Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power season 1 left me pretty cool. As a fan of Tolkien’s fantasy world, I thought it had its moments, but a lot of it felt like a waste. Season 2, based on the trailers at least, feels like it’s shaping up to be something else entirely. A second look at the upcoming episodes shows where all the action and drama that fans missed the first time around ended up.
Rings of Power’s second season 2 trailer shows Middle-earth heading to war as Sauron sets his plans in motion and unlikely alliances are forged. On one end, we get big setpiece battles full of orcs and fireballs, and on the other we get an emotional descent into wraith-ness from Charles Edwards’s Celebrimbor. Things wrap up with Galadriel confronting Sauron directly, his crown between them.
Longtime Lord of the Rings fans will spot all types of references to what will become major plot devices in the later Peter Jackson trilogy, including Eagles, Balrogs, and Palantírs. The trailer also shows Adar, the dark elf and orc leader, teaming up with Galadriel while also foreshadowing the Eye of Sauron that will come to dominate the not-yet-existent land of Mordor in the later ages.
Rings of Power’s season 2 kicks of on Amazon Prime on August 29 with three episodes released all at once, followed by weekly airings through the rest of September. The first season made the latest Lord of the Rings screen adaptation the most expensive TV show ever, which didn’t stop some viewers from nitpicking cheap-looking costumes and an overall look that didn’t necessarily hold up relative to the movies, despite the much bigger budget.
But Amazon has been riding high in the streaming wars ever since Fallout took off earlier this year. With each new trailer, Rings of Power’s second season looks like it’s also shaping up to be more than just another licensed IP boondoggle.