The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuts epic new trailer at San Diego Comic-Con

San Deigo Comic-Con is going on this week, and the announcements are coming hot and heavy! Last night, Marvel's Deadpool & Wolverine treated fans to a screening followed by a surprise appearance from all of the actors who made cameos in the movie. Today, Prime Video's superhero franchise The Boys announced that a 1950s spinoff starring Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy is on the way, called The Boys: Vought Rising. And now, we've got another gem: a brand new trailer for Amazons Lord of the Rings prequel series The Rings of Power.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power takes place during the Second Age of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, when the Dark Lord Sauron is crafting rings that he hopes to use to bind the world to his will. This new trailer gives us our best look yet at the show's second season, which debuts in just over a month on August 29. Watch it right here:

Ents, Balrogs and Rings await in The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power season 2

There's a lot to unpack in this latest trailer. When last we saw Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), she and the Elven smith Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) had just been duped into helping the nefarious Sauron (Charlie Vickers) make the three Elven rings of power. But now the cat's out of the bag, and Galadriel knows that the man known as Halbrand was Sauron in disguise. What will the Elves do next?

From the looks of this trailer, they'll put on the rings. What are you thinking Elves? Galadriel believes her ring may be guiding her toward a greater purpose, but Elrond (Robert Aramayo) is ever the voice reason, saying they're playing right into Sauron's hands. Since we've all seen The Lord of the Rings, we can safely say that Elrond is probably right.

But things have to get darker before the dawn, and boy does it look like darkness awaits in this season. Beyond Galadriel and the rest of the Elven ring bearers' troubles, we see Sauron adopt his Annator, "sharer of gifts" persona as he puts Celebrimbor back to work making more rings. Meanwhile, the Dwarven king Durin III (Peter Mullan) also has a ring, and he is so determined not to take it off that he strikes his son, Durin IV (Owain Arthur). Add in a Balrog, some battle scenes, Sam Hazeldine as the Orc leader Adar, and some cryptic scenes of the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) seeking the advice of kooky Middle-earth nature spirit man Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear) at his summer home in Rhûn, and it looks to be a packed season!

There's also an Ent, and not just any Ent: that voice sounds like this could be an Entwife to me. In The Lord of the Rings, it was one of the great sorrows of the treelike Ents that they could no longer find any Entwives on Middle-earth, so no new Ents were being born. But in the Second Age, Entwives are still around. That's pretty fun!

The last thing I'll note from this trailer is that there's also a shot of Sauron demanding that someone (probably Celebrimbor), give him "the Nine." That's almost certainly a reference to the Nine rings which will eventually be given to human kings, which results in the eventual creation of the Nazgûl, the black-robed Ring Wraiths which track Frodo in The Lord of the Rings. I don't know that we'll actually see Sauron gift those rings to humans in this season, but it sounds like we'll see the creation of all their rings at the least.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has had a somewhat divisive reception among fans of Tolkien's works. Many enjoy seeing the way the show is bringing the Second Age to life, but it's also had its share of flaws and weird choices when it comes to adapting the source material. Fortunately, this latest trailer looks pretty cool! Watching it got me the most excited I've been about The Rings of Power season 2 yet, so here's hoping the season takes that excitement and runs with it.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres its first three episodes August 29 on Prime Video. After that, it drops one episode a week for the rest of its eight episode run.

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