A full teaser trailer has dropped for Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, bringing the history of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth to life.
Plenty of new footage is shown in the trailer, ranging from the breathtaking panorama shots that make up the varied lands of the setting, to close-up character introductions and dialogue. The opening narration makes it clear that this story will truly be about the beginning of Middle-earth, adapting the lore that Tolkien created for the origins of his world and the races that populate it. The respective cultures of Elves, Dwarves, Men and Hobbits are hinted at with a brief verbal comparison of each race's role, in addition to visuals for the actors who will be playing them. All in all, the trailer is bursting with magic, battles and strange creatures.
A brief teaser for The Rings of Power was previously released, focused on a few of the show's key characters such as Sadoc Burrows, High King Gil-galad, Prince Durin IV, Arondir and Bronwyn, a new human healer character who will be played by Nazanin Boniadi. More reveals and clips are likely to be coming soon, as the show is promised to have a huge presence in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con, which begins next week.
Rather than serving as a straight adaptation of a single book or series, The Rings of Power ties together the canon legends of Middle-earth into a prequel series set thousands of years before the events of Tolkien's best-known works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Series director J.A. Bayona claims that The Rings of Power, which is ultimately intended to be a 50-hour, five-season series, is so expansive that it cannot even be considered television. Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay added in a recent interview that The Rings of Power will have more action than "any television or streaming show we've ever seen."
While the cast is entirely new, some of the characters who appear in the trailer will be familiar to fans of Peter Jackson's film trilogies The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The Elves Galadriel and Elrond, respectively portrayed by Morfydd Clark and Robert Aramayo in The Rings of Power, belong to such a long-lived people that they were present in the prehistory stories even while audiences may still associate them with their film actors, Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving. Likewise, Maxim Baldry will play Isildur in the new series, although the character was depicted by Harry Sinclair when he appeared in flashbacks in Jackson's film trilogy.
The epic, long-awaited fantasy series began filming in Feb. 2020, and Season 1 wrapped filming in early August 2021. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will finally premiere on Prime Video on Sept. 2, 2022.
Source: Prime Video