Amazon releases 23 posters for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power doesn’t come out for many months yet, but Amazon Prime Video is already promoting it something fierce. They’ve just released a staggering 23 posters for the show, and while they’re as cryptic as everything else regarding this series, it is exciting.

Some quick background: The Rings of Power takes place during the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the likes of Frodo and Bilbo were even born. This is the age when Sauron was first on the rise as a villain in his own right, teaching the elves how to make magic rings that he secretly bound to his own will, and then handing them out to powerful elves, dwarves and humans. As is well-known, for himself he forged the One Ring, which had mastery over the others.

Another big part of the Second Age is the rise and fall of Númenor, a powerful human civilization that Sauron corrupts from within. So that’s the outline of the Second Age, but we don’t know specifically what the show will deal with, although we know it has a huge cast. Let’s see if the posters can’t clue us in.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power posters

This is the most powerful of the posters, because it gives off serious Sauron vibes. Then again, for most of the Second Age, Sauron didn’t have his trademark black spiky armor; back then, he actually had a visage most pleasing to the eye, which is how he tricked a lot of Middle-earthers into accepting his help.

So this might be Sauron, or it might just be someone with an out fit that’s totally freaking metal. Time will tell.

A bearded person with dirty fingernails holds an apple. What does it mean? No idea. Unfortunately, a lot of the posters are cryptic like this.

This one gives off Númenor vibes to me. Also notice the ring on the one finger. Sauron made 20 rings in all: three for the elves, seven for the dwarves, nine for human beings, and One for himself. I don’t know if any of the rings we see in these posters are the rings, but the show is called The Rings of Power so I’ve got rings on the brain.

I’m guessing Amazon is debuting posters profiling each of the main characters, but without faces it’s hard to tell.

TWO rings? Greedy.

This one also gives me Númenor vibes; notice the sunburst symbols on the outfits worn by the people in both posters.

Who needs rings when you have a book?

Okay, I think we can dispense with the color commentary. I’ll just present the rest of the posters and only weigh in if I have something to say:

Certain commonalities among the posters do jump out. We’ve had a couple of shabbily dressed people with dirty fingernails so far; I’m guessing they’ve from some human tribe. And this is the second poster featuring someone holding fruit. Also, at first I thought their other hand was holding a long braid of hair, but according to Amazon it’s “the strap of a burlap bag.”

According to Amazon, this person is holding “a primitive farm implement of some sort.” And dirty hands strike again.

I dig the horse pommel on the sword.

Okay, we’ve gotta comment on this; a broken sword rings bells in The Lord of the Rings lore. The most famous is Narsil, a longsword wielded by King Elendil during the War of the Last Alliance, and used by his son Isildur to cut the One Ring from Sauron’s hand. That sword is broken at the very end of the Second Age and eventually reforged for Aragorn near the end of the Third.

Is this Narsil? I don’t know, but broken sword imagery shouldn’t be used lightly on a Lord of the Rings show.

This person’s shirt has a face on it. Cool.

Okay, this is definitely a late-stage Númenórean; you can tell by the gaudy opulence. I mean, five rings, really. Might it be the Númenórean king Ar-Pharazôn the Golden, who in his hubris brought ruin to his civilization?

This person is holding a “golden rod.” Incidentally, the rulers of Númenor all wielded the Scepter of Númenor. That could be what we’re looking at, although Amazon notes that this person is wearing “simple light brown robes,” in contrast with some of the fancy costumes above.

Towards the end of Númenor’s life, there’s a whole thing where the people at the top get more greedy and corrupt while another faction keeps it real. Maybe we’re looking at someone from the latter group.

Are you hands actually dirty if they’re covered in gold dust?

This has gotta be one of the dwarves, right? Dwarves love hammers.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Amazon Prime Video on September 2, meaning that they’re getting way out ahead of things when it comes to promotion.

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