'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' Season 2 Trailer Rings in a New War

When the history of prestige TV and the rise of streaming is written, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will have an entire entry to itself. The deal for Amazon's Prime Video to make the series was negotiated by Jeff Bezos, with two seasons contractually greenlit from the get-go as part of securing the rights and $250 million paid before a single person was hired to work on it. There was one catch: Amazon Studios was allowed to make a series based on Middle Earth; however, they could not use a single bit of Tolkien's writing that had been previously adapted, which is to say, just about all of it. Despite Bezos agreeing to such ludicrous terms that a real Hollywood producer would have laughed out of the room, Amazon Studios has managed to produce two seasons of generally watchable television; it only cost $1 Billion American Dollars by the time they were done.

With such a history behind it, it seems extraordinarily doubtful that Amazon Studios will be willing to continue the series once the two seasons it was forced to agree to, no matter how terrible the finished project turned out to be or how few people tuned in. Prime Video has attempted to hype the series as one of its most-watched ever. However, a closer look at the numbers uncovered showed that very few of those who watched the premiere episode of Season 1 continued with the series. It also basically failed at the awards game, with only six Emmy nominations for Season 1 (and all of them in the much-less-watched Creative Emmys category), one nomination at the SAG-AFTRA awards, and a complete snub by the Golden Globes. In short, even though the series is the best version that could have been made under the constraints (not to mention the pandemic lockdown delays), The Rings of Power has been a personal embarrassment for Bezos.

Optimists may hope the show gets further seasons simply because it has managed to be far better than it probably had any right to be. However, one look at the final trailer for Season 2 and it's evident that this season is chock full of all the payoff scenes that a prequel set in this era of Tolkien's histories would expect, a clear sign the production is functioning under the assumption this is all the episodes they'll have to work with, and that the Season 2 finale will almost certainly need to be a series finale as well.

Here's the Season 2 synopsis:

In Season 2 of The Rings of Power, Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without an army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Building on Season One’s epic scope and ambition, the new season plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots—as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.

The main ensemble returns for the show's second season. It includes Morfydd Clark (Murder is Easy), Robert Aramayo (Game of Thrones), Benjamin Walker (The Underground Railroad), Charles Edwards (Under the Vines), Maxim Baldry (Years & Years), Ema Horvath (What Lies Below), Lloyd Owen (Silent Witness), Trystan Gravelle (Great Expectations), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Power), Peter Mullan (Payback), Nazanin Boniadi (Scandal), Ismael Cruz Córdova (The Undoing), and Daniel Weyman (Gentleman Jack). Season 2 additions include Ben Daniels (The Crown), Rory Kinnear (Our Flag Means Death),  Ciarán Hinds (The Dry), Will Keen (His Dark Materials), Kevin Eldon (My Lady Jane), Calam Lynch (Bridgerton), Stuart Bowman (Guilt), Nicholas Woodeson (Quiz), Tanya Moodie (Rain Dogs), and Gabriel Akuwudike (Ridley Road).

 J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay are both returning as showrunners and executive producers for Season 2. Directors for this batch of episodes include the return of Charlotte Brändström along with Sanaa Hamri and Louise Hooper.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 will premiere on Friday, August 29, on Prime Video with two episodes, with one a week to follow every Friday through October 24, 2024. Funnily enough, Season 1 is currently streaming for free on all Samsung TVs via the Samsung TV Plus FAST channels* on "The Rings of Power" channel, 1003, through the end of August in hopes those who did not bother to watch the first time (or do not bother to install/activate Amazon Prime Video's app even if they have a Prime shopping account) will now tune in.

(*Amazon has its own FAST service, Freevee, but apparently, that's not actually watched by enough people to use?)