The Rings Of Power
I have spilled a great deal of ink giving word to my disappointment at Amazon’s big-budget Lord Of The Rings prequel series, The Rings Of Power and the many ways it fails both as a TV show and as a Tolkien-adjacent work set in Middle-earth. So when I say that the new trailer for Season 2 is surprisingly good, that has to count for something.
The new trailer isn’t perfect—I’m not sure they need to keep saying the name Sauron over and over again. For one thing, it’s kind of dangerous to say his name out loud in a Voldemort / He Who Shall Not Be Named sort of way. And I guess I just find myself rolling my eyes a bit whenever people pronounce the letter ‘R’ in this series. Saurrrrron. Morrrrdorrrr.
But that is the big message Amazon wants us to know going into Season 2.
“Sauron has arrived,” Charlie Vickers—the Halbrand / Sauron / Annatar actor said at San Diego Comic-Con this week. “In season one we see him in private away from the camera, but now the camera stays with him and we watch him as he manipulates and maneuvers his way through Middle-Earth.”
Here’s the trailer:
If nothing else, this definitely looks better than Season 1, with better and more expansive CGI, bigger-looking battles and a darker tone. There’s also a female Ent—or Entwife—which are only ever alluded to in The Lord Of The Rings since they’d all vanished by the Third Age.
Perhaps this is Fimbrethil, Treebeard’s long lost wife. Treebeard and Fimbrethil were in love even before the time of Morgoth, but she vanished along with all the other Entwives after Sauron destroyed their gardens in the Second Age. By the time Merry and Pippin stumble on Treebeard and the other Ents, he would not have seen his lost love for over 3,000 years.
Fimbrethil, perhaps
“Forgiveness takes an Age,” she says in the trailer. That’s a pretty good line! Hopefully the general writing is better overall and we get less cringey dialogue, but it’s impossible to say in a trailer. We also get a glimpse of Tom Bombadil in action, though he doesn’t seem quite the jolly fellow I would have expected—despite them using a bunch of his dialogue from Fellowship of the Ring.
And there’s a crazy Star Wars crossover, as apparently Tusken Raiders have returned to Middle-earth and in greater numbers.
The Rings Of Power
Probably the biggest red flag that I can spot (other than the existence of Season 1) is Halbrand looking almost identical in his Annatar form—or “giver of gifts” form—but with a blond wig and pointy ears. I mean, come on Celebrimbor! Who do you think this guy is?
Annatar
The battle scene we glimpse in the trailer look bigger than anything in the first season. We see Elrond leading a charge of heavily-armored elves on horseback at a horde of orcs.
According to showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay at Comic-Con, the season’s big battle takes place across three episodes. That sounds great—until I remember the battle of the Southlands from Season 1, and the Rube Goldberg machine volcano.
Elsewhere, we have Galadriel and Arondir showing off their own fighting skills. The orcs continue to look great as well.
Orcs
Rings Of Power returns on August 29th. I’ll give it a fair shake, but I’m keeping my expectations very much in-check for the time being. What do you think of this trailer? Let me know your thoughts on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.
