Galadriel has seen things. And with the latest trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, we get a glimpse of what the elven queen has seen. It’s not good! But the trailer is interesting, if still fairly vague about what, exactly, Amazon’s epic and expensive new series is really about.
Darkness. Threats. The clash between the past and the present. Power. Messy hair and grubby faces for the harfoots, the hobbits’ ancestors. Some very nice horses. Dwarves forging things. A comet. And Elrond (Robert Aramayo), somewhat obnoxiously telling Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) to pack it in. “It’s over,” he says, in a tone that makes me want to push him over that ice cliff.
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Some parts of this look appropriately epic (those cities!); some parts look a little bit like a cover version of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films. (One shaggy-haired gentleman tips his head very like a memorable shot of Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn.) Here’s the summary:
Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.
For more consideration of what it all means, take a look at resident Tolkien expert Jeff LaSala’s speculation post and previous trailer breakdown.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres September 2 on Prime Video.
