The season 2 finale of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power airs this Thursday on Prime Video. The series, set thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings story most fans know, has had its ups and downs since premiering in 2022; it looks great — it better, for the amount of money Amazon has spent on it — but diehard Lord of the Rings fans have criticized how far it strays from J.R.R. Tolkien's source material. I struggled with that for a while myself, but have come to enjoy the show as a broad, action-adventure take on the most famous of fantasy worlds. I like The Rings of Power and hope it sticks around.
But we still haven't heard about a third season renewal. Some fans have worried that Amazon might look at the whole endeavor and decide it's more trouble than it's worth, but the cast and crew sound univerally optimistic about the show's chances. "I can't say much about season 3, but I think there'll be good news soon," director Charlotte Brändström (who helmed the season finale as well as the penultimate episode) told Radio Times recently.
That tracks with what we've heard from other cast and crew members like Ismael Cruz Córdova, who plays the elf Arondir. "As far as I know, they did kind of confirm that we’re going for a third," he said the other week. "I haven’t seen any scripts, though. I would love to. But I’m pretty sure we’re going for a third." Likewise, co-showrunner Patrick McKay dropped some hints to The Hollywood Reporter: "All we can say is, we’re working on it. We’re cooking. Let us cook!"
Even behind the scenes, word has been that Amazon is more or less happy with the viewership numbers and intends to stick to the original five-season plan for the series. Are the numbers as spectaular as Amazon probably wanted? I imagine not. But I really hope the whispers about a third season are right, because flawed or not, I want the series to be able to see itself through to the end.
That said, the problem with waiting to renew shows like this is that it extends the already overlong waiting periods between seasons. The Rings of Power is a giant show that takes a lot of time to prepare, so I'm not looking forward to having to wait another two years (at least) to see more episodes. But such is life when you're a fan of a historically expensive, elaborate television series.
Beware SPOILERS below!
The Rings of Power director and cinematographer want to reach the fall of Númenor
Cinematographer Alex Disenhof already knows what he'd like to shoot should The Rings of Power come back for more. "Although it would be a total pain to shoot because it's underwater, the Fall of Númenor," he said.
Brändström was right there with him. "The Fall of Númenor and the big tsunami!" she agreed. "That would be fun! Anything that’s visual because what I like about this show is that it’s very cinematic and it’s rare to have that much scope, so it makes it very exciting."
In Tolkien's mythology, the island of Númenor is eventually sunk beneath the ocean, which is kind of a spoiler, although to be fair the series showed us a prophetic vision of this happening early on in the first season, so they're laying the groundwork.
May The Rings of Power last long enough to get to this point. Until then, the season 2 finale drops this Thursday, October 3 on Prime Video.
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