The Lord of the Rings TV show is just months away, more and more is being revealed as we get closer to the epic fantasy series finally launching. There’s finally a trailer, along with first look images, character posters, and that all-important title. The show is officially called The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and if the show turns out to be half as epic as that name, Amazon Prime will possibly have the best show in 2022.
So far, we know that Amazon has rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, as well as the appendices to The Return of the King which give a brief overview of the Second Age of Middle-Earth. While the show might not be able to directly use Tolkien’s other works, such as The Silmarillion and The Unfinished Tales, they are still required to remain within the framework of his pre-existing writings.
The show is set in the Second Age, a very long time before Peter Jackson’s movies. Galadriel and Elrond do form part of the line-up, but they’re played by different actors this time around since they’re younger in the show. Here are some things that we are really excided about:
1. The Life and Times of Galadriel
In Tolkien’s original works, Galadriel was said to have been a warrior in her youth. It seems that we might get to see the Elven maiden in action scenes on The Rings of Power, as she grows and develops into the more royal elf we know from the classic trilogy.
From what we know of Galadriel’s history in Tolkien lore, she spent much of the Second Age with her husband Celeborn and daughter Celebrían, traveled through Khazad-dum, and suspected that Annatar, who taught the elves to make the Rings of Power, was up to no good.
2. Elrond’s Rise to Prominence
Elrond is set to be pretty young in The Rings of Power, and by pretty young we mean about 50. But, just for context on how long Elves live, Galadriel has been around for at least 2,000 years by the time the series is set to begin (she’s over 8,000 by the time The Lord of the Rings ends), so Elrond is just a baby by comparison.
A Half-Elf, Elrond was born to two parents who were half-Man and half-Elf by lineage. It’s during the Second Age, when The Rings of Power is set, that Elrond establishes Rivendell, and at the end of it tries to persuade Isildur to throw the One Ring into the fires of Mordor. Another interesting tidbit about Elrond is that, in Tolkien’s work, he actually marries Galadriel’s daughter.
3. Moria at Its Finest
Our main Dwarf in The Rings of Power is set to be Durin IV, the ruler of Khazad-dum and wielder of one of the Dwarven Rings of Power. We’ve only ever heard Gimli and members of Thorin’s company speak of the “golden age” of the Dwarves and their kingdom. The show promises Dwarves, and Khazad-dum itself, at their peak, long before they abandoned Moria to the Balrog and the Orcs took over.
4. The Forging of the Rings of Power
With a title like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, it’s pretty clear that the actual Rings of Power are going to be involved in the plot somehow. As stated before, according to Tolkien, Sauron-as-Annatar eventually helps the Elven-smiths, including Celebrimbor, forge the Rings of Power. These Rings were meant to help keep the world from falling further into darkness, though Sauron obviously had other plans.
After Celebrimbor and Sauron forged 9 Rings for Men and 7 for Dwarves, Sauron left to go construct his own “master Ring” in Mordor. Naturally, the Elves continued to construct more Rings of Power, making three more for themselves, Rings free from Sauron’s influence and therefore incorruptible. While Sauron used the Rings of Men to enslave them, turning them into the Nazgûl (including the Witch-King), the Dwarves would prove resistant to his evils, though it would make them a bit more greedy and wrathful.
Witnessing the making of the Rings, and their use by Men, Dwarves, and Elves, is certainly something to look forward to this September, especially since we haven’t seen many of them in action before.
5. Sauron’s Attempts to Rule
We’ve all seen Sauron’s final attempts to gain hold over Middle-Earth and its inhabitants in The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit trilogy even chronicles some beginnings of that, but outside his defeat at Isildur’s hand, we hardly get to witness any of Sauron’s previous attempts to rule with the One Ring. From what we’ve heard of The Rings of Power so far, it seems to imply that Sauron is on the move, and working behind the scenes to manipulate world kingdoms.
It’s worth noting that in Tolkien’s work, during this time, Sauron and his Dark Lord (that’s right, he has a boss) known as Morgoth (or Melkor) have been defeated before. While Morgoth never returns after this defeat, having been thrust into an abyss by the Valar until final judgment, Sauron keeps making his way back into the story. It’s Sauron, under the shape-shifted guise of Annatar, who teaches the Elves to make the Rings of Power in the first place, and it’s he that encourages the Númenóreans to go to war, resulting in their downfall (and the destruction of his own form).
With this in mind, there’s a lot that The Rings of Power could do to show Sauron’s slow corruption of Men and his creation of the One Ring in Mordor, as well as his attempts to rule with force. Either way, there’s quite a bit for Dark Lord to do here, especially given that he still has a body at this point. This will no doubt be a different version of Sauron than the sentient eye we’re used to, one who will be able to better engage with the rest of the cast, and when you think about the implications, that’s pretty exciting!