Lavish The Rings of Power S2 Trailer Debuts at San Diego Comic-Con

One of the many highlights of this past weekend's San Diego Comic-Con was the official full-length trailer for the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Sauron is back and plans to conquer Middle-earth. Will wearing the titular rings make their bearers his adversaries—or his collaborators?

(Spoilers for S1 below.)

As previously reported, Prime Video has made a major investment in The Rings of Power when it acquired the rights to the source material from the Tolkien legacy, even promising several seasons in advance. Nearly everyone guessed long before the reveal of the S1 finale that Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), king of the Southlands, was Sauron in disguise. Fans even dubbed him “Hot Sauron.” He took advantage of the fact that the Elven light of the Valar was fading, leaving the race of Elves at risk of extinction unless they returned to Valinor to preserve their immortality. The discovery of the precious ore mithril gave the Elves another option, championed by Elrond (Robert Aramayo), Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), and the Elven smith Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards).

However, there was only a little mithril available, as King Durin III (Peter Mullan) refused to allow further mining. Unfortunately, Galadriel inadvertently brought Halbrand into the fray, and he suggested bonding the mithril with another metal, claiming that it would enhance the mithril's power, when in fact the opposite was true. The season ended with the forging of the three Elven rings from an alloy of mithril and the gold and silver of Valinor: Narya (the Ring of Fire), to be worn by Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker); Nenya (the Ring of Water), to be worn by Galadriel; and Vilya (the Ring of Air), to be worn by Elrond.

Darkness will bind them

S2 will explore the fallout from Galadriel’s actions in the S1 finale. We also know that the Harfoot Nori and The Stranger will travel to the land of Rhûn in eastern Middle-earth, a new setting for the series, and there will apparently be a “massive” two-episode battle. According to the official premise:

Sauron is back. Cast out by Galadriel, without an army or an 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, with which he can bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Building on the epic scope and ambition of Season One, the new season plunges even his most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging them all to find their place in a world increasingly on the brink of disaster. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of goodwill struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters most to them… each other.

The first teaser for S2 dropped back in May, featuring a tantalizing shot of “Hot Elf Sauron” creating Barad-dûr toward the end of the teaser. The new trailer opens with Galadriel's voiceover telling us that Sauron “sees himself as the master of all Middle-earth. He seeks to rule it not merely by conquest, but by bending the minds of all men to his will. And to do this he needs not armies, but rings.” Galadriel is seen putting on one of the rings, despite Elrond's vehement objections. And she's not the only one. “In choosing these rings, you have all become his servants,” Elrond says, urging that the rings must be destroyed.

Galadriel disagrees, believing her ring guides her. The other bearers are reluctant to give up their rings as well, but eventually they join forces to take on Sauron's forces, and we get some eye-popping footage of the aforementioned mega-battle. Remember: “When darkness falls, there are always those who rise and shine.”

The Rings of Powerr S2 premieres on Prime Video on August 29, 2024. You can also watch a featurette below, which introduces a host of creatures: Barrow-wights, Hill-trolls, and Sea-worms, as well as Orcs, Ents, and the juvenile version of the voracious giant spider Shelob.

Credit Image by YouTube/Prime Video