We've been hearing a ton of Lord of the Rings news lately. Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in Peter Jackson's movie trilogy, is coming back to direct a whole new movie: The Hunt for Gollum. Oh, and that original trilogy is returning to movie theaters next month. And there's a Lord of the Rings musical coming to the U.S.
But we've heard very little about the biggest Lord of the Rings thing currently in production: The Rings of Power, Amazon Prime Video's tremendously expensive series set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the likes of Frodo and Aragorn were born (although Galadriel and Elrond are around; benefits of being immortal elves). Amazon spent a mint on advertising the first season of this show when it debuted in 2022, and we know that filming wrapped on season 2 almost a year ago. Rival big budget fantasy show House of the Dragon premieres on June 16. So why have we heard next to nothing about The Rings of Power's second season? It's gotten to the point where I've started to think that something must be amiss over at Amazon Studios.
Well, maybe Amazon heard my complaints, because just today, they announced on X that the "teaser trailer world premiere" for The Rings of Power season 2 will go down tomorrow, Tuesday, May 14.
The Teaser Trailer World Premiere Tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/3Iy6epApFH
— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@TheRingsofPower) May 13, 2024
Truly, the timing is borderline spooky. On the other hand, at this point it was give us a trailer or admit that the show wasn't happening. We'd been hearing for a while that season 2 was supposed to debut later in 2024, but after going so long without any official updates, we were starting to wonder if that prediction would hold up. Now, at least, it looks like The Rings of Power will indeed be coming out sometime this year, although unless the premiere date is very soon, it doesn't look like it will compete with House of the Dragon, which is what happened during the first season. When the first seasons of these shows were going head to head back in 2022, fans seemed to think that House of the Dragon was the better high fantasy prequel TV show overall, so maybe Amazon will avoid a rematch on purpose.
The Rings of Power is based loosely on the appendices to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings books, although it takes quite a lot of liberties. Season 2 will continue to juggle various balls that season 1 lobbed into the air. Sauron has revealed himself to have returned to Middle-earth, the elves now have a few rings of power to play with, there's a balrog hiding in the depths of Khazad-dûm, and the hobbit Elanor Brandyfoot is venturing into the east with the Stranger, a mysterious figure who is very likely Gandalf, as unlikely as that seems.
It all goes down...sometime. We'll learn more details in the trailer tomorrow. UPDATE: The trailer is here!
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