Rings of Power

The visual splendour of this rich, gorgeous Tolkien drama will make you gawp throughout. Watch it on the largest TV you can.

The Lord of the Rings prequel is Amazon's most expensive show to date – but can it be the hit the streamer needs? On the basis of two episodes, the jury's ...

The prologue that opens Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring explains the rise of the villainous Sauron, his creation of ...

“It was an extensive jigsaw puzzle of facial hair,” hair and makeup head Jane O'Kane says of Arthur's transformation. The team included makeup and hair artist ...

The Rings of Power is a sprawling epic set thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings. Here is when and where you can watch it.

The rest of the season will be released on subsequent Fridays at 12 a.m. The first two episodes of The Rings of Power will be available to stream for Prime Video subscribers on Sept. [Prime Video](https://www.denofgeek.com/amazon-prime-video/) series [The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-timeline-key-events-story-theories/) is set during the Second Age of Arda in the fictional world created by J.R.R. in the UK in an effort to premiere the series at the same time across the globe. According to Amazon Studios, this epic series will “take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, [and] hope hung by the finest of threads.” Most people are only familiar with the lands of Middle-earth that we see in Peter Jackson’s [The Hobbit](https://www.denofgeek.com/the-hobbit/) and [The Lord of the Rings](https://www.denofgeek.com/lord-of-the-rings/) trilogies, but according to [Prime Video’s official synopsis](https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B09QHCPD34/ref=atv_hm_hom_1_c_ZWyNDQ_liepb9_1_1), this sprawling epic is set to take viewers “from the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.” Payne and Patrick McKay more freedom to expand this world while still staying true to the source material. 2 at 2 a.m. The series is not based on its own novel, but rather on the Appendices found in Tolkien’s work, giving showrunners J.D. Here is when and where you can watch it. The Rings of Power is a sprawling epic set thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Release Time and Episode Count

The story so far: the half-Elven politician Elrond (Robert Aramayo) has been drawn into the plan to make the rings and plans to ask Khazad-dum's prince Durin IV ...

The Rings of Power is an enormous creative risk. The Peter Jackson film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings lived in shadow and ruin; The Rings of Power restores Tolkien’s world to its golden age. Many observers seem to suggest the series leans into The Silmarillion, largely because that particular Tolkien book is the one people understand the least (it is dense) and because it covers off some of the events of the Second Age. Whatever it becomes, at first glance, The Rings of Power is one prequel to rule them all. And the elves, typically remote and semi-immortal, are given a more earthly and imperfect context. Aramayo’s Elrond and Benjamin Walker’s Elven king Gil-galad reach deeply into the political complexity, and arrogance, of the elves. Of course, in the context of The Rings of Power, none of this has happened yet. In The Rings of Power, that’s J. Payne and Patrick McKay, who have crafted something in beautiful balance between the world Tolkien created, and the gaps in the story he left behind. Something strange has fallen from the stars and landed in the laps of two nomadic “harfoots” Nori ( [the also recently launched House of the Dragon](/link/follow-20170101-p5ba1y), which is that it comes heavily laden with story. Of all the great narrative tapestries, few are as detailed and wholly complete as Tolkien’s.

British actor Robert Aramayo (previously of Game Of Thrones infamy) tackles the role of Elrond, who was originally played by Hugo Weaving in the LOTR trilogy ...

Tyroe Muhafidin is another Australian up-and-coming actor who portrays Theo in Rings Of Power. If you're a fan of Tolkien's work, you'll no doubt be intrigued to see the origins of Isildur's rule play out in The Rings Of Power. British actor Megan Richards (known for Wanderlust and Doctor Who) plays Poppy Proudfellow, an acquaintance of Nori Brandyfoot. Now, she has landed the major gig as a loveable hobbit, informally known as Nori in Rings Of Power. Speaking of, Iranian-born British actor Nazanin Boniadi (known for her role in Homeland) plays another newly created character, Bronwyn in The Rings Of Power. Arondir's character was created especially for the series, and his love story with Bronwyn, a Southlanders human, will no doubt be an interesting sub-plot to the story.

Amazon's new Lord Of The Rings TV show, The Rings Of Power, debuts on Amazon Prime Video tonight. Here's five good reasons to tune in.

Amazon has adapted the appendices to The Silmarillion, and the only way to do that and make it a palatable TV show is to make a lot of changes. Some of these mysteries include a mysterious stranger encountered by some of our heroes, who may or may not be connected to The Lord Of The Rings. I’ll be recapping each episode as we go as well, so be sure to [follow me here on this blog](https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/#196d790943ab) and on It’s simply outstanding, adding layers of drama and emotion to the show that simply wouldn’t exist without it. Could he already be there right before our noses, hiding in plain sight disguised as one of the characters? The good news is that this show, at least in its first two episodes, stays faithful to Tolkien’s themes, if not the letter of his writing. The Rings Of Power is anything but cheap. Galadriel, Elrond, Durin, Bronwyn and and every other character introduced in the sprawling two-episode premiere already have my attention. Everything from the special effects to the wildly detailed costumes is extraordinary. It’s one of the best-looking TV shows I’ve ever seen. I entered a skeptic, but walked away a believer. Here are five.

The first reviews are in for Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, with most - but not all - resoundingly positive.

It’s a pleasure to hear the characters talk.” Not all the reviewers were quite as effusive. The show follows some of the realms’ inhabitants as they fight to overcome the dark forces spreading throughout their kingdoms.

The new series is part of the expansive world created by J.R.R Tolkien across several books, including The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit.

Sauron, who appeared in The Lord of the Rings as a flaming red eye, is still the big bad. However, as Amazon has only acquired the rights for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, none of the stories from either Unfinished Tales or The Silmarillion will feature in the new series. [Galadriel and Elrond](https://ew.com/tv/lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-character-guide/), here much younger than they appeared in the films. While his estate is known to be protective (and litigious) over the original works, Tolkien stated that he wanted In light of that, he would probably have been delighted to see his creation still so beloved and still expanding. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. Arda starts as a flat disc and evolves into something more recognisably planet-like over the course of cataclysmic events during repeated battles between forces of good and evil. In Tolkien’s world, moral courage is just as important, if not more so, than physical prowess for the enduring heroes of Middle-earth. [This article is part of Quarter Life](https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop), a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. For a newcomer to the wonderful world of Middle-earth, the universe created by the British author and academic J.R.R. Along the way, he finds a ring that gives him the power of invisibility. So if you want to watch the series and keep up with inevitable social media debates, here is a guide to this sprawling world to initiate newcomers to Tolkien’s Middle-earth.

Amazon's pricey, gorgeous fantasy spectacle delivers what fans expect, but it could thrive by giving them what they don't.

“Rings of Power” is spectacular on the screen, but This could make “Rings of Power” an outlier in the TV-fantasy environment post-“Game of Thrones,” whose good-guys-get-decapitated ethos was in many ways a reaction to Tolkien. But she is interesting, and that’s what “Rings of Power” will need to be, more than faithful, to sustain itself over multiple seasons. One day, fate serves one up in the form of a meteor. And in an outpost deep in human country, the elf warrior Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) nurses a forbidden crush on a mortal healer, Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi), whose downtrodden neighbors picked Sauron’s side in the last war. A multiseason series can’t live in the operatic intensity of a fantasy film; it needs to build a world, evolve character and develop story arcs over time. (Númenor, the Atlantis-like kingdom of humans whose rise and fall dominates the Second Age, doesn’t even figure into the opening hours.) Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and the Peter Jackson movie adaptations, to the era when the fateful magic knickknacks of the title were forged. Payne and Patrick McKay, have a Wikipedia-like mishmash of family trees and invented alphabets that describes the series’s time period, the Second Age, this way: “Of events in Middle-earth the records are few and brief, and their dates are often uncertain.” But while I am a middling-level Middle-earth-ophile (have read “The Silmarillion”; do not speak Here she’s a young, headstrong and deadly warrior, with “Crouching Tiger” moves and a conviction that Sauron, the once and future big bad, is still alive and plotting. [current fantasy competition](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/19/arts/television/house-of-the-dragon-review.html), a sky filled with wheeling and menacing dragons.

It goes without saying that if you read or watch the book and film trilogy, you're making a life-long commitment—one that's filled with intruding thoughts about ...

There are things in the first season that don't pay off until Season 5." The Rings Of Power features a cast from all over the world. "The rights that Amazon bought were for a 50-hour show. To die-hard LOTR fans' delight, the background stories of several major characters from the famous trilogy will be told, including that of Elrond, Galadriel and Isildur. And so I think that's a thing to think about," he told It goes without saying that if you read or watch the book and film trilogy, you're making a life-long commitment—one that's filled with intruding thoughts about Legolas' hair, Aragorn's beard, Samwise Gamgee's sweet quotes and what exact products Hobbits use on their type 3 curls.

Tolkien's high-fantasy world. Before you read our review of those two episodes, which premiere Friday, September 2, avail yourself of this spoiler-free guide to ...

There are six of them: “Annals of the Kings and Rulers,” “The Tale of Years,” “Family Trees,” “Calendars,” “Writing and Spelling,” and “Languages and Peoples of the Third Age” and “On Translation” (these last two form one appendix). Shore handled the theme music for “The Rings of Power,” while “The Rings of Power” isn’t a direct adaptation of any one book the way Jackson’s two trilogies were. Peter Jackson’s trilogy was set during the Third Age of Middle-earth, whereas “The Rings of Power” takes place in the Second Age — a difference that accounts for thousands of years. And nine, nine rings were gifted to the race of Men — who above all else, desire power.” But they were all of them deceived, you’ll surely recall, for another ring was made as well — the One Ring to Rule Them All. Five years after it was announced that Amazon would bring “The Lord of the Rings” to television, “The Rings of Power” is finally here.

The Prime Video series, reportedly the most expensive of all time, had the first leg of its premiere rollout last night.

As fan @ [@Sarenity93](https://twitter.com/Sarenity93) puts it simply: “If you love LOTR and/or fantasy, it’s a must watch.” The Rings Of Power is a go big or go home series if ever one existed, and that’s a fact that’s drawn equal amounts of respect and anxiety. [@acpovcrew](https://twitter.com/acpovcrew) urges fans to go in without qualms about the “incredible” series, and just let it speak for itself. [@cadecalrayn](https://twitter.com/cadecalrayn), the series is “visually stunning” and immediately merits a rewatch. Of course, it’s impossible to talk about the enormous scale of The Rings Of Power premiere without mentioning another small-budget, indie series that’s been getting some buzz: HBO’s Game Of Thrones prequel House Of The Dragon. [Save $150Galaxy Z Fold4](https://events.release.narrativ.com/api/v0/client_redirect/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.samsung.com%2Fus%2Fsmartphones%2Fgalaxy-z-fold4%2Fbuy%2F%3FmodelCode%3DSM-F936UZEAXAA%26nrtv_cid%3D.nrtv_plchldr.%26cid%3Dopmc-ecomm-nrtiv-mob-042720-142014-theinventory-12497918%26utm_source%3Dtheinventory%26utm_medium%3Dnarrativ%26utm_campaign%3D12497918%26utm_content%3Dmob%26nrtv_as_src%3D1%26offerCID%3Dreserve%26source%3Dnarrativ&a=1782524447985141847&uuid=487f3a13-58da-4f51-b4e1-af644198317f&uid_bam=1741179819279353350&ar=1782651785371609546)

'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' VFX sequences used 1500 visual effect artists and 20 studios, and generated over 9500 VFX shots to recapture ...

What made “Rings of Power” unique was “we found a way that all assets could be shared and they all talked to each other. The Sundering Seas sequence took weeks to put together, with a special focus on making the waves look terrifying and violently strong. Their goal wasn’t about who could do the job, it was ensuring everyone could come together and work cohesively to deliver the spectacle that was required of it. “Rings of Power,” streaming on Prime Video, is set thousands of years before the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, in the Second Age of Middle-earth. As for finding the right VFX studios, he compares it to a casting audition. It is finished to a theatrical resolution.”

James Poniewozik, The New York Times's chief television critic, writes that in the early going, the series “does not reinvent the ring.” It does, however, “add ...

The critic Nick Schager admires how the show incorporates beloved characters — particularly Galadriel (“the soul of “The Rings of Power”) — while also establishing stunning new kingdoms. (“Its emotional core, though simplistic, is just as big and openhearted.”) The brute force of its size also raises some existential questions: “At what point is a television show so big and so uninterested in being TV-shaped that it essentially makes it another species?” “These pastoral scenes manage to capture the magic of the late-80s BBC version of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia.’” And despite the enormous computer-generated expenditures in evidence, Pulliam-Moore most appreciates practical effects like the hide-y holes at the Harfoot encampment, which provide “some of the series’ most truly magical moments.” Despite the promise of an “awfully big adventure,” he thinks one of the best parts of the show is something — or someone — small: the proto-hobbits known as the Harfoots. The critic Robert Lloyd thinks the series fits into a gray middle area, “neither a disaster nor a triumph,” adding that he feels that casting actors of color and foregrounding female characters, particularly Galadriel (played by Morfydd Clark), benefit the show. Variety’s chief TV critic, Caroline Framke, sees beauty in how the series balances so many disparate characters and story lines, like spinning plates: “When one threatens to come crashing down, the show can simply move on to the next until it’s ready to pick up where it left off.” The steadiest of those plates, though, remains Galadriel. karaoke.” For now, he frets about finding laughs where there aren’t supposed to be any — in the maps (“more funny than informative”), the special effects (almost “Monty Python”) and the plotting. “Look for inflammatory statements in ALL CAPs and words like ‘woke,’ ‘SJW,’ and ‘normies’ used in the pejorative sense,” she writes. If viewers are disappointed by the Amazon series, Drout predicts, it will because it lacks the “literary and moral depth” of Tolkien’s world. The show “needs more politics and personality and nonmagical conflict,” Douthat writes. More important, it manages, eventually and occasionally, to create its own swashbuckling, storytelling magic.” Some of those magic sparks come in the form of a “star-man,” who travels to Middle-earth via a meteor, and a nuanced portrayal of Galadriel: “A troubled, obsessed Carrie Mathison-like Galadriel may not be purely Tolkien,” Poniewozik writes.

The first season of Prime Video's highly-anticipated The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power features a staggering number of visual effects shots.

Although having 9,500 VFX shots is impressive in itself, the quality of those shots within The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will hopefully also be just as impressive. [The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power](https://screenrant.com/tag/the-rings-of-power/) boasts a huge number of visual effects shots. Of course, it's not necessarily surprising that Amazon's upcoming The Lord of the Rings show is VFX-heavy, especially considering its vast fantasy setting and the fact that it consists of 8 episodes, roughly an hour each, but 9,500 is still a staggering number. Tolkien's beloved [fantasy novels with The Rings of Power](https://screenrant.com/lotr-rings-power-show-book-tolkien-silmarillion-adaptation/). [Variety](https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-visual-effects-breakdown-studios-artists-10000-shots-1235354513/), season 1 of The Rings of Power apparently features a whopping 9,500 visual effects shots. Trailers for The Rings of Power have already teased some of what's to come when the show lands on Prime Video, including a host of characters both new and familiar.

We've been all over this week - talking to Rings of Powers' showrunners, visiting Gamescom, and more.

Finally, in true Bevan fashion, Rhiannon embraced her inner-zoomer and tried out SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake, and it looks to be [a return to the 2000s in the best way possible](https://www.thegamer.com/spongebob-squarepants-the-cosmic-shake-preview-gamescom/). [a fantastic one](https://www.thegamer.com/sonic-frontiers-great-gameplay-open-world-combat-story/), even if it’s pushing aside Sonic’s charming cringe, while High on Life might not be the grating Rick & Morty clone that many assumed, though it could easily get too much. With a lot of the weight of organizational stuff lifted off of folks' shoulders, the sheer amount of polish they are able to do has increased.” The Last of Us’ remake brings that back to the forefront, and gaming could learn a lot from its troubled representation and how its sequel went on to improve things so much. You live out your years from age ten to 20, meaning that you go through all the awkward stages of puberty, and for Jade, that meant letting them live out a life where they went through the puberty they always wish they’d had as a trans woman, with nothing ever being brought under the microscope or picked apart needlessly. The Last of Us’ Left Behind DLC was ahead of the curve back in 2013, featuring a queer romance front and centre which should’ve been a cause for celebration.

A set of zooming J.R.R. Tolkien maps will help you understand where locations in LOTR: The Rings of Power are in the Second Age, and how that fits into the ...

Tolkien](https://www.polygon.com/lord-of-the-rings/22550950/sam-frodo-queer-romance-lord-of-the-rings-tolkien-quotes) didn’t just love maps — he ascribed the entire world-building success of [The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings](https://www.polygon.com/lord-of-the-rings/22550950/sam-frodo-queer-romance-lord-of-the-rings-tolkien-quotes) to his cartographical exercises. In Rings of Power, the camera swoops over sections of this map like an Indiana Jones movie might. A few key locations emerge in the opening two episodes of Rings of Power, including Forodwaith, where Galadriel is hunting down clues of an lingering evil; Rhovanion, home to the hobbit-like harfoots; and the Eregion region, where one can find the dwarven kingdom of Khazad-dûm tucked away underneath a mountain range. It’s such a thrill to see the dang map on screen that I was left wanting to see the full thing. And it’s no surprise that the new Amazon series [The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power](https://www.polygon.com/23329258/lord-rings-power-review-episode-release) honors Tolkien’s achievement in rendering Middle-earth in map form. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is an exception to a point; as the first two episodes jump around Middle-earth to introduce us to new elves, dwarves, humans, harfoots, and others, the action occasionally cuts away to the same designs Tolkien drew from as he pieced together Frodo’s story.

Amazon's hugely anticipated take on Tolkien finally arrives – and it's so packed with scale and ambition it's only matched by Marvel's biggest budget ...

The first episode took a while to get going, but then there is a gigantic world to establish. That said, the way he spoke to the fireflies (before they all dropped dead) was very reminiscent of [Gandalf, on top of the Orthanc, speaking to the moth](https://youtu.be/kNnvcs-sQB8?t=50) in The Fellowship of the Ring. But only Elrond was allowed in to the kingdom and, after losing to Prince Durin (Owain Arthur) in a rock-smashing contest, he had some bridges to rebuild with his old friend. I enjoyed the interplay between Prince Durin and his wife, Disa (Sophia Nomvete), particularly as she undermined him when he was trying to give Elrond the cold shoulder. It was immediately obvious she didn’t want to go, and by the time we reached the end of the second episode, she had jumped ship, to be rescued by Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), a mysterious, morally ambivalent character, another created specifically for this series. In the Southlands, we met Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and other elven warriors who have been watching over the region for signs of evil since the end of the conflict with Morgoth. First thought is a younger version of Gandalf, although I think the hair and beard are red herrings – plus Gandalf, Saruman and the rest of the Istari weren’t sent to Middle-earth until some way into the Third Age, thousands of years after the events of this series. It was all pretty superficial in the first episode, and it wasn’t until the aftermath of the falling object from the sky that we learned more about Poppy and Nori’s characters. Let’s just say that from the first frame to the last, The Rings of Power looks quite Harfoots are a type of hobbit – along with the stoor and fallohide – not written about a great deal by JRR Tolkien. Presumably: “Pay attention to this bit about sinking, it’s going to come in handy at the end of the episode when you get cold feet about being on that boat.” It has been a big couple of weeks for fantasy TV – you may have noticed a certain other show began a few weeks ago – but we’re here to celebrate, not make constant comparisons with House of the Dragon, so I’m going to keep those to an absolute minimum – plus my colleague

One of the main characters in the series will be Galadriel, the royal elf seen as an ethereal and ancient being in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Here, she's ...

It will be exciting to see these parts of the iconic universe explored in one way or another when "The Rings of Power" arrives on Amazon on 2 Sept.! Some elements already confirmed to be part of the show, such as the history of Númenor, are described in these books, not just in the appendices of "The Lord of the Rings." ["The Rings of Power" is based on material that Tolkien wrote](https://www.popsugar.co.uk/entertainment/amazon-lord-rings-tv-series-details-46791741) — but not in standalone novels. ["The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power"](https://www.popsugar.co.uk/entertainment/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-trailer-video-48716018) will be a brand-new exploration of the world of Middle-earth. Tolkien aficionados will recognise this setting as an era thousands of years before the events of the original "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, during a time of great turmoil in Middle-earth. So how exactly will the new series fit into the "Lord of the Rings" timeline?

Is Elrond not an elf? Is this show related to the movies? Was that Gandalf? And more.

Chiefly, we learn that he can use some kind of magic (he whispers to the fireflies to command them, the same way Gandalf whispers to the moth in Fellowship of the Ring), and it seems to be dark (the fireflies die)—or maybe it just appears that way because he’s lost and frightened. We do learn a tiny bit more about him in The Rings of Power’s second episode, which contains all the makings of a classic At this point in the timeline, Elrond has not yet established Rivendell, the elegant Elven stronghold where the Fellowship of the Ring is formed, so it may simply be that he has no lands to rule. Eventually, Tolkien goes on to explain, the three groups migrated and mixed, so the distinctions between Hobbits are no longer as clear by the time of The Fellowship of the Ring. (You might remember some of this from the prologue to the movie version of The Fellowship of the Ring, which itself is narrated by Galadriel.) The Harfoots were browner of skin, smaller, and shorter, and they were beardless and bootless; their hands and feet neat and nimble; and they preferred highlands and hillsides. You may recall that Frodo and his fellows were allowed to sail there at the end of The original Lord of the Rings trilogy takes place in a period of Middle-earth’s history known as the Third Age. During the Second Age, when this show takes place, he and the other wizards are usually thought to still be in the west, far from the events of the show, where he goes by the name Olórin. In Tolkien’s writings, Gandalf has been alive since the beginning of time, but he doesn’t arrive in the Middle-earth till later, in the Third Age. The Rings of Power takes place much earlier, in the Second Age. You can’t really blame them, then, for not splurging on the rights to Tolkien’s other books, many of which deal with the history of Middle Earth in greater depth.

Tolkien frequently changed his mind about the the character. The Rings of Power showrunners and actor Morfydd Clark talk about their version.

She has been interpreted and reinterpreted and will continue to bet the subject of fascination: “I’m not the first, and I’m sure I won’t be the last Galadriel.” “There’s four versions of how Galadriel met a certain person, and we don’t have the rights to any of them, but we have to be aware of them,” says McKay. “Having that level of self-knowledge is extraordinary and speaks to what journey did she go on that she knows herself that well and can make the right choice? The showrunners wanted to focus on that moment where Galdriel rejects the ring and figure out how she grew into that character. “So the idea of Galadriel as a warrior is built into Though she appeared in the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien also wrote extensively about the powerful elf in the appendices to that work, his notes, and various other texts, often contradicting himself in the process. But in various other works, Tolkien writes about Galadriel as a warrior, which clearly influenced her portray in Rings of Power. This means Galadriel will undergo millennia of growth and experience before she becomes the version of the character we’re familiar with from that seminal text. But the immortal and powerful elf Galadriel is perhaps the closest we come to a hero in the series. The sprawling Lord of the Rings prequel, The Rings of Power, doesn’t have a main character. Payne and Patrick McKay about how they created a new version of one of Tolkien’s most iconic characters. In Jackson’s trilogy, Cate Blanchett plays an older version of Galadriel who serves as more as a stateswoman.

Spoiler alert! The following contains important plot points from the first two episodes of Amazon's "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power," now ...

They run to the place where it landed, where they discover a giant man (Daniel Weyman) lying in a fiery crater. Elsewhere, Elrond travels to the dwarf kingdom of Khazad-dûm to make amends with Prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur) and partake in a glorious feast with Durin's wife, Princess Disa (Sophia Nomvete). Along the way, she meets a man named Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), who's stranded on a raft. "She has a difficult conversation with Elrond (Robert Aramayo) where she says, 'If I go to Valinor right now, it would be heaven. "She feels that's a duty of hers," Clark says. Although she and her warriors come up short, the elven high king Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) rewards them for their efforts by sending them to Valinor, otherwise known as the Undying Lands or Grey Havens.

The first episode of Prime Video's 'LOTR' series takes us to the Second Age of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, many of years before the Fellowship.

They’re sure to find something of note in the ruins, but that will have to wait. For her reward, she is allowed to return to the Undying Lands of Valinor, away from Middle-earth and all its troubles. Arondir returns to Bronwyn, who we soon learn is a single mom raising Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin), a boy whose father’s identity remains a mystery (and who has to put up with all kinds of innuendo about his mom possibly being involved with a “pointy”). And thanks to the rest of the appendixes and The Silmarillion, the massive collection of Tolkienana that doubles as a history of Middle-earth, we know the highlights of what happens in between. When Morgoth comes to Valinor, Galadriel transforms into a warrior, taking the fight across the sea to Middle-earth for centuries of epic battles involving orcs, dragons, humans, and dwarfs that ends in victory for the side of good but leaves the continent in ruins and still vulnerable to the attacks of Morgoth’s disciple Sauron and his minions. “We Harfoots are free from the worries of the wide world,” she is told by her mother, Marigold (Sara Zwangobani). It’s here that The Rings of Power leaves Galadriel’s side for the first time. The Rings of Power smartly does a bit of standing on the shoulders of giants. (Maybe Ents?) Though Jackson is not involved in the series, its Middle-earth, Middle-earth’s inhabitants, and the series’ CGI effects all owe a debt to his films, which seems like the right choice. That’s not to say that The Rings of Power doesn’t relay the exposition with a tremendous amount of flair. Here’s how Tolkien sums up this era in one of the appendixes to The Lord of the Rings: “The Second Age ended with the first overthrow of Sauron, servant of Morgoth, and the taking of the One Ring.” So — oops, belated spoiler warning — we know how this story will eventually end. We’re over 20 years out from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the film in which Peter Jackson & Co.

However, that peace doesn't last long. When Morgoth engulfs Valinor in darkness, the elves fight back. After hundreds of years of war, Morgoth is deleted but ...

[‘The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power’ Character Posters: 22 Stars Of Amazon’s Epic Fantasy Series](https://deadline.com/gallery/lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-character-posters-photo-gallery/) [‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 1 Photo Gallery (Spoilers)](https://deadline.com/gallery/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-season-1-photo-gallery-spoilers/) However, because nothing can stay good in a world leading up to the re-emergence of Sauron, a shooting star crashes outside the Harfoots’ camp, revealing The Stranger (Daniel Weyman). And in Bronwyn’s home village, there are signs of danger when her son Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin), reveals a kilt engraved with Sauron’s symbol. In the Southlands, a land of men, the elves who were watching over them (protecting them from Morgoth ad the Orcs) are finally allowed to return home, forcing Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) to say goodbye to Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi), a human healer for whom he has feelings despite their two species not necessarily seeing eye to eye. This younger Galadriel is from the start quite different from the character played by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson’s movies.

In Tolkien's work, High King Gil-galad is the Elven ruler who forms the Last Alliance of Elves and Men in order to defeat Sauron and save Middle-earth from ...

Morrell previously appeared in the TV series Harrow and Top of the Lake. King Durin III is played by Peter Mullan, who you might recognize from Ozark, Westworld, and the dystopian movie Children of Men. Marigold Brandyfoot is the matriarch of her Harfoot tribe and the mother of Nori, with whom she doesn’t always see eye-to-eye. He is a master smith who will eventually forge the Rings of Power. Eärien was created for the series, and is played by Ema Horvath, who previously appeared in the movie What Lies Below and the Quibi series Don’t Look Deeper. Arondir is played by Ismael Cruz Cordova, who you may recognize from his roles in Miss Bala, Mary Queen of Scots, and the HBO miniseries The Undoing. Arondir is an Elven character created specifically for The Rings of Power. Aramayo has appeared in recent films The King’s Man and The Empty Man, as well as Game of Thrones. Galadriel is an Elven warrior of royal blood who is destined to become one of the mightiest Elves of Middle-earth during The Lord of the Rings. She has a secret romantic relationship with the Elven archer Arondir and is the mother of Theo. [The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power](https://www.denofgeek.com/the-rings-of-power/) is an adaptation of J.R.R. The series is a prequel to the events of [The Hobbit](https://www.denofgeek.com/the-hobbit/) and The Lord of the Rings and is set during Arda’s Second Age, when the Rings of Power are first created.

Amazon's Lord of the Rings TV show premieres on Sept. 1 and provides a new look at Middle-earth, Sauron, Galadriel, and other iconic things audiences will ...

One of the best locations in The Rings of Power is also one of the worst in the Lord of the Rings movies: Moria. In both The Rings of Power and The Lord of the Rings, elves that wish to retire from the land of mortals can sail off to paradise in a very somber ceremony. [a fictional history of Middle-earth](https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Orcs#Years_of_the_Trees), a race of exclusively evil people that exist solely to give the bad guys an army. Early on in The Rings of Power, we do get a glimpse of LOTR’s big bad as he appears in those movies, but he almost certainly will take on a different and surprising form in The Rings of Power. So they brought in the harfoots, a nomadic group of little folk who stay out of sight but still get into trouble. One thing that appears to have changed very little between then and now in Middle-earth is its orc problem. This makes it all the more sad to see him as such a chill elf lad in The Rings of Power — he’s going to see some stuff that makes him a significantly less fun person. He’s one of the few links between every screen adaptation of Tolkien’s work, as Elrond was there for it all. For now, the show is taking us [mostly someplace new](https://www.polygon.com/23331136/lord-of-the-rings-middle-earth-map-rings-of-power). [sprawling cast](https://www.polygon.com/23032806/lotr-rings-power-release-date-cast-trailer). This lets fans participate on another level entirely, making every new tidbit that the show reveals a puzzle in and of itself, a pocket mystery where we already know the end, but not the “how” or “why.” [isn’t overly familiar yet](https://www.polygon.com/23329258/lord-rings-power-review-episode-release).

The first two episodes of "Rings of Power" prove it is, in fact, a compelling expansion of the Middle-earth mythos.

“The Rings of Power” doesn’t feel small compared to the movies, nor does it feel unworthy of them. Bayona both directed “Shadows of the Past” and the as-yet unnamed second episode, and it’s clear that his work on “The Impossible” and “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” adequately prepared him for the heft and scope of Middle-earth. Elsewhere in Episode 2, Nori attempts to nurse Comet Man (note: not his real name) back to health while dealing with both a language barrier and the fact that he’s somewhere between disoriented and insane. That comes mostly from the hobbits, represented in “The Rings of Power” by Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh), whose wish for something grander than what her modest village offers is answered when a comet streaks across the sky at the end of the first episode. Keep an eye on Celebrimbor in the episodes to come — though he hasn’t had much screentime yet, he’s likely to be one of the most consequential characters in the entire series. Durin reluctantly agrees, and the two take the idea to his father: King Durin III (Peter Mullan), whose skepticism would appear to cast doubt on the whole affair. It was actually a collective sigh of relief emanating from countless “Lord of the Rings” fans who just watched the first two episodes of “The Rings of Power” and realized that it is, in fact, a compelling expansion of the Middle-earth mythos. Not that those familiar with her work in “Saint Maud” or “The Personal History of David Copperfield” will be surprised, but Clark proves more than worthy as Blanchett’s successor (or predecessor, as it were). He thinks he’s stopping by her humble abode to see her one last time after being relieved of his duty — a visit that displeases her young son — but the two end up venturing to a nearby village after a farmer asks her to look at his cow, who’s secreting something like blood from its udders rather than milk. For all that portent, “The Rings of Power” isn’t all doom and gloom. She then jumps into the action herself, leading a group of fellow elves as they scout for any remaining trace of Sauron and/or his orcs — and eventually finding his sigil in a snowy cave. The episodes, titled “Shadows of the Past” and “Adrift,” both premiered tonight, while the remaining six will air weekly.

The same cannot be said for the strange bearded man who came shooting out of the sky and crash-landed a few hundred metres from the harfoots' latest sticking ...

From what we learn in the Fellowship of the Ring, Saruman was somewhat of a good guy until he became a Sauron acolyte in the Third Age. Before Gandalf was wrangling hobbits, he was known as Olórin, and during that time he was a sort of spirit that lived in Valinor (the heavenly elf kingdom across the sea), watching over the Elves. Sauron's whereabouts are unknown, and we're not really all that sure what he looks like under all that armour (or as a big eye flame). So, maybe Olórin got himself into a bit of trouble in some far-flung part of the globe, and wound up getting hoofed out by some sort of mythical beast. With the aid of, presumably, some sort of momentary superhuman strength (and her pal Poppy), she sticks him in her cart, drags him to a nearby field and keeps him hidden away, trying to nurse him back to good health like a lost cat. Our initial assumptions are that the harfoots will figure quite prominently in whatever the overarching story of the series turns out to be, as the hobbits did in the original trilogy.