The long, unexpected journey of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is set to receive another chapter. The streaming series first debuted in 2022 to somewhat divisive reactions. However, for my money, “The Rings of Power” Season 2 used a darker, bolder, and more complex story to show us what the series was truly capable of. The show’s strong viewership numbers and consistent quality has finally led to what was all but inevitable: an official renewal for Season 3. And it comes with a fascinating wrinkle, too.
The Hollywood Reporter dropped the news, with Prime Video confirming that “The Rings of Power” Season 3 will begin filming in just a few months in the UK. But that’s not even the biggest development for fans of author J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy adventures set in Middle-earth. The report also reveals that, after the first two seasons basically compressed centuries of source material into an incredibly short amount of time, Season 3 is set to begin after a significant time jump. And if that wasn’t exciting enough, it appears this will finally be the season where things begin to lead up to the events of “The Lord of the Rings” most overtly. The official synopsis for the upcoming production confirms as much, stating:
“Jumping forward several years from the events of Season 2, Season 3 takes place at the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron, as the Dark Lord seeks to craft the One Ring that will give him the edge he needs to win the war and conquer all Middle-earth at last.”
Let’s dig into all these details below!
Season 3 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will include the forging of the One Ring
Remember that epic exposition-dump masquerading as an opening prologue way back in 2001’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” and its concise deep-dive into ancient Middle-earth history? That actually ended up “spoiling” several major events that were seen in Seasons 1 and 2 of “The Rings of Power,” and now we’re about to see the Prime Video series put its twist on the fantasy world’s most game-changing twist yet. During the Second Age, the Dark Lord Sauron finally put all pretenses aside and forged his One Ring of Power, binding all other ringbearers to him and using such unfathomable power to wage a seemingly unstoppable war on the rest of Middle-earth. In Season 3 of “The Rings of Power,” Charlie Vickers’ Sauron (formerly disguising himself as Halbrand and, most recently, Annatar) will do the honors in an adaptation that will almost certainly put its own unique spin on this.
In addition to the reveal of a major time jump, THR also reports the talented stable of directors who will take the lead on the next batch of episodes (which, if the prior two seasons were any indication, will likely amount to a total of eight). Most excitingly, Charlotte Brändström (“The Witcher,” “Shōgun”) will be back after her acclaimed work on “The Rings of Power” the past two seasons. She’ll be joined by fellow “The Rings of Power” veteran Sanaa Hamri (“The Wheel of Time,” “Gen V”) while Stefan Schwartz (“The Americans,” “The Boys”) makes his franchise debut. “The Rings of Power” comes from executive producers and showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, and Season 3 will star Vickers, Morfydd Clark as his main foe Galadriel, Daniel Weyman as Gandalf, Benjamin Walker as High King Gil-galad, Robert Aramayo as Elrond, and many more.
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Prime Video.