Watch the first teaser trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Amazon Prime Video is betting big this year on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, a new TV show based on the work of J.R.R. Tolkien…

…kinda. This new show doesn’t cover the story most of know, the one about Frodo and Gandalf and Gollum and all those folks. The Rings of Power is set thousands of years before all that during the Second Age of Middle-age, back when there were still lots of elves wandering the lands, Moria was a bustling metropolis rather than a haunted mine, and Sauron was really coming into his own as a jewelry maker/dark lord. It’s a story even a lot of Lord of the Rings fans don’t know well, and Amazon is sparing no expense in telling it to us.

And now, they’ve dropped the first teaser trailer. Watch below!

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power release date

There’s a lot to break down there, but let’s hit some highlights:

• That’s Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, a younger version of the character played by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies. Of course, as an elf, she doesn’t age, so “younger” is a relative term here.
• We get a glimpse of Robert Aramayo, who played young Ned Stark on Game of Thrones, as a young Elrond; that’s the role Hugo Weaving played in Peter Jackson’s movies.
• The teaser trailer ends with a shot of two hands clasping, one small and one large. Amazon recently released 23 posters for this show, all of them centered around hands. Hands are a theme, apparently.

There’s a lot more to pick apart, and I’m sure we’ll do it in the coming days and weeks. What stood out to you?

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Amazon Prime Video on September 2.

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