Over the past year or so, I have extensively (some might say obsessively) covered developments about Amazon’s forthcoming Lord of the Rings TV series. Some casting and production choices were known, but we knew little of the plot, other than that it would be depicting some of the large portion of Middle-Earth history created by J. R. R. Tolkien that precedes the story adapted by Peter Jackson (which takes place largely in what Tolkien’s internal chronology refers to as the Third Age).
Well, now we have a cave tro — I mean, a title: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. And a teaser:
The trailer is basically just a title sequence, with actress Morfydd Clark, who will play the powerful elf Galadriel (or “young Galadriel,” as many outlets amusingly describe this ancient character played by Cate Blanchett in Jackson’s films), narrating a portion of the epigram that famously opens The Lord of the Rings:
Three Rings for the Elven-kings lords under the sky
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die
One for the Dark Lord on his Dark Throne
In the land of Mordor where the Shadows lie . . .
The trailer release also comes with a plot summary courtesy the showrunners. Per Deadline:
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.
Some nerdy quibbles with this. The title of this series sounds a bit like “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age,” the title of a chapter in The Silmarillion, which covers the creation and history of the world in which The Lord of the Rings takes place. And that latter work did, in fact, involve other rings besides the One; the three elven rings mentioned above play a significant, if somewhat understated, role in its story.
As for these new revelations, they confirm and add details to what we already knew: that the series would depict some of the key events and sagas of Middle-Earth’s past, including the period when the many rings of power (which Sauron rendered subservient to his One Ring) were forged. The creative potential for all of this is immense. We still have too little information to determine whether the talent behind this series will live up to this potential or not. But on September 2, we will begin to find out.