Hey, guys, we got a surprise new teaser for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
today with some new shots, some character confirmations, and I think some clues we can
take away.
Let’s get to it.
It starts with the camera moving through some fog to give us a shot of mountains, with some
pools of water in the foreground.
Next we get a new angle on the tower that was revealed in the Empire article about a
month ago.
We see there’s a lake behind the tower and presumably the river we see flowing in the
previously released still flows from this body of water.
There’s also two figures walking on the bridge toward the tower, presumably Arondir
is one of them.
Now, it’s believed that this is somewhere in Harad in the South of Middle-earth - but
we’ll dive more into the geography of this entire teaser in a minute.
We quickly cut to a couple shots of the harfoot Sadoc Burrows, who is looking at some kind
of book, with some glyphs.
I’m guessing these symbols here are stars, which makes me wonder if this is somehow depicting
a comet shooting across the sky as if this is some kind of prophecy or event from the
past.
Perhaps this in turn will be interpreted to relate to Meteor Man who as we will see, features
prominently in this teaser.
Shortly after the release, Joel Merriner on twitter pointed out that some of these pictographs
come from the work of MC Burkitt, an archaeologist whom Tolkien used as a visual source for some
of his own work - like the Goblin alphabet.
These shown here specifically come from Burkitt’s 1925 work on European prehistory.
So if you wanna take a stab at translating this thing, I suppose that’s your starting
point.
Good luck.
In the next shot, we get our only line of dialogue from the entire teaser.
Sadoc is talking to somebody off-camera and says “The skies are strange” and looks
up.
While this comes after the scroll shot, I wonder if his observing the meteor or something
else in the sky actually leads him to dig out the book we see him looking at.
I also initially thought he was holding an arrow in this shot, but it’s actually just
pierced through his clothing, so it probably just holds up a piece of clothing or something.
It makes me wonder if this is a hobbit-made arrow or if its something they would have
just discovered and made use of.
Here we get our first shot of what is the main focus of this teaser, which is the meteor
we first saw in the Super Bowl teaser back in February.
And it kicks off a montage of people looking at it.
First we have Gil-galad in a shot that was also in the Super Bowl teaser, so there’s
nothing new to report here.
Next we have a wide shot of a ship sailing while a large flock of white birds circles
round.
We see this is Galadriel and a group of elves on a swan ship.
Going back to the first shot, we have a light source near the top of the frame.
I think most would immediately associate this with light from Valinor and that these elves
are sailing into the West, but the fact that Galadriel is here leads me to wonder if that
isn’t the case.
Another thing I noticed is Galadriel and the other elves seem to be wearing the same outfit
that Galadriel has on during the shipwreck scenes in the first teaser.
So…probably RIP to a fair number of these elves I guess.
If we are playing out the Blessed Realm theory here, it could be that the elves are seeing
their first glimpse of light from Valinor, but that they aren’t permitted to enter
for some reason, which leads to the shipwreck.
I kind of wonder if this is a moment before disaster strikes.
Perhaps these birds are giving us a foreboding feeling as they turn away from the light source,
and soon after this, all heck will break loose and we’ll see their boat destroyed.
That’s just an off-the-cuff theory, but if it is indeed the case, we know that it
would have to be Eru himself, not the Valar causing the shipwreck.
This will come into play in the later Numenor storyline, but we know that the Valar cannot
directly move against the children of Iluvatar.
The next shot is another of the meteor, which may trick you into thinking the previous shot
of Galadriel was her looking at it - but I don’t think that’s the case at all.
She’s definitely looking at those birds passing by.
Next up is Durin IV also looking up, but he seems to have a bit of a grumpiness to his
posture and facial expression here.
This is another that I don’t think is actually looking at the meteor, but rather perhaps
he is looking up at Elrond, who we’ve previously seen in Khazad-dum.
Here we have a shot of what appears to be the same location for both Gil-galad’s earlier
shot, and the crowning ceremony we’ve seen in previous images.
It’s not always easy to take these in when they’re so short, but I really like this
shot.
I think it just looks gorgeous with the moonlight mixed with the yellow of the tree and the
lamps.
I think it’s quite obvious this is Gil-galad, and following behind appears to be either
Elrond or Celebrimbor.
The face to me looks more like Elrond, but the color of wardrobe looks more like Celebrimbor
from the next shot…
…where we have Elrond, Celebrimbor, and two elven guards presumably also watching
the meteor shoot across the sky.
Now initially, I thought this shot matched with the previous one.
It’s certainly made to give us that impression.
However, I don’t think it’s actually even the same realm of Middle-earth.
We have Elrond in the same attire that we see him in both Khazad-dum, and the promo
image with Celebrimbor in Eregion.
What I think we are seeing here is Celebrimbor and a couple of his soldiers escorting Elrond
to the Doors of Durin, where he will enter the great dwarven realm.
I think this could still be them reacting to the meteor though, as their eyelines seem
to travel a really long way for them to be reacting to something like the Doors of Durin.
If this is the case, the previous shot of Elrond and Gil-galad likely doesn’t immediately
precede Gil-galad witnessing the meteor.
Next we have silvan elf Arondir and healer Bronwyn looking up to the sky and I noticed
for the first time that Arondir has a small leaf brooch, which is a nice touch since we
know about the later leaf brooches the fellowship gets from the realm of Lorien and while Galadriel
is one of the Noldor, her people are largely silvan elves.
And here we have our first characters who are seen in the same shot as the meteor, so
we know for certain they are watching this unfold.
And they hold hands because of forbidden love and whatnot.
For this shot, we still hear the audio of the meteor shooting across the sky, though
this is obviously an entirely different time of day and location than the previous shot.
It’s nice to see this shot in motion as opposed to the previously released still,
as it’s a really impressive looking vista.
I also love the tiny details you pick up as you pour over these shots, like this bird
flying in the distance.
If this is indeed Tir-Harad, which translates to South Watch, this could be a watchtower
along the border of Mordor or perhaps somewhere in the southern mountains.
And at long last we have a real-life person from Numenor instead of just statues!
Numenorean characters have definitely gotten the short end of the promotion stick with
this show, so hopefully there is more on the way, but here we have Tar-Miriel, who is the
daughter of Tar-Palantir.
Tar-Palantir is basically the last “good” King of Numenor before it fully plunges into
darkness, and Tar-Miriel will undoubtedly be one the Numenoreans butting heads with
Ar-Pharazon as he seeks to take the throne for himself.
Also, in this shot we have white petals falling, which of course call to mind the coronation
scene of King Elessar.
I wonder if these are coming from the White Tree of Nimloth, which would logically place
Tar-Miriel in the capital of Armenelos.
The soldier in the background here has the same emblem on his shield that we see in other
Numenor shots from previous releases, and his helm looks like it may have a bit of that
wing design like we saw for the Gondorians in the Peter Jackson films.
Again, we have Miriel reacting to something, possibly the meteor.
Whatever it is, it definitely makes her turn and stop in her tracks.
Though its worth noting that this seems to be daytime when all the other shots of the
meteor have been at night.
Next we have a longer version of the shot of the meteor from the Super Bowl teaser and
the big news here is that we have our first confirmation of an ent in the show.
Now I guessed way back during the poster reveals that we could be getting ents in the show,
and I thought the recent Amazon ad all but confirmed it, but this is solid proof that
ents will walk the forests of the Second Age.
And in case you’re wondering - Treebeard would definitely have been around in the Second
Age, so he is totally on the table for potential characters in this show.
There’s three trees in this shot that move, which lead me to two possibilities.
Either the smaller one in the center is an ent and the two larger ones are huorns, and
the ent is reaching out to calm this left one - OR - the two larger ones are an ent
and an entwife, and this smaller one is a young enting, perhaps reaching out to its
parent because it’s scared.
Personally, I think the latter is the most likely, and most fun option.
Also reacting to the meteor and confirmed in the same shot is Elanor Brandyfoot - and
yes, I did have to look that name up once again.
And we finally get the moment of impact for the meteor, which is no doubt where Nori here
will meet meteor man.
Although, since he survived all the way to the ground, I think he’s technically meteorite
man, but that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it I guess.
Boom - Rings of Power title screen.
Sidenote - I kind of like the W that’s like a double V kind of thing - whatever that’s
called.
Idk, I’m no font master, but it’s kind of a fun look.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned that before.
And one last tease, we get some footage of Numenor, and there’s three faces carved
into the sides of the landscape here, as well as a statue of a man with horses, and there’s
a waterfall that flows from his hand.
Now there’s been some previous references to Numenorean horses so far and while the
Rohirrim are most famous in the 3rd age for their love of horses, the Numenoreans were
indeed no stranger to them.
They were said to have been skilled in riding and loved the animals, and bred great horses
that roamed across the plains of Mittalmar.
Mittalmar is the central region of Numenor, and encompasses the lands containing both
the capital of Armenelos and the eastern haven of Romenna.
While there’s a chance this narrow water way could be depicting the Siril river and
a boat flowing upstream toward Armenelos, I think this is more likely to be a slight
narrowing of the route to Romenna.
And quite possibly this will be the shot preceding the reveal of the port city with the Earendil
statue.
I’m also really curious about this structure near the top of the frame.
The narrow portion in the front gives off a bit of a Minas Tirith vibe.
Before the final shot, I wanted to take a stab at figuring out the trajectory of the
Meteor that everyone seems to be watching throughout this teaser.
If we place the images of people reacting to the meteor on our Middle-earth map where
I believe they are, the stills seem to indicate this could be the path of the meteor, which
fits with the Harfoots being in the Vales of Anduin, which is their earliest known location.
Gil-galad is in Lindon, Elrond and Celebrimbor are in Eregion, perhaps heading toward Khazad-dum,
the ents perhaps in Fangorn forest, Arondir somewhere in Harad, and Tar-Miriel in Numenor.
This could explain why Tar-Miriel’s is a bit brighter of a shot, as her’s could be
during sunset, where the rest come shortly after sundown.
I will say, the only one of these shots that doesn’t fit is Elrond and Celebrimbor, as
their eyes move screen right to screen left, when it should go the other direction if they
are looking east.
I’ll be curious to see how this scene plays out in the show, because I love when the cinematography
accurately portrays the geography.
Perhaps Elrond and Celebrimbor or the Ents are facing a different direction, and this
will all line up perfectly.
I would certainly enjoy it.
Now, as for my predictions based on this teaser - honestly, there’s not a ton to mull over
here aside from the Galadriel boat portion.
My best guess is that this moment with the meteor is something that happens at the end
of the premiere episode.
Perhaps episode one is full of establishing characters, relationships, and missions - such
as Gil-galad sending Elrond to Eregion.
Then at the end of the episode, we have this meteor come in that draws everyone’s attention
to a single point of focus that pushes many of these characters into action.
I’m still not sold on this whole meteor man thing as it seems pretty out of place
on its surface.
Unless of course this is some apparition created by Sauron in an effort to dupe the peoples
of Middle-earth.
He’s certainly capable of creating illusions.
I definitely get the sense that this meteor thing is serving as a tangible focus for all
of Middle-earth to have something every character can have some level of awareness of and concern
about.
Whether it works I think will come down to what the deal is with meteor man, who he truly
is, and how the storyline is executed - and as someone who is more interested in canon
events, how much screentime is devoted to him if he turns out to not be a canon character.
And finally, we get the reveal that there will be a new teaser on July 14.
So I guess this is a teaser for a teaser, which is kind of what is done nowadays.
I’m hoping we will soon get a full on trailer of 2.5-3 minutes where we can get some characters
speaking dialogue and get a real sense for what is happening in Middle-earth.
It’s nice that we got a few more glimpses of Numenor, but I’m still waiting for some
Elendil, Isildur, and Ar-Pharazon.
Maybe we’ll get something on them in the leadup to the next teaser, or at Comic-con
in a few weeks.
I’ve definitely think the recent pieces on Gil-galad and Celebrimbor were the best
articles for Tolkien book fans like myself, who are more interested in canon characters
than created ones.
Hopefully we have more such things in store for us going forward.
So what did you think of this teaser?
What do you think is going on in the Galadriel boat scene?
Where are Elrond and Celebrimbor - and what do you make of the ents?
Do you have any new thoughts on the Numenoreans?
Let me know in the comments!