloved characters from the original trilogy, as it’s well before their time. Considering each age covers about a thousand or so years of time, it’s actually pretty remarkable that we get any overlap in characters at all. You won’t get to see Frodo, Bilbo, Aragorn, or Legolas in the show, but there are some recurring characters — although they’re much younger than we’ve come to know them.

Is there a plot to The Rings of Power’s story?

Per Vanity Fair, the show will “juggle 22 stars and multiple story lines, from deep within the dwarf mines of the Misty Mountains to the high politics of the elven kingdom of Lindon and the humans’ powerful, Atlantis-like island, Númenor.”

About 2,000 years before the events of the rest of the Lord of the Rings series, Galadriel is leading the charge against the remnants of the dark lord’s acolytes, particularly his apprentice Sauron, who is off the grid somewhere.

Elrond is told by she in her first trailer that war has changed her. What war was it? According to the literature, this would be the millennia long struggle against Morgoth — the first Dark Lord among the oldest beings of the universe. In Tolkien’s lore, Middle-earth’s Second Age began after the combined forces of elves, Numenorean humans, and the Valar — Middle-earth’s pantheon of protector gods — defeated Morgoth’s armies and imprisoned the dark god outside of reality.

The Rings of Power appears to pick up with everything that happened next, concerning those elves, the men of Numenor, the gods, and the remnants of Morgoth’s servants — and Galadriel appears convinced that they can be found and must be routed out. We know she starts adrift at sea, where she meets Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), “a fugitive from his own past” and a new character introduced in the show. Eventually this will all lead to the main event of the series’ story and the prequel itself: the forging of the rings of power.

“Rings for the elves, rings for dwarves, rings for men, and then the one ring Sauron used to deceive them all,” co-showrunner Patrick McKay told Vanity Fair. “It’s the story of the creation of all those powers, where they came from, and what they did to each of those races.”

Which Tolkien book inspired Rings of Power?

Image: Amazon Studios

This is not the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit spin-off trilogy. The Rings of Power are not baSed on a specific book — per se. Instead, the story builds on some of Tolkien’s Appendices, 150 pages or so of post-script that go deep on thousands of years of history. When Tolkien’s family put the rights to the Appendices (and what the author referred to as “the Second Age of Middle-earth”) up for auction, Amazon won the rights for the low, low cost of $250 million.

Now, the mission is to transform the Appendices’ timelines, genealogies and other histories into a story that takes place a few thousand year before any of the Lord of the Rings films.

“Can we come up with the novel Tolkien never wrote and do it as the mega-event series that could only happen now?” McKay asked when talking to Vanity Fair.

Are there any hobbits around?

As McKay told Vanity Fair in February: “One of the very specific things the texts say is that hobbits never did anything historic or noteworthy before the Third Age. But really, does it feel like Middle-earth if you don’t have hobbits or something like hobbits in it?”

Image: Amazon Studios

Thus, the showrunners consider the harfoots to be a way for the hobbits to have their say without having to tread on (hairy) feet. And as Polygon’s Susana Polo points out, harfoots are a racial precursor to the modern hobbit, and they appear to play an important role in the narrative:

All this time we’ve been listening to the trailer’s only dialogue, a female voice saying “Have you ever wondered … what else is out there? There’s wonders in this world beyond our wandering. I can feel it.” As she finishes speaking, we cut to a shot of actress Megan Richards, which is editing language for: This is the character who said that thing. Or, the teaser editors wanted us to think that she does actually say it in the series. ThinkShe said it.

OK but Gandalf is important and old — will Gandalf show up in Rings of Power?

Gandalf — along with other notable wizards, like Saruman — are certainly TechnicallyIt’s all on the table. Long story short, Tolkien’s wizards are basically demigods born shortly after the beginning of time who clothe themselves as old men. They were there to combat Sauron’s rise.

So yes, they’re alive during the time period of The Rings of Power But if you dig deep in your Tolkien lore, you’ll find they were on a different continent for the most part. So while Middle-earth’s gods only began to send wizards to combat Sauron’s return during the Third Age in Tolkien’s canon, McKay and Payne could feasibly find an excuse for a cameo or two, were they so inclined.

What was the cost of The Rings of Power?

On top of the $250 million sum to acquire the rights (which also allow the Tolkien family to retain input on the direction of the series), it’s not exactly clear. Vanity Fair quotes their production costs as $462 million using New Zealand production documents. This is offset by a $108,000,000 tax rebate. But with a marketing campaign and subsequent seasons, the magazine guesses it’s north of a $1 billion price tag for the series so far.

What is the role of the Lord of the Rings animation?

Images: Weta Workshop/Warner Bros. Pictures

The War of the Rohirrim: The Lord of the RingsThe feature-length animated movie, titled “The Anime of the Century”, was announced back in 2021 and is scheduled for release on April 12, 2024. The Warner Bros. film has no connection to the Amazon series. It is set in the same universe.

The War of the RohirrimThis joint effort with Warner Bros. was called. Animation and New Line Cinema are directed by Kenji Kamiyama.Blade Runner: Black LotusPhilippa Boyens also produced executive production.The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit trilogies). It will tell the story of the “life and bloodsoaked times of one of Middle-earth’s most legendary figures; the mighty King of Rohan — Helm Hammerhand.”