The second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power wrapped up last week, and despite the show being uneven and playing fast and loose with the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, it was mostly a good time. Amazon Prime Video hasn't confirmed whether we'll get a third season, but showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay clearly have plans for more, and both the cast and crew sound optimistic.
In fact, Payne and McKay have already assembled a writers room for season 3, according to The Hollywood Reporter, so track is being laid. That room includes Justin Doble, Ben Tagoe, Ava Wong Davies, Constance Cheng, Jonathan Wilson, Griff Jones and Sarah Anson.
Interestingly, apart from Doble (and Payne and McKay themselves, who always write episodes as a unit), this room doesn't include anyone who wrote previous episodes of The Rings of Power. Over the course of the first two seasons, writers like Gennifer Hutchison, Jason Cahill, Stephany Folsom, Nicholas Adams, Helen Shang, Glenise Mullins, and Nicholas Adams all contributed scripts, but it doesn't seem like any of them are returning to plot the course of season 3. That's in contrast to the jump season 1 to 2, where Hutchison, Cahill and Doble all stayed on.
What does this mean for the show going forward? If you're hoping that the show is changing course in a major way, I wouldn't count on it; the showrunners are the main creative forces behind a TV show, and they're staying in place. It's possible that Payne and McKay want to refresh the room with some new ideas, which could lead to some changes, but nothing siesmic. And it could be more prosaic that that: sometimes contracts end and writers have to be cycled in and out.
In any case, we won't be watching the third season of The Rings of Power anytime soon; expect it in 2026 at the earliest. In the meanwhile, everyone's looking forward to what's to come, including star Charlie Vickers (Sauron):
Charlie Vickers shares his hopes for Sauron's journey on The Rings of Power
One thing most fans could agree on is that Sauron was a highlight of the second season of The Rings of Power. Vickers spoke to THR about what he's looking forward to, including some major events from Lord of the Rings lore:
"I don’t know anything about the season ahead, or what their plans to announce anything formally are… But as a fan and as someone involved in the show, there are things that I would love to see if we get the chance to do them. The War of the Elves and Sauron, the Fall of Númenor, the War of the Last Alliance, all these things. The forging of the actual ring, what all these amazing novels are borne out of. So this is the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much I’m looking forward to, but I feel like when I watched episode seven and eight, I was thinking: “Is this what the show is now, full throttle from here on?” And that’s a really exciting prospect."
The Rings of Power does seem at its best when it's going full bore on an action scene or a big climax, so I support putting the pedal to the metal. "I think is now at the point where he’s been reconsumed by the darkness, but still needs to get the rest of Middle-earth under his control," Vickers continued. "This is where it begins and he needs to conquer all the different parts of Middle-earth, be it Númenóreans, elves… I mean, he fucking hates the elves. (Laughs.) That’s probably the logical place to start. And he has these nine rings that he’s just got from Galadriel. I think task number one is probably: who am I going to give these nine rings to, to then enslave them? He’s got a big to-do list."
If you can't bear the wait for The Rings of Power season 3, there's a new Lord of the Rings animated movie called The War of the Rohirrim coming out this December.
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h/t The Gamer