Prime Video released a new trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 at San Diego Comic-Con, and there is simply so much going on.
The elves of Middle-earth are determined to fend off the threat posed by Sauron (Charlie Vickers) by any means necessary — even, say, by forging Rings of Power. In the trailer, we see Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), the High King Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker), and shipwright Círdan (Interview with the Vampire's Ben Daniels) donning the three Elven rings. This strategy does not sit right with Elrond (Robert Aramayo), who believes the rings will corrupt their bearers. Galadriel claims her ring is guiding her, not deceiving her. But since she was basically Queen of Being Deceived by Sauron in Season 1, this can only end poorly, right?
Speaking of Sauron, what's our Dark Lord doing? Throwing on his best elf wig in order to gain the trust of smith Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards). Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium will recognize blonde Sauron as his fair form "Annatar," the so-called "Lord of Gifts" — or "sharer of gifts," as Sauron says in the trailer. It seems like Sauron's disguise works, because we see him and Celebrimbor embark on a new forging project together.
"You will give me the nine," Sauron orders, speaking of the nine rings that will eventually corrupt the Kings of Men and turn them into Nazgûl. Seeing as dwarf Durin III (Peter Mullan) already appears to be bewitched by a ring of his own, it seems like we'll also be seeing the seven dwarven rings this season as well.
The rest of the trailer is chock-full of some fairly sizable reveals of elements from Tolkien's work. We get a glimpse of ghostly barrow-wights terrorizing Elrond and Galadriel. A surprisingly dour-seeming Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear) finally makes his onscreen debut, counseling the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) — aka Gandalf — on his quest to Rhûn. Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) crosses paths with what I'm pretty sure is an Entwife. (They've all disappeared by the time of The Lord of the Rings, so that's one major talking tree!) Also on display is a massive battle between elves and orcs, some suspicious palantír use over in Númenor, and a big old Balrog that probably spells bad news for Khazad-dûm.
Basically, Middle-earth is about to go through it.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 premieres Aug. 29 on Prime Video.
