There may be no Hot Sauron Summer this year — but Ring Forging Fall beckons. Yes, Prime Video’s billion-dollar high fantasy big swing The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power is back back back this November for what promises to be an epic Season 3 as Charlie Vickers’ Dark Lord Sauron prepares to finally forge The One Ring and plunge Middle-earth into darkness. Now, at the end of a week in which Empire revealed our new world-exclusive Rings Of Power issue — teasing proto-Ringwraiths, revealing Jamie Campbell Bower’s Celeborn, and heralding Daniel Weyman’s arrival proper as Gandalf The Wise — Amazon has used its SDCC Hall H slot to debut the first trailer for J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay’s darkest season yet. Speak friend, enter, and check out the teaser below;
“Now is the mighty hour come,” purrs Vickers’ Dark Lord as lightning cracks over his Mordor stronghold of Barad-dûr in this first full trailer for The Rings Of Power Season 3. And, honestly, you can’t say he doesn’t have a point. In this jam-packed 99 second teaser of the season ahead, we see Sauron getting Ringy with it, Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel and her newly returned husband Celeborn getting jiggy (well, chaste-kissy) with it, and all of Middle-earth — from the forces of evil to our Elven, Dwarf, and human heroes — bracing for the battle that is to come. And that’s just what we see in the trailer (scored impeccably, it must be said, once more by the one and only Bear McCreary.)
Yes, as well as the tantalising new teaser for ROP‘s return, the series’ Hall H panel — moderated by High King Gil-galad himself, Benjamin Walker — also revealed some key new players entering the fray in Season 3. Among the highlights are Eddie Marsan as King Durin IV’s older brother, Thrain (we called it!); Andrew Richardson as Elendil’s younger son and Isildur’s brother, Anarion; Adam Young as Marnûkh, a mysterious Orc ‘who may not be what he seems’; and — brace yourselves for this one — Simon Pegg as the voice of the Balrog. No, really!
The official synopsis for The Rings Of Power Season 3 reads: “In Season Three, Middle-earth is at war. Five years have passed since the fall of Eregion. Sauron’s armies have marched across the whole of the world, conquering all in their path. Only a few isolated pockets stand between the Dark Lord and total victory – Khazad-dûm, where the Dwarves are now sealed deep within their mountain halls, and the elven realms of Lindon and Rivendell, which are protected by their Three Rings. But deep in the land of Mordor, in his newly completed tower of Barad-dûr, the Dark Lord toils 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 alike – must find a way to come together, in a race against time to prevent Sauron from achieving his goal of utter domination of all life… “
So there we have it. Momentum is building as The Rings Of Power barrels towards The Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Payne and McKay’s sprawling fantasy saga having now hit the midway point of its planned five-season arc. The threads that weave together Amazon’s series and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium grow stronger by the moment. And The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season 3 is officially set to debut — Simon Pegg-voiced Balrog and all — on Prime Video on 11 November, with the first four episodes dropping all at once, the next two on 18 November, and the final pair on 25 November. All of which is to say that the precious (preciousss…) is coming. And we are ready for it.
