Everything to know about the new Lord of the Rings series

This yr, Amazon is taking an enormous swing. Come this fall, they’ll formally drop their blockbuster new series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

That subtitle is revealing, of course, however all in all Amazon has been fairly cagey about particulars on the series. Aside from a handful of calculated drops, they haven’t launched a lot by manner of explainers on the series, or the way it’ll fill in the blanks on a lesser recognized time in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth historical past. No doubt it’s because the present is a bit of a big gamble, even for a streaming service backed by one of the largest corporations ever. Amazon desires to show that it will possibly sort out large status exhibits, whereas additionally making a run at the fantasy crown that HBO scored with Game of Thrones.

As such, there’s a way that The Rings of Power rollout is heavy on deliberation. Still, the data has began to stack up, and does inform us some issues about what the series hopes to be. Here’s all the things we know about the story and historical past of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

When is The Rings of Power launch date?

The present premieres Sept. 2. Amazon Prime Video has not but introduced what number of episodes will drop directly.

Where’s The Rings of Power trailer?

Right right here! The newest trailer debuted at San Diego Comic-Con and featured the most in-depth take a look at the Middle-earth present but. 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 mentioned in a Q&A at SDCC that when viewers tune into the present they may “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 solid?

Image: Amazon Studios

Though the character lineup was initially restricted to only a series of character posters of purely hand close-ups, new particulars have stuffed in all through the yr of who’s enjoying who.

We’ve lengthy recognized that Morfydd Clark (Saint Maud) was solid as a youthful Galadriel, who’ll be looking down collaborators of the not too long ago defeated first nice Dark Lord, Morgoth. Along for the experience 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 acquainted faces go, The Rings of Power will function a younger Elrond (Robert Aramayo), an “ambitious” architect and politician who’s rising to prominence. We’ll additionally get to see Isildur (Maxim Baldry), lengthy earlier than he cuts the one ring to rule all of them off Sauron’s hand. And guide followers will acknowledge the names of Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), the elven smith who was tricked into educating Sauron how to make rings; and Gil-Galad (Benjamin Walker), the High King of the Elves.

Grid View

• 
  
  
  

  
  
  Photo: Ben Rothstein/Amazon Studios
  

• 
  
  
  

  
  
  Photo: MATT GRACE/AMAZON STUDIOS.
  

• 
  
  
  

  
  
  Photo: BEN ROTHSTEIN/AMAZON STUDIOS
  

• 
  
  
  

  
  
  Photo: Amazon Studios
  

• 
  
  
  

  
  
  Photo: Ben Rothstein/Amazon Studios
  

Megan Richards and Markella Kavenagh shall be enjoying Poppy Proudfellow and Marigold Brandyfoot, respectively — “two lovable, curious harfoots,” per Vanity Fair’s February function on the series. Dylan Smith will even play a harfoot character, Largo Brandyfoot, presumably of some relation to Marigold. The journal reviews that the showrunners have constructed out a pastoral, secretive harfoot society to allow them to have a “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead story in the margins of the bigger quests.”

Also introduced is Simon Merrells, enjoying an authentic character referred to as Trevyn. In mid-April, Amazon revealed the identify of a new character, Theo, who’s performed by Tyroe Muhafidinis.

Photo: Ben Rothstein/Prime Video

Then there’s the relaxation of the present’s solid: Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Arrow), Lenny Henry (Broadchurch), Geoff Morrell (The Underground Railroad), and Augustus Prew (Kick-Ass 2) — their character names had been all being saved beneath a shroud of secrecy.

Is Anson Boon enjoying Sauron?

Yes, no, possibly — all of the above, actually. While Anson Boon’s ominously lurking character actually will get his share of moments in the SDCC 2022 trailer, he’s additionally removed from confirmed as the determine that audiences know as Sauron.

Image: Amazon Prime Video

But although Amazon hasn’t confirmed the character he’s enjoying, it would possibly nonetheless be Sauron, who at the time this story takes place continues to be ready to shapeshift. During this era, he’s described in the books as the “Lord of Gifts,” and as having a good (that means pale, but in addition fairly) look, all the higher to obtain his dastardly goals. Boon’s profile actually might match the invoice.

But with Amazon nonetheless holding again key particulars of how the first season of Rings of Power will go, it looks as if it’s a bit too early to name.

When is The Rings of Power set?

This one has a comparatively easy reply: the Second Age. In the Tolkien universe, meaning Rings of Power falls nicely earlier than the timeline of the Peter Jackson motion pictures, which happen in the Third Age (primarily). But tons of issues occur in the Second Age to arrange the occasions of the most important Lord of the Rings books and films. The series will go into these, together with the centuries main up to the Last Alliance of Elves and Men and the downfall of Sauron.

More virtually, this implies The Rings of Power is not going to be specializing in most of the beloved characters from the authentic trilogy, because it’s nicely earlier than their time. Considering every age covers about a thousand or so years of time, it’s truly fairly outstanding that we get any overlap in characters in any respect. You received’t get to see Frodo, Bilbo, Aragorn, or Legolas in the present, however there are some recurring characters — though they’re a lot youthful than we’ve come to know them.

What is the plot of The Rings of Power?

Per Vanity Fair, the present 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 earlier than the occasions of the relaxation of the Lord of the Rings series, Galadriel is main the cost towards the remnants of the darkish lord’s acolytes, significantly his apprentice Sauron, who’s off the grid someplace.

As she tells Elrond in the first full trailer for the series, she has been modified by her time at battle. Which battle? In the books, it will be the millennia-long battle towards Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, amongst the oldest beings in the universe. In Tolkien’s lore, Middle-earth’s Second Age started after the mixed forces of elves, Numenorean people, and the Valar — Middle-earth’s pantheon of protector gods — defeated Morgoth’s armies and imprisoned the darkish god exterior of actuality.

The Rings of Power seems to choose up with all the things that occurred subsequent, regarding these elves, the males of Numenor, the gods, and the remnants of Morgoth’s servants — and Galadriel seems satisfied that they are often discovered and have to be routed out. We know she begins adrift at sea, the place she meets Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), “a fugitive from his own past” and a new character launched in the present. Eventually it will all lead to the most important occasion of the series’ story and the prequel itself: the forging of the rings of energy.

“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 instructed 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.”

What Tolkien guide did they base Rings of Power on?

Image: Amazon Studios

Unlike the Lord of the Rings motion pictures or the spin-off Hobbit trilogy, The Rings of Power aren’t based mostly on a selected guide — per se. Instead, the story builds on some of Tolkien’s Appendices, 150 pages or so of post-script that go deep on 1000’s of years of historical past. When Tolkien’s household put the rights to the Appendices (and what the writer referred to as “the Second Age of Middle-earth”) up for public sale, Amazon received the rights for the low, low value of $250 million.

The mission now’s to flip the timelines, genealogies, and different histories included in the Appendices right into a story that comes just a few thousand years earlier than the time interval of any of the Lord of the Rings motion pictures.

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

Where are the hobbits?

As McKay instructed 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

So the showrunners see the harfoots as a manner to embrace the hobbits with out stepping on any (furry) toes. And as Polygon’s Susana Polo factors out, harfoots are a racial precursor to the fashionable hobbit, and so they seem to play an necessary position in the narrative:

All this time we’ve been listening to the trailer’s solely dialogue, a feminine 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 talking, we lower to a shot of actress Megan Richards, which is modifying language for: This is the character who mentioned that factor. So, both she actually does say that factor in the series, or the editors of this teaser need us to suppose she mentioned that factor.

OK however Gandalf is necessary and outdated — will Gandalf present up in Rings of Power?

Gandalf — together with different notable wizards, like Saruman — are actually technically on the desk. Long story quick, Tolkien’s wizards are principally demigods born shortly after the starting of time who dress themselves as outdated males. Their objective on Middle-earth was to observe and fight the rise of Sauron.

So sure, they’re alive throughout the time interval of The Rings of Power. But when you dig deep in your Tolkien lore, you’ll discover they had been on a distinct continent for the most half. So whereas Middle-earth’s gods solely started to ship wizards to fight Sauron’s return throughout the Third Age in Tolkien’s canon, McKay and Payne might feasibly discover an excuse for a cameo or two, had been they so inclined.

How a lot did The Rings of Power value?

On prime of the $250 million sum to purchase the rights (which additionally permit the Tolkien household to retain enter on the course of the series), it’s not precisely clear. Vanity Fair cites their manufacturing prices by way of the New Zealand manufacturing paperwork at $462 million, offset by a $108 million tax rebate. But with a advertising and marketing marketing campaign and subsequent seasons, the journal guesses it’s north of a $1 billion price ticket for the series to date.

Where does the Lord of the Rings anime slot in?

Image: Weta Workshop/Warner Bros. Pictures

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, the feature-length anime introduced in 2021, is slated for an April 12, 2024 launch date. But the Warner Bros. film has nothing to do with the Amazon series, past being set in the identical universe.

The War of the Rohirrim, a joint venture with Warner Bros. Animation and New Line Cinema, is directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Blade Runner: Black Lotus) and govt produced by Philippa Boyens (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit trilogies). It will inform the story of the “life and bloodsoaked times of one of Middle-earth’s most legendary figures; the mighty King of Rohan — Helm Hammerhand.”