The Only Recap You Need Before The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season 3

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" returns on November 11 with Season 3, which will finally give us the forging of the One Ring — and it's about time. The Season 2 finale was more than two years ago, creating yet another massive gap between season releases (a trend that is all too common these days).

The release plan for Season 3 is a bit different than the first two. Half of the season (four episodes) will go live for the premiere, with the remaining quartet scheduled to drop weekly in two pairs over the following two Wednesdays. That's going to be a lot of Middle-earth content to consume at once, even if you're all caught up on what's going on.

For those who can't remember all of the names, places, and storylines from Season 2 of this massive, world-spanning show — which includes most casual viewers — we've got you covered. We've gone back and combed through all of the important stuff coming out of the last batch of episodes. Here it is, along with some important things you can expect to see when Season 3 kicks off.

Seasons 1 and 2 ran together pretty smoothly, but don't expect that kind of continuity this time around. Early news around "The Rings of Power" Season 3 made it clear that the new season would be "jumping forward several years from the events of Season 2." In a more recent interview with EW, showrunner J.D. Payne clarified, "[Sauron has] had five years in this specific time of Middle-earth to try and fail to make the One Ring." (More on the One Ring business in a minute.)

It's true that we're dealing with a lot of immortal beings here. For characters like Elrond (Robert Aramayo) and Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), half a decade is nothing when you're counting your life in centuries and millennia. But these long-lived characters are sharing the stage with plenty of mortals, too. Young characters like Isildur (Maxim Baldry) and Kemen (Leon Wadham) are going to be a lot older and more experienced entering Season 3. And for the older finite folks, like Elendil (Lloyd Owen) and Ar-Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle), five years is significant on a limited lifespan.

Expect the biggest changes, though, not from individual aging but through gaps in the show's multifaceted storylines. Season 2 ended with some pretty dire events unfolding. You can't wake up a Balrog, burn an Elven city, and spark multiple regime changes, then skip five years and expect everything to look the same. Time will be a major factor as we adjust to the early moments of Season 3.

Make no mistake: Sauron is evil. But "The Rings of Power" has presented a more complicated take on Sauron's personality through the first two seasons. That's okay. An empathetic Sauron who is struggling with right and wrong actually has roots in Tolkien's writings. But in the end, there's no doubt that the Dark Lord earns that title in spades, and we already see glimpses of this in the finale of Season 1.

Season 2 raises the stakes and brings the villain's real colors into the limelight. Within the span of eight episodes, Sauron's secret Annatar schtick gives way to a vengeful and malevolent character who seizes power, kills his enemies, and goes all in on forging Rings of Power to control everyone around him. He also kills the Orc captain Adar (who was invented for the show), clearing the way of any serious contenders for his rise to evil.

Don't expect any more of the mysterious shenanigans in Season 3. Sauron won't be hiding anymore. No more Annatar stuff from Season 2. Definitely no more Halbrand nonsense from Season 1. It looks like we're finally going to get a crystal-clear, unequivocally evil version of the character who has fully, unreservedly broken bad.

And that's a good thing. The first two seasons had fun with the secret stuff, and Tolkien has Sauron regularly acting sneaky. But most of the time, he's a big baddie inevitably working toward the domination of others, which is a lot of what makes the story so compelling. The sneaky Sauron arc has gone on long enough. Let's get the fully evil version in frame for a bit so we can really raise the stakes and heat this thing up.

Speaking of intensifying the story, when the news broke that Season 3 would jump forward in time, it added that it "takes place at the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron." If you're thinking, "Wait a second, didn't the Elves just fight a war with Sauron in Season 2?" the answer is yes. They definitely did. But that was actually just the opening salvo in a multi-year struggle that Tolkien calls The War of the Elves and Sauron.

In the source material, this war actually happens almost a century after Sauron forges the One Ring. ("The Rings of Power" has already changed the Tolkien timeline.) This will have to be adjusted for the show, but in either case, once it starts, it lasts for eight years. According to the source material, the Elven city of Eregion is destroyed and Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) is killed four years into the war.

That's just the halfway point. In a timeline in the appendices to "The Return of the King," the entry after the fall of Eregion reads short and simple: "Sauron overruns Eriador." Eventually, the Elves are in such dire straits that they need to ask for help from the Númenóreans on the island out in the sea. We won't give too much away, but suffice it to say that there is a lot of drama still to come in the War of the Elves and Sauron, and it sounds like Season 3 is going to start in the thick of it.

One of the most important storylines in "The Rings of Power" is the forging of the Rings of Power themselves. That includes nine for mortal Men, seven for the Dwarf-lords, three for the Elven-kings, and One to rule them all. That's 20 total. When Season 1 starts, none of these are forged yet. By the end of that season, we have the Three Elven Rings (again, forged out of order). In Season 2, we get the other 16 rings for Men and Dwarves.

The only one remaining now is the One Ring to rule them all. And right on cue, the promotional material for Season 3 has confirmed that when the season starts, we'll watch 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."

Since the initial announcement, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay have provided more details as well. The latter told Empire magazine that this is the season "where Sauron makes the One Ring in the volcano." He also told EW, "He has the nine rings for men, and he's spreading them across Middle-earth, and his armies are ascendant, but for him, on a personal level, it's a bit of a struggle to craft a ring more powerful than any that have ever been crafted before." The series has taken its time creating its titular jewelry. Three seasons in, though, expect to see the whole collection complete and in action.

The kingdoms of Men are the main group resisting Sauron in "The Lord of the Rings." While that story takes place at the end of the three-thousand-year-long Third Age, though, "The Rings of Power" is set in the middle of the Second Age, during a time when the Elves are much stronger. As Gandalf says in "The Fellowship of the Ring" book, "The strength of the Elves to resist [Sauron] was greater long ago; and not all Men were estranged from them." This, right here, is that "long ago" time.

While the era is known for its strong Elven kingdoms, the Elves aren't in a great place by the end of Season 2. Adar's armies, co-opted by Sauron, have sacked the powerful Elven city of Eregion. Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) and Elrond have arrived with an army to help the beleaguered city, only to suffer a horrendous defeat on the battlefield. With Sauron ascendant, the surviving Elvish forces are forced to retreat to an important new location (that is almost certainly going to be revealed as Rivendell).

We know that in the source material, the following chunk of time really doesn't go well for the Elves either. But they do have enough people to continue fighting back. With a five-year jump in store, we can assume that the Elves have taken steps to rebuild their armies and resist Sauron anew, but J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay will have to catch us up on how the immortal folk have done that, and how they've managed to limp on in the war against Sauron between seasons.

There are a lot of terrifying villains in Tolkien's world. We've already seen a few of them in "The Rings of Power," including the Balrog, Ar-Pharzôn, and of course, Sauron himself. One spine-chilling group that has yet to make an entrance, though, is the Nazgûl — but they're coming. The Ringwraiths that track Frodo from the Shire originate during the Second Age, and you can expect to see them in the early days of their hair-raising transformation in Season 3.

The first trailer for the season showed these new additions in all their nightmarish glory — but there's an important distinction: they won't be called the Nazgûl at this point. The showrunners have announced that they will actually be called by the non-canon name, Nazgnagôl. J.D. Payne explained the name shift to Empire magazine: "The word 'Nazgûl' means 'Ringwraith' in the Black Speech of Mordor. But before they were Ringwraiths, we know that these were just men. So we were able to derive in the Black Speech that 'nagôl' could mean 'servant.' 'Nazgnagôl,' therefore, literally means 'Ring-servant.'"

Tolkien never tells us who most of the Nazgûl are, so it will be interesting to see who ends up being given a Ring of Power in the show. But Payne revealed that the one Nazgûl who is named in Tolkien's legendarium, Khamûl the Easterling, will be played by Zubin Varla. Payne even gave some insights into Khamûl's motivations this season, explaining that he's a would-be king who allies with Sauron to fight a dark wizard. "Every character stays the hero of their own story," he said. "From Khamûl's point of view, he is a warlord who deserves to be a king." Khamûl and the rest of the Nazgûl, or more specifically the partially-corrupted Nazgnagôl, will arrive in full force this season.

"The Rings of Power" has taken advantage of its Second Age setting to introduce a few key characters. One unexpected addition in Season 2 takes place when Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) crosses paths with an angry Ent and Entwife. They aren't in the show for long, but the presence of the male and female halves of the race is a good reminder that we're in the part of Middle-earth history where Treebeard and the Ents suffer their greatest tragedy: they lose the Entwives.

The slow-burning romance between the two groups comes to an abrupt end not too far in the future of the story. While that painful episode is most likely to take place in a later season of the show, the question right now is whether or not we'll see more of the Entish world in Season 3. If the showrunners intend to depict the tragic loss of the Entwives at a later date, there's a good chance they'll build up the arboreal world a bit more in the next season. But, so far, there hasn't been any clear indicator one way or the other.

When we meet Cate Blanchett's Galadriel in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings," she's leading the Elven realm of Lothlórien with her husband, Celeborn (Marton Csokas). So far in "The Rings of Power" series, though, Celeborn has been missing in action. The Season 1 explanation for this is pretty simple. Celeborn went off to war (looking like a silver clam) and never came back again. Galadriel is distraught, but centuries later, she's clearly come to terms with it on some level.

Now we know that Celeborn will be played by Jamie Campbell Bower of "Stranger Things" fame. But the reason he was gone for all of this time still remains unclear. While the couple split up at points, Celeborn never goes missing like this in Tolkien's source material. It will be interesting to finally get some more details on his extended absence in this adapted version of the story.

Even if the explanation for the curious case of the missing husband is satisfactory, it won't answer another burning question the series has neglected to address thus far. How are they going to get their daughter, Celebrían, born and all grown up (Elven aging takes a while) so she can eventually become Elrond's wife and Arwen's mom? Lots of explaining to do here. At least we know Season 3 will start to give us some answers.

Robert Aramayo's Elrond has given us a very different take on the iconic half-Elven leader of Rivendell than we got used to in Peter Jackson's films. That's because by the time of "The Lord of the Rings," Hugo Weaving's Elrond is wise, highly experienced, and well-established as a leading figure in Middle-earth. In "The Rings of Power," Elrond is young and still learning the ropes. Rivendell doesn't even exist yet — although Season 2 ended in a sunny glade that is almost certainly going to be the spot where Elrond builds his hidden fortress.

While the Elf's story through two seasons has mostly focused on his connections with friends like Galadriel and Durin (Owain Arthur), there have been hints at Elrond's extremely unique ancestry as well. We can anticipate a lot more of the family-focused stuff in Season 3, especially since it's been confirmed that Aramayo will also be playing Elrond's twin brother Elros in "The Rings of Power."

Don't expect too many interactions between the two, though. The twins are Peredhil, meaning they're half-Elven, half-human. While Elrond chooses immortality through his Elvish blood, Elros opts to live as a human king and founds the nation of Númenor, living out his lengthy but mortal life long before "The Rings of Power" story starts. Still, bringing Elros back through a flashback will at least give Elrond's motivations more context. J.D. Payne even said (via Polygon) that losing Elros creates a lifelong sadness in Elrond, because his twin was "the person who was closest to him of anyone."

One of the strangest character arcs of the entire "Rings of Power" show has been that of Daniel Weyman's Wizard. A lot of Season 1 is spent following the otherworldly character as he arrives via a meteor, is adopted into a tribe of overly cautious Harfoots, sheds his childlike innocence, and starts to learn that he has magical powers and a higher purpose.

In Season 2, he sets out in earnest to chase down that purpose — by heading east, right into the barren desert region of Rhûn (which Tolkien doesn't say much about). There, he meets the enigmatic Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear) and is further trained in his Wizarding ways. He also meets a Dark Wizard (let's put a pin in that for a minute), and in the end, it's (finally) revealed that he is, indeed, the Wizard Gandalf, arriving in Middle-earth.

Big sigh. It took two seasons of mystery box teasing to finally reveal that this guy really is Gandalf, even if the classic "Lord of the Rings" character isn't supposed to show up in the Second Age and explicitly says he doesn't go to the East in the text. So what can we expect heading into Season 3?

Since there isn't any source material about Gandalf in the Second Age, all we have are teases from the showrunners and cast about what's coming next. Daniel Weyman hinted (via Empire) that we should expect to see "the wizard we all love from Tolkien's writings" this season, adding, "I found this new side to him, the side that we all hopefully recognize: the mischief, the twinkle in his eye." Expect him to get his classic grey hat and learn how to better control his powers, too.

At San Diego Comic-Con, Weyman also revealed (via Gizmodo) that during the five-year time jump, Gandalf has been busy in his tutelage under Tom Bombadil. He's learning from the mystic master, and as Season 3 dawns, we'll see a version of the character who is ready to step into his role beyond just being a magic wielder. He'll also start to be an inspiration to the people around him to rise up and resist evil. As Weyman said, "He's learning that it's not all about sort of wielding the staff and creating massive magic power. It's also about that soft power touching people's hearts."

Gandalf isn't the only Wizard revealed in Season 2. Once the story shifts to Rhûn, we meet a Dark Wizard played by Ciarán Hinds. The jury is still out on who the Dark Wizard is, but the showrunners have definitely ruled out Saruman as an option. That means, by the end of the season, there are only a few possibilities left. 

The character could simply be a new magic-wielding person made up for the show. But in reality, he is most likely one of Tolkien's mysterious Blue Wizards. They were an underdeveloped part of the author's world, sometimes showing up as bad guys and at other times appearing to be a force for good. In either case, their main stomping ground is the East, where Gandalf is right now — and, well, if the shoe fits, right?

The other thing to look out for is yet another Wizard. If the Dark Wizard is one of the two Blue Wizards, it stands to reason that the other one is out there somewhere, too. Tolkien initially named these two guys Alatar and Pallando. Alatar is the leader, and he brings Pallando along on the mission to Middle-earth. If that's the case, there's a good chance we'll find a partner in crime as we learn more about the Dark Wizard this season.

Whether we meet another Wizard or not, expect the Dark Wizard we already know to have an interesting role this season. For starters, we'll definitely get some clarity around who he is. At SDCC, the showrunners said (via GamesRadar) that we'll find out his identity in Season 3 — and sooner than we might think. Unconfirmed reports on social media indicate that the character will, indeed, be revealed as Pallando.

Whatever his name, though, we know that he's not a great guy. He demands blood from his acolytes, orders servants around at will, and harms innocent Halflings without a second thought. At the same time, when the Nazgnagôl were revealed before the season, Khamûl the Easterling – the only named Ringwraith — was positioned as an opponent to the Dark Wizard. J.D. Payne explained to Empire that from Khamûl's point of view, the warlord wants to be a king — he deserves it. But his "power has been usurped by a dark wizard. Sauron offers him a way back to the top."

Make no mistake, the Dark Wizard is a bad guy right now. But it looks like he may be squaring off against other baddies this season, too. That'll make an interesting situation for Gandalf and the good guys as they figure things out in the Eastern regions of Middle-earth. What's the old saying? The enemy of my enemy is my friend?

There are many areas of Middle-earth that Tolkien barely touched on — regions like the Kingdoms of Harad, Khand, and Rhûn that sit on the edge of the story and occasionally enter it, but are otherwise left out of sight. "The Rings of Power" has opted to dive right into one of those unexplored regions through Gandalf's trip to Rhûn. In Season 2, we see hints of the desert area, but not much in the way of any serious civilization. But Rhûn isn't just a place. It's a powerful collection of people.

As the story unfolds around characters like Gandalf, the Dark Wizard, and Khamûl the Easterling, expect to see more of this world come into focus. We already know from the promotional material at SDCC that Gandalf is going to ride an Oliphaunt while he's in Rhûn — a fun fact that has a surprising connection to "The Two Towers." We know from the source material that the Blue Wizards are busy out in this area, too, as are some of the Ringwraiths and even some Dwarven kingdoms. Any or all of these could factor into the show this season.

Sauron is also at work. "The Silmarillion" says that at this point in the Second Age, "in the east and south well nigh all Men were under his dominion ... To them Sauron was both king and god; and they feared him exceedingly, for he surrounded his abode with fire." The takeaway here? Expect more from Rhûn in Season 3.

The Dwarves have been a major faction in "The Rings of Power." Last we saw them in Season 2, they helped some of the defeated Elves escape from the destruction at Eregion. But all is not well in their home of Khazad-dûm. A Balrog is actively awake in the caverns under their feet — and in the season finale, it kills their king, Durin III (Peter Mullan).

While the Balrog remains hidden for the moment, the threat remains a major worry for the Dwarves heading into Season 3. The death of Durin III also opens up a succession crisis. His son, Durin IV, is right there and ready to ascend to his father's throne. But in the fading moments of the season, we learn that his older brother, Thráin (who will be played by Eddie Marsan in Season 3), has also laid claim to the throne and is gathering support. Add in the introduction of Durin and Disa's (Sophia Nomvete) recast teenage children, Gerda and Gamli (played by Amber Mendez-Martin and Lee Braithwaite, respectively), and it looks like we're going to get a whole lot of Dwarven family drama.

Don't forget the Dwarven Rings of Power, too. They're forged now and in play as well. King Durin IV has them, but other Dwarf-lords will want in on the action. Tolkien says the Dwarven rings don't have much power over their stubborn owners, but they do inflame their hearts with things like greed, wrath, and vengeance. You can count on them to supercharge any political situation and create all sorts of havoc.

The Balrog is loose in Khazad-dûm, and its effect on the Dwarves living there is going to be important. But it turns out the Balrog will impact Season 3 in its own unique way as well. At SDCC, the studio revealed that the Balrog will get a voice through actor Simon Pegg. That means, for the first time, we're going to hear dialogue from the demon. Who will he be talking to? Why the Dark Lord himself, of course.

As McKay explained at the Comic-Con Hall H Panel, "The Balrog is a character, so he should have a voice. Every season we want to show a different side of him. He should have a scene with Sauron this season. Balrogs know how to live in fire. Sauron goes to the Balrog to learn this power."

Remember the bit about Men worshiping Sauron because he surrounds his abode with fire? And then, of course, there's the whole forging of the One Ring in the piping hot Cracks of Doom. Look out for some red-hot scenes between these two terrifying individuals in the upcoming season.

The island nation of Númenor has been a fascinating corner of the "Rings of Power" story. The isolated but powerful human kingdom has slowly devolved into chaos over the first two seasons. Its king, Tar-Palantir (Ken Blackburn), dies in Season 1, setting off a political crisis that drags on through Season 2. Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) is the natural heir to the throne, but her cousin, Pharazôn, immediately starts plotting a takeover. Miriel is supported by a pro-Elvish faction called The Faithful, while Pharazôn is backed by a human-centric group called the King's Men. 

By the end of the season, all hell breaks loose on the island. Miriel is overthrown and locked up. Her hero and friend, Elendil, flees the capital city as Pharazôn's political coup turns into an all-out takeover of power. The drama on Númenor is far from over, too.

Last we saw, Elendil is in exile but still loose on the island. His son, Isildur, is trying to get back to the island and doesn't know what's going on. His daughter, Eärien (Ema Horvath), is breaking bad and scheming with the King's Men. And his younger son, Anarion, remains missing (but is confirmed to arrive this season, played by Andrew Richardson). Suffice it to say, things are a hot mess for this Second Age branch of the family tree that will eventually connect to Aragorn himself.

With so much in flux as Season 2 ended, the five-year jump into Season 3 will be interesting. One thing seems likely, though. Númenor has been on the periphery of the story for the first two seasons. It should shift to front and center in the coming episodes.

By the Season 2 finale, Pharazôn is so in control of Númenor that he starts sending out ships to colonize Middle-earth and plunder the mainland for everything it's worth. This is a critical part of the setup for the final act of the Second Age story. In the source material, the Númenóreans start as friends, settling along the shore and building mutually beneficial relationships with the local people living on the mainland.

Under Pharazôn, some Númenórean settlements, like Pelargir (an early version of Gondor which we saw in Season 2), become safe havens for the Elf-friendly Faithful Númenóreans. But most of them become tyrannical centers of Pharazôn's power, enslaving people and stealing resources at will. This also sets the stage for the usurper to eventually fight directly with Sauron's armies coming out of Mordor, triggering a string of Atlantean events that don't end well for their island.

All of the pieces are in place for the colonizing chaos to kick off in Season 3. Pharazôn's son, Kemen, is leading corrupt forces on the mainland. Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) is also hanging around the area and could get involved. This might feel like a side story compared to some of the bigger stuff going on, and at this point, it kind of is. But Season 3 will keep laying the groundwork for the upcoming face-off between Sauron and Númenor. And when that begins? It's going to be headline news.

One group that hasn't gotten much attention in the lead-up to Season 3 is the Halflings. Season 1 introduces us to the Harfoots, one of the three groups that ultimately come together to create the Hobbits we know and love. Season 2 brings another of those groups, the Stoors, into the story as well. Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) and Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards) discover an enclave of the half-pint hold-dwellers during their adventures with Gandalf in Rhûn. By the end of the season, they lead the group back into the West, literally in search of greener pastures and to link up with their own Harfoot community.

If you were looking forward to more proto-Hobbit fun, though, it likely won't come in Season 3. When asked about their involvement in Season 3, J.D. Payne hinted at a change: "It was time for them to take a little bit more of a backseat," he said, adding, "I will also say: never count a Halfling out."

While that technically leaves the door open, it doesn't seem likely that we'll see Nori, Poppy, and company until Season 4 at the earliest. There's a silver lining to their absence, though. Throughout the first two seasons, "The Rings of Power" has juggled a lot of disconnected storylines. It's been a lot to keep track of. In Season 3, many of these are coming together, and trimming off side quests with Harfoots and Stoors seems like a smart way to rein things in and focus on the bigger stories unfolding.