With the recent title announcement video from Amazon Prime, we now know that the next big Middle Earth saga will be known as The Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power, so for anyone wondering what is it about, here’s everything we know so far. This will take you through when is it set, along with the story synopsis overview to give you more information about the show.
If that isn’t enough, Amazon Prime has also confirmed the release date for The Rings of Power Season 1 and while it’s still a fair way off you don’t have years to wait. It’ll be arriving on the 2nd September 2022, with new episodes coming out weekly, so it looks set to be one of the biggest TV productions this year, giving us a big hit of Miruvor for the end of summer.
AdvertisementIn addition to the date, the cast has also been confirmed, but without details for the roles that they play, so we should get more on this with the arrival of the full trailer. There aren’t that many big names included in the cast with Peter Mullan (Mum, Tyrannosaur), Nazanin Boniadi (Homeland, Ben-Hur), Morfydd Clarke (His Dark Materials, Dracula) and Lenny Henry (Doctor Who) being the most recognisable, so there are bound to be some new faces that are going to be much more well known come September.
When is The Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power set
The events of The Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power are set during the Second Age, which takes place thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It’s a fairly chunky section of the history of Middle Earth, but in general it encompasses the rise of Sauron as he schemes to set himself up as the ultimate power.
AdvertisementHowever, we know from the short story synopsis from Amazon Prime that Season 1 will begin at a time of peace, which places the events towards the beginning of the Second Age. This puts it roughly 3,400 years before the Third Age started, and then there’s another 2,900 years from that point until the time when Gandalf set off with Bilbo to the Lonely Mountains, so that’s more than 6,000 years before The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey.
We’re not expecting the whole of the Second Age to be covered in the first season, but the large body of time and events means that the series could run for many seasons with so much history to cover. It’ll be interesting to see how much of the story is covered in the episodes of Season 1 and how much is saved for later seasons, but the reality is that they could easily cover a single year and have more than enough actual and newly imagined story to fill it out.
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What is it about
AdvertisementAs mentioned above, The Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power begins at a time of peace, but the story synopsis continues that it will see the re-emergence of evil in Middle Earth. As such, it will show us how Sauron schemed to cover the continent in darkness, but during most of the Second Age the Dark Lord was a very different being than the one we know from The Lord of the Rings.
At this time he’s the former chief lieutenant of Morgoth, an immortal spirit with god-like power, who was defeated at the end of the First Age. He is a lesser immortal himself, known as a Maiar, and he uses the ongoing influence of Morgoth to regain power, twisting the men, dwarfs and elves to do his bidding.
The details from the story synopsis also includes talk of great powers being forged with kingdoms rising and falling, so it seems like the opening season could be fairly chunky in terms of the timescale that its taking on. If that isn’t enough evidence, the name alone means that everything is leading up to the creation of the “One Ring to rule them all and in the darkness bind them”.
However, this could take place over a number of seasons, with Season 2 already confirmed to film in the UK in 2022, but in the very least, we should see Sauron in his more human form, before his first downfall and transition into the Dark Lord. It should also include his initial manipulation of the Elves in disguise as Annatar to teach them how to make Rings of Power.
This resulted in the creation of seven rings for the Dwarves, nine for the kings of men, three for the Elves and then at Barad-dûr (The Dark Tower), his new seat of power, he made himself the One Ring forged in the fires of Mount Doom. With this, he was able to turn the kings into the Ringwraithes and wage war on the Elves.
It’s still unknown in terms of how much of the Second Age The Rings of Power will be about, but the mention of kingdoms rising and falling could be a reference to Númenor, which is also mentioned in the story details from Amazon Prime as one of the key settings. If the plot is going to cover the fall of Númenor then that will see the culmination of the Dark Years war with the Elves with Sauron’s defeat and the arrival of the Númenorians during the final battle.
AdvertisementThe fall of the kingdom then takes place centuries after this following the full capitulation of Sauron’s forces, and his capture by the last king, Ar-Pharazôn. Once close enough to his target, Sauron turns them to his bidding and converts them to the Cult of Melkor (the original name of Morgoth), renewing his war with the Elves, but this time with the men of Númenor on his side.
This would then include the voyage of Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion to Aman to beseech the God-like Valar to intervene. In so doing, the world was changed dramatically and Sauron was turned into the Dark Lord, but there’s plenty more in the Second Age to follow up in later seasons, even if the opening episodes of The Ring of Power take things right the way up to the destruction of Númenor and the reforming of the world.
After this, there’s the second rise of Sauron, which culminates in the siege of Barad-dûr, which is partially covered in the flashbacks during The Fellowship of the Ring when Isildur cuts the ring from Sauron’s hand. However, looking at everything that Amazon Prime has said about the show, it seems like the story references might be about the overarching series as a whole, as opposed to the opening season.
If that’s the case then we may well see everything mentioned above batched up as a trilogy, similar to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings films. With Season 2 already confirmed, it may even run as long as Game of Thrones with so much history to cover, but we’ll have to wait for the trailer to see how much is included in Season 1.
We’ll update things here as more details are confirmed about the release date, episodes and runtime. You can also check out our TV news section to see other big releases, or visit the Amazon Prime Video website to see more on The Rings of Power at https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/storefront/.
