Will we get to visit Numenor? When will Sauron show up? And what are Harfoots? Amazon's "The
Rings of Power" features new characters and uncharted lands – here's what you need to know.
The upcoming series wasn't called "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" in August
of 2021. The studio hadn't announced an official title yet, and fans commonly referred to the
project as "Amazon's Lord of the Rings Series" or something along those lines.
And yet, even without a title, the show went ahead and announced the premiere of
its first episode — which would air more than a year in the future. On August 2nd of 2021,
Amazon published a press release that included a gorgeous first series image
and the announcement that episode one would drop on September 2nd of 2022.
While fans have had to literally wait for years at this point,
the good news is that they won't have to wait for much longer.
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" had little-to-no visual
promotional elements for the first four years of its existence. But once 2022 kicked off,
we got a sudden flood of promotional videos. The first of these is an epic title reveal
declaring that the show would be called "Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power."
Then, Amazon went and upped the ante by releasing a full 60-second trailer during the Super Bowl.
The trailer didn't reveal too much detailed information. But it did finally give us a
solid glimpse of the world that Amazon is building to house its Middle-earth stories.
From sweeping panoramas to CGI monsters to a slew of characters, the trailer created an
instant buzz and a variety of different levels of feedback. It was so heavily viewed that it
broke the first-day trailer record, getting 257 million views worldwide in just 24 hours.
On July 8, another 60-second teaser officially dropped,
ending with an announcement that another teaser would be arriving on the 14th of that same month.
When that day arrived, fans refreshed their browsers with bated breath and were rewarded
at last with a full two-and-a-half-minute trailer that went deep into the details.
This trailer focuses on the passage of time.
Elves discuss past glory and failures. Men speak of moving forward and leaving the past
behind. Dwarves, who are in their prime during "Rings of Power," talk of a new era to come.
The trailer also puts the show's incredible production quality on full display.
Scene after scene was shown, shifting from jaw-dropping panoramas to lively civilizations.
Orcs flash on the screen for a moment. Elrond and Galadriel verbally spar over their tragic
past experiences. The High-Elven King Gil-galad utters foreboding words about an impending evil.
After months of virtually nothing to gauge how the show was going to feel, the second trailer
effectively functioned as a full-blown reveal of how epic the "Rings of Power" experience could be.
"It will be the end not just of our people, but all peoples."
With so much money and manpower going into the series, what story are they going to
tell? While fans are used to the stories of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings,"
this time Amazon's narrative will be going much further afield... and further back in time, too.
The show will cover events that take place in the Second Age of Tolkien's world. This is a
roughly 3,500-year-long era that comes before the 3,000-year-long Third Age, which ends with the
events of "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings." If 3,500 years feels like a very long span of time,
that's because, well, it is. In fact, showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay
have already clarified that the biggest deviation from the text is the simple fact that they've
condensed all of the events of the Second Age into a single point in time. According to Payne,
"We talked with the Tolkien estate... If you are true to the exact letter of the law,
you are going to be telling a story in which your human characters are dying off every season
because you're jumping 200 years in time, and then you're not meeting really big,
important canon characters until season four."
Along with this major adjustment to the pace of the narrative, the showrunners have explained
that they only have the rights to the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "The Hobbit." However,
this gives them critical access to the appendices of "The Return of the King,"
which includes a brief outline of events in the Second Age. Working from this,
they will try to bring together a coherent, condensed, and compelling Second Age narrative.
One of the biggest concerns of any onscreen fantasy or sci-fi adaptation
is how the show will utilize CGI. Even within the hallowed world of Middle-earth,
overuse of computer graphics has already wreaked havoc on "The Hobbit" trilogy.
Fortunately, "Rings of Power" addressed this very real concern from the get-go.
When the show's title reveal video was released, it featured an impressive title drop.
Later, a behind-the-scenes video was released showing everything
from the mold to fog machines and even the pouring of real, bona fide molten metal.
It was a great way to showcase the series' commitment to practical effects.
Since that time, the cast and showrunners have relentlessly reinforced the idea that
"Rings of Power" isn't doing the bulk of its filming in front of a green screen
in the same spirit as Peter Jackson's venerated two-decade-old "LOTR" trilogy.
Most shows need to approach production one season at a time.
Not so with "Rings of Power." This is a series that has a five-season story arc
already fully planned from beginning to end. According to showrunner J.D. Payne,
"We even know what our final shot of the last episode is going to be.
This was a big story with a clear beginning,
middle and end. There are things in the first season that don't pay off until Season 5."
Meanwhile, the eyebrow-raising budget of the "Rings of Power" production
has steadily drawn comments and criticism from the beginning.
In an interview with Empire, J.D. Payne offered a rebuttal to concerns about the "Rings of Power"
budget — and it has to do with treating the "Rings of Power" experience not as a show,
but as a movie. The showrunner explained,
"We think it's important to keep the budget in context.
Really, this [season] is an eight-hour movie. This is the length of three Marvel films,
done on the schedule of two, for the budget of one.
Look at it in the context of what's actually being produced and you could say that it's a bargain."
Everyone loves the Ents. The tree-folk are a fan-favorite element of "The Lord of the
Rings" story, and while they're certainly important in the Third Age, the events we
see in "The Lord of the Rings" really amount to little more than a last hurrah for the group.
In fact, the most important part of Treebeard and his species' story happens during the Second Age,
which is when "The Rings of Power" is set.
From the get-go, this prompted a crucial question — will the Ents
be in the show? It's an inquiry that was officially answered in
early July when a "Rings of Power" teaser showed the tree-folk for the first time.
The quick and subtle reveal all but confirms that Ents will be in the show.
Pippin and Merry would be pleased.
"It's talking, Merry. The tree is talking."
"Tree!? I am no tree."
The villain of "The Rings of Power" has been set in stone from the get-go. Let's not beat around
the bush here — it's Sauron. Tolkien made that clear in the source material. The Second Age is
the time when Sauron rises and takes the place of his fallen master, the original Dark Lord Morgoth.
As far as has been revealed, the show hasn't deviated from this line of reasoning. In fact, the
initial synopsis of "The Rings of Power," which was leaked well before its premiere, states that:
"Hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever
flowed from Tolkien's pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness."
While it isn't explicitly stated, it takes all of two seconds to connect the dots. It's safe to
assume that "the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien's pen" is the Dark Lord Sauron.
And yet, for all the clarity,
the villain for the first season of the show remains cloaked in mystery. Early on,
a leak from the fansite OneRing.net clarified that "Sauron will not be revealed in Season 1."
If true, that means our heroes are going to be facing some other villains for a while.
We've already seen Trolls and Orcs in the promotional material, and as Saruman once said,
"Do you know how the orcs first came into being? They were elves, once."
"The Rings of Power" has its work cut out for itself when it comes to
filling its iteration of Middle-earth with compelling, relatable characters.
Why? Because Tolkien never wrote much about this period of his world's history.
Instead, he focused on outline-level material, much of which the showrunners and writers have
had to connect and fill in to create enough substance for a 50-hour story.
"This could be the beginning of a new era."
Part of that process has been inventing new characters. This is an absolute necessity since
there are very few names in the source material, but it's also a task that is fraught with peril.
Inventing characters out of whole cloth and expecting them to stand toe-to-toe with the deep,
thoughtful characters created by the original author is a tall order. It remains to be seen
if Amazon's new personalities will be able to hold their own in Middle-earth.
One exciting prospect of "The Rings of Power" is the opportunity to see new
areas of Middle-earth that have not been seen on the silver screen. The bitter cold northern
terrain called the Forodwaith was already showcased in the Super Bowl trailer, for one.
We're also going to head to the left of the map, across the gigantic Sundering Seas that separate
Middle-earth from the Blessed Realm away in the West where Frodo and Bilbo sail to at the end
of "The Return of the King." In the middle of this ocean lies the island nation of Númenor.
This is where Aragorn's ancestors live, and it's a really important area that is often mentioned in
"The Lord of the Rings." However, by that time, the island is long gone thanks to events that
transpire — you guessed it — during the "Rings of Power" story. The chance to see Númenor in
its heyday and meet many of the famous characters that dwell on its shores is an exciting prospect.
Hobbits have no place in the larger stories of Middle-earth before the Third Age.
At least, that's what Tolkien wrote. One area where the "Rings of Power"
narrative seems set to deviate from the source material, though,
is with this subject of Halfling history. The show has been careful to honor the fact
that Third Age Hobbits really do live entirely outside of the story. However,
they've taken a leap by choosing to incorporate Harfoots into their own Second Age narrative.
Who are Harfoots? They're basically proto-Hobbits.
The prologue to "The Fellowship of the Ring" states that
"Before the crossing of the [Misty Mountains] the Hobbits had already
become divided into three somewhat different breeds: Harfoots, Stoors, and Fallohides.
Now, this is still referencing very late Hobbit history,
much later than the time of "Rings of Power." Nevertheless, the show has gone ahead
and incorporated a group of Halflings, which they're calling the Harfoots, into the story.
If you're picturing overweight, comfortable Hobbits living in well-tended holes in the Shire,
you're wrong. The Harfoots are nomadic. They're survivors. And they aren't anywhere near their
descendants' comfortable chunk of idyllic rural countryside. While a lot of details
remain to be seen, it will be fascinating to see how the show tries to work a group
of Halflings into a story where Tolkien himself clearly never intended to have them involved.
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