It's only been a month since the season 2 finale of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power ran on Amazon Prime Video, and the studio has yet to announce a renewal for season 3. True, a month and change isn't that long to wait, but shows like this to time to rev up. If you want to get new episodes out to fans in anything close to resembling a timely manner, you have to start checking into locations and extras and horses and stuff pretty early on.
With reports that ratings for season 2 may not have been as strong as for season 1, some fans worry that the show is in trouble. At the very least, showrunner J.D. Payne recently said on the Rings and Realms podcast that, "We're writing season 3." So that's something.
Payne also said that "there's a lot of happening in Númenor" in the third season of the show, referring to the island nation off the coast of Middle-earth where long-lived humans either appreciate the gifts the Valar have bestowed upon them or seethe in resentment that they aren't immortal like the elves; the island is going through a bit of a divisive time.
Payne also talked a bit about the character of Elrond, one of the legacy characters fans will remember from the original Lord of the Rings story; he's younger in this prequel series, but elves live forever so "younger" doesn't mean as much as it would for you or me. "There are several big tentpole moments that Tolkien gives us with First and Second Age Elrond," Payne said. "We know that he's the herald of Gil-galad in the Battle of the Last Alliance. We know that he has this moment going to Eregion and fighting this hopeless, ill-fated battle. Really from moment one, we've been thinking about Elrond going through these huge, life-changing events and experiences."
"There are several big tentpole moments that Tolkien gives us with First and Second Age Elrond. We know that he's the herald of Gil-galad in the Battle of the Last Alliance. We know that he has this moment going to Eregion and fighting this hopeless, ill-fated battle. Really from moment one, we've been thinking about Elrond going through these huge, life-changing events and experiences."
Apparently, Payne and his fellow showrunner Patrick McKay are approaching Elrond as a bit of a Job figure who keeps taking it on the chin. "e're going to break him because that's the story of Elrond," McKay said. "That's the story of Elrond, he's this incredible force for good who loses everything."
That sounds fun, but will fans get to see that story play out? I think Amazon is ramping up to a renewal announcement — they've sunk too much money into this show not to at least try and give it a farewell season at the very least — but sooner would be better. House of the Dragon, a show to which The Rings of Power is often compared, was renewed earlier this year in the middle of its second season and preproduction is already up and running on the third, at least so far as we can tell. And that show still isn't expected to return with new episodes until 2026. I'm not sure The Rings of Power can afford much in the way of delays, but we'll see.
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h/t GamesRadar