The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power release date, trailer and more

Our first real look at Amazon’s highly anticipated Lord of the Rings prequel series The Rings of Power has finally arrived! Amazon Studios dropped a teaser trailer during the Super Bowl that shows us harfoots, elves, dwarves, and even a…meteor-man streaking across the sky?

Even after getting this teaser we still have plenty of questions, but for the first time since we heard this show was in development, we also have some answers. We’re going to break down everything we know about The Rings of Power in one convenient place. Starting with…

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

One piece of information that Amazon was not stingy with was the release date; they actually announced it almost a full year ahead of time. The Rings of Power premieres on Prime Video on September 2, 2022.

With some of its previous tentpole shows like The Wheel of Time, the studio released the first few episodes all at once and then doled them out weekly after that. There’s no word yet on whether that will be the case with The Rings of Power, or even how many episodes the show’s first season will contain. But we’d guess it’s likely that we’ll get the first three or so episodes at once, and then have to watch the rest on a weekly basis.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power cast and crew

To promote the first season of The Rings of Power, Amazon Studios released 23 posts showing…different pairs of hands. Some are grasping swords or daggers, like that one above. Others hold parchment, scepters, fruit or flowers. And some are just covered in dirt or dust.

The upshot of this is that there are a lot of characters, because each of those 23 posters presumably shows a different denizen of Middle-earth that we’re going to get to know. We have confirmation on who a few of those characters are, but others remain a mystery.

The cast includes Robert Aramayo (Elrond), Morfydd Clark (Galadriel), Owain Arthur (Prince Durin IV), Nazanin Boniadi (Bronwyn), Ismael Crus C[o]rdova (Arondir), Markella Kavenagh (Elanor “Nori” Brandyfoot), Sophia Nomvete (Princess Disa), Charlie Vickers (Halbrand), Benjamin Walker (High King Gil-galad) and Daniel Weyman (The Stranger).

The rest of the cast includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Beau Cassidy, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Charles Edwards, Will Fletcher, Trystan Gravelle, Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Thusitha Jayasundera, Joseph Mawle (Benjen Stark from Game of Thrones), Simon Merrells, Fabian McCallum, Geoff Morrell, Tyroe Muhafidin, Peter Mullan, Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Peter Tait, Alex Tarrant, Amelie Child-Villiers, Leon Wadham and Sara Zwangobani.

J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay are the showrunners on The Rings of Power, while J.A. Bayona and Charlotte Brändström are among the directors for its first season. Howard Shore, who wrote the music for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies, is returning to compose the score.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power synopsis

In addition to the hefty cast list, we also have the official synopsis for the series:

"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."

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power trailer

The thing that’s gotten the internet buzzing the most about The Rings of Power is the teaser trailer. It broke records since its release, racking up over 257 million views in its first 24 hours across the globe to become the most-watched Super Bowl ad of all time. This one-minute TV spot gives us our first look at some of the major players, including every named character above. It also lets us get a feel for the style of the series, and a taste of Howard Shore’s score. (Which might be the thing about this that excites me the most, if I’m being honest.) We broke this trailer down shot by shot here.

Amazon has been doling out just enough about The Rings of Power to keep us intrigued while keeping most of the details about the show close to its chest. But with the show’s September 2 premiere date growing ever closer, it’s only a matter of time until we get more details.

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