Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power returns next month for its third season. Prime Video revealed a teaser earlier this year at San Diego Comic-Con, but we haven’t heard much about the new season otherwise. We now have the full official trailer, and it’s jam-packed with a rising Sauron, who intends to conquer Middle-earth with his army of Orcs – with the fractured opposition of elves, dwarves and men scrambling to find the best way to stop him. We also meet the human men who will become the Ringwraiths; the showrunners nicknamed them the Nazgnagol (“Servant of the Rings”).
(Some spoilers for the first two seasons below.)
Prime Video has made a major investment in The Rings of Power when he acquired the rights to the source material from the Tolkien estate, even committing to several seasons in advance. S3 takes place seven years after the events of S2 and opens when the war between the elves and Sauron is at its height. According to the official synopsis:
In the third season, Middle Earth is at war. Five years have passed since the fall of Eregion. Sauron’s armies roamed the entire world, conquering all in their path. Only a few isolated pockets stand between the Dark Lord and total victory: Khazad-dǔm, where the Dwarves are now locked deep within their mountain halls, and the elven kingdoms of Lindon and Rivendell, which are protected by their Three Rings.
But deep in the lands of Mordor, in his newly completed tower of Barad-dûr, the Dark Lord works day and night, obsessed with harnessing a power that will bring the last of his enemies to their knees: One ring to rule them all. Now all the free peoples of Middle-earth – dwarves, elves, men and wizards – must find a way to come together in a race against time to stop Sauron from achieving his goal of total domination of all life.
We’re also getting some new characters this season, including Jamie Campbell Bower as Galadriel’s (Morfydd Clark) long-lost husband, Celeborn. Zubin Varla will play Khamul the Oriental of Rhun; Eddie Marsan will play Thrain, older brother of King Durin IV (Owain Arthur); Andrew Richardson will play Anarion, youngest son of Elendil (Lloyd Owen) and brother of Isildur (Maxim Baldry); and Adam Young will play an Orc named Marnukh, who “may not be what he seems.” Oh, and none other than Simon Pegg will voice the fiery Balrog.
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