5 things Lord of the Rings trailer tells us about the Amazon Prime Video TV show

It's fair to say that the new trailer for Amazon Prime Video's Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has caused some excitement online: the trailer adds a little bit of flesh to the bones of what we already knew, and offers some tantalising glimpses of what the Amazon Prime Video TV series may include. We're really excited for the new series here at T3.com, so we've had a good look at the trailer to see what secrets it might have revealed.

1. It’s a prequel, not a sequel

"Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky. Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone. Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die. And one for the Dark Lord on his dark throne. In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."

The words in the trailer come from the Ring Verse poem in Tolkien’s books, which describes how Sauron commissioned many rings that would give their wearers incredible powers. That happened long before the Fellowship of the Ring was created.

2. It’s staying close to the source: Tolkien's books

The use of the full Ring Verse rather than the movies’ use of the Ring’s engraved excerpt (“One Ring to rule them all…”) also feels like a declaration of intent: you’re in the world of the books now, and the series will give the stories space to breathe. 

3. It’s got a lot of time to play with

In Tolkien’s books, the rise of Sauron is not something that happens overnight: long before he became the world’s worst case of pink-eye atop his tower, Sauron had a human form – and because his story goes back to the very beginning of time, that means the rumoured five seasons here have millennia to cover if the writers want to. Peter Jackson didn’t have that luxury so this series could be much richer in Tolkien lore than the movies; the Second Age is the focus but the series could be even wider in scope.

4. It sounds very familiar

That voice? It’s Morfydd Clark, who is expected to play the same character, Galadriel, that Cate Blanchett played in the films; Galadriel was the first voice you heard in The Fellowship of The Ring. And that’s not the only link with the movies: the soundtrack here sounds rather like the One Ring from the films, and we already know that composer Howard Shore is on board for the series.

5. It’s going to be epic

OK, this is us cheating, because we got this one from the statement by showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay that they released alongside the trailer rather than from the trailer itself. But it's a good 'un:

"This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien's other classics. The Rings of Power unites all the major stories of Middle-earth's Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring –- but before there was one, there were many... and we're excited to share the epic story of them all."

The Rings of Power is due to launch on Amazon Prime Video on September 2, 2022.