We're less than a week out from the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power's third season, and secrets are starting to come to light. Prime Video hasn't been shy about promoting the upcoming installment of its epic fantasy series based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, but with a show as sprawling as this, there are always going to be some things kept back for the actual viewing experience, or which don't slot neatly into the trailers.
The Rings of Power season 3 picks up five years after the end of season 2, and that means the playing field will be shifted drastically as Sauron (Charlie Vickers) and the Elves fight through the thick of their war for MIddle-earth. It stands to reason then that some of the smaller, quieter elements of the show's first two seasons might not play as large of a part this time around. For a long time, we assumed the Harfoots — early Second Age predecessors of Hobbits — were one such piece of the show that was being left by the wayside. We haven't heard a single peep or gotten a single image of the Harfoots since season 2, leading many to believe they had been written out of season 3 entirely.
Now, however, we know that's not the case, as co-showrunner Patrick McKay recently confirmed they'll appear in season 3 to IGN. “[We] have not written out the Harfoots [from Season 3]," he told the outlet.
Nori and Poppy will return "sooner than you think" in The Rings of Power
Part of the reason so many assumed the Harfoots wouldn't appear in season 3, beyond their general absence in the lead-up, is because their story was tied off so neatly at the end of season 2, when they parted ways with the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) to help find a new home for their fellow halflings, the Stoors, after their canyon village was destroyed by the Dark Wizard (Ciarán Hinds). In the process, the Stoors dubbed the Stranger "Grand Elf," which leads to him taking the name we all know and love him by: Gandalf.
Despite this nice parting note for Gandalf and his halfling friends, Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) and Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richardson), McKay's assurance that we'll be seing more of them soon is welcome. The big question will be how The Rings of Power fits them into its overall narrative, which is tighter this season than before as nearly every plotline revolves in some way around Sauron's quest to forge the One Ring.
“I would say for myself and J.D. [Payne], my co-show runner, every season is its own opportunity and its own challenge," McKay continued. "With season 3, we really wanted to level up our game as dramatists. We really wanted to focus the show. We wanted to be more psychological, more emotional, wanted to do a darker season...it's the season where Sauron forges the One Ring, and we wanted that to unify every single storyline. We didn't want it to have sprawl the way we enjoyed having in the past. No, no. This was a time we wanted it to be one journey and on rails. That meant that if a story wasn't about the rings and wasn't about Sauron and wasn't about the One Ring, that to put it in there would feel forced and it wouldn't do justice to those characters. ”
"But don't worry, you can't count a halfling out, the Harfoots and Markella [Kavenagh] and Megan [Richardson]'s characters. They'll be back maybe sooner than you think," he added.
While I would have been okay with Nori and Poppy sitting season 3 out, I'm now even more intrigued about what way McKay and his co-showrunner, J.D. Payne, have found to work them into the much darker events of this season. Will they turn up in Mordor? Rhûn? Some other locale on their pereptual wanderings, which should in theory lead to the founding of the Shire by the end of the show?
We'll find out soon enough. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres its third season November 11 on Prime Video. You can find a full breakdown of its somewhat unusual release schedule here.
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