It’s the moment we’ve been waiting for ever since the new Lord of the Rings TV show, The Rings of Power, was announced years ago. The main teaser for the new show is finally out! While two other short trailers were released back in February and last week, this one is the official and most likely final preview before the series debuts on September 2. There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s get started!
Familiar Faces
The first person we see in the trailer is a character that isn’t new to Tolkien fans: the elf Galadriel, played this time by Morfydd Clark instead of Cate Blanchett. She’s not happy, being told by other elves to give up the fight while she knows that “the Enemy” is still out there. One of these other elves is Elrond, also played by a different actor, Robert Aramayo. There are more characters that Tolkien readers know, too, but have never been portrayed onscreen, such as the Númenorean warrior Isildur. We also see glimpses of Elendil, the king from Númenor and ancestor of Aragorn, and Durin, the dwarf king whose crown will one day be inherited by Thorin in The Hobbit.
Who Are The Harfoots?
Speaking of Hobbits, they’re in the trailer too- but they’re not the quiet Shire residents we know from The Lord of the Rings. One of the biggest groups of Hobbit ancestors, the Harfoots, look like they’ll play a big part in The Rings of Power. Two especially important roles seem to be Nori, watching an ominous meteor come down from the sky, and Poppy, who tells the others confidently, “We’re safe.” Right. The Harfoots are the ancestors of the Baggins family, so maybe we’ll see some kind of connection to Bilbo and Frodo. Also, they originally lived near the Misty Mountains, so it’s likely they’ll interact with the dwarves and Prince Durin at some point in the show.
New Middle-Earth Settings
There are a few places in this trailer that we’ve seen before, like the mines of Moria and the south country of Men, but a lot of the action seems to take place on the island kingdom of Númenor. We see people sailing into a Númenorean city, and ice caves and palaces never seen before in a screen adaptation. Believe it or not, even the giant trees in the trailer are the ancestors of something in Lord of the Rings. One of these trees, the sacred White Tree of Númenor, is destroyed by Sauron’s corruption but its seed grows in Minas Tirith. And now that we’ve mentioned Sauron, where is he in the trailer?
“Darkness will march…”
The villain of The Lord of the Rings, Sauron, isn’t in the trailer, at least not officially. But the story of the Fall of Númenor and the Second Age revolves around the creation of the Rings of Power and Sauron gaining power, so it’s pretty clear he’ll be a part of the show. While we don’t see him clearly in the trailer, there’s plenty of other “darkness” to look for. Galadriel tells Elrond, “You have not seen what I have seen”, as the trailer shows us a horrifying fiery scene that might be the work of Morgoth, the first Dark Lord before Sauron and the creator of Mordor.
Later on, Gil-galad, another important elf, says to the others, “Darkness will march over the face of the Earth.” As he states this, all the kingdoms of Middle-Earth fight against something until we see the mysterious character The Stranger. He’s climbing out of a meteor where a fiery Eye appears around him. Seems like we might know who the Enemy is after all.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power comes out on Prime Video on September 2. Read more about your favorite books, TV shows and movies here on Bookstr!