Small Details You Missed In The First Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Full-Length Trailer
The forthcoming Amazon series "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" has been slowly inching its way toward the streaming screen ever since the studio bought the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's Second Age content way back in 2017. In the weeks leading up to Super Bowl LVI, the promotion of the show suddenly ramped up, with everything from title reveals to new character posters to a detail-filled report from Vanity Fair flooding the entertainment airwaves.
Now, the show officially has a trailer — and it's well worth the seemingly interminable wait. On Super Bowl Sunday, during the third quarter of a drama-steeped competition between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals, we finally got a good look into the iteration of Middle-earth that has been incubating at Amazon for so long.
While there are still many, many questions that we're waiting to see answered, finally having a substantial preview of the show is a welcome sight. It also means we're officially starting to get some hints about where the show could go. Here are some of the small details that even diehard fans might have missed as they took in the first of many doses of Second Age Middle-earth glory to come following the release of the new "Rings of Power" trailer during the 2022 Super Bowl.
We get our first solid glimpse of Númenor
The island nation of Númenor is a really big deal during the Second Age, the era of Middle-earth history that the show will primarily be covering. It's a powerhouse nation of Men that functions as one of the premier political powers during the era when Sauron forges the Rings of Power. Its kings are descended from Elrond's twin brother Elros (who, unlike his brother, opts for a mortal life), and its royal lineage ultimately gives Aragorn his claim to the throne of Gondor.
That said, we've gotten very little definitive Númenorean footage from the smattering of promotional material we've had — until now. In the opening scene of the "Rings of Power" trailer, we see a ship sailing into a port filled with splendid buildings that remind one of nothing so much as the architecture of Gondor. There is a massive statue to the left side of the frame, recalling the Argonath from "The Lord of the Rings," which were built by the Númenoreans much later. Additionally, there's a single mighty mountain in the background.
This scene is almost certainly the Númenorean harbor of Rómenna. It isn't the capital of the nation, but it's a critical geographic location, nonetheless. It's the primary stronghold of The Faithful, a group of Men who are critical in the history of Númenor and the foundation of Gondor. Isildur, the man who eventually cuts The One Ring from Sauron's hand, also lives there, as does the famous Númenorean king Aldarion, who is born much earlier. If this really is Rómenna, then the mountain in the background would be the Meneltarma, the holy mountain that stood at the center of the star-shaped island of Númenor. While we've known for a while that Númeor will play a central role in the show, seeing the first glimpse of the majestic sea nation sends a thrill up one's spine, to say the least.
Helcaraxë or the Forodwaith? The cold, hard facts
When Amazon Prime released its first series image for "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" way back in August 2021, it was a shock to many diehard fans. The jaw-dropping picture shows the Two Trees of Valinor, items of splendiferous glory ... that cease to exist centuries before the Second Age. This left many people wondering when in Middle-earth history this dang show is going to take place. While we've got plenty of confirmations since then that the central plot will be in a condensed Second Age timeline, it's left the lingering question of how far back the show will go to show its roots.
In the first official trailer for "The Rings of Power," we get yet another hint that we're going to see more First Age (and earlier) content than we might have expected in the form of Galadriel's (Morfydd Clark) own backstory. In the first half of the trailer, we see a couple of scenes in a majestic yet dangerous-looking frozen landscape. We even see Galadriel jump across an icy cliff, securing herself to the frozen precipice using her epic Two Trees dagger (which also appeared in the massive character poster dump a week before the trailer dropped).
What do the Two Trees, an icy landscape, and Galadriel on a cliff have to do in common? Some have floated the idea that this ice-climbing sequence could be taking place during the flight of the Noldor from the Blessed Realm, which required them to to cross a deadly area of bitterly frozen land called the Helcaraxë. But according to a preview of "The Rings of Power" in Vanity Fair, the sequence actually shows Galadriel in the Forodwaith, also known as Northern Waste, during a mission to hunt down and destroy any remnants of the original Dark Lord, Morgoth, and his lieutenant, Sauron.
Not all those who wander are lost
Wandering, traveling, and generally moving from one place to the next is a big theme in both "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" (the books and the movies, folks). One of the best moments that address this common Middle-earth wanderlust comes in a poem about Strider in "The Fellowship of the Ring," where it says that "not all those who wander are lost." It appears that Amazon Studios has embraced this concept on every level.
In the 60-second Super Bowl trailer, we see strange men with antlers. Fans were alerted to these characters in Vanity Fair's recent behind-the-scenes report as "nomadic hunters wandering the field of Middle-earth." We also hear a youngster talking about the wonders of the wider world that go beyond simple "wandering." Further in, we see glimpses of what very well could be lots of far-flung areas of the map, many of which are completely new for fans of the cinematic adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's works. Along with Númenor, we see raging seas, the Elven kingdom of Lindon next to what later becomes the Shire, and a quick shot of a chained man attacking what looks like a structure from the Southlands (another area that will be in the show, confirmed via Vanity Fair's piece.)
While there's no doubt that there are plenty of potential areas of Middle-earth to visit, it appears Amazon Studios is taking full advantage of the opportunity. The question is, will they end up traveling around the map with a purpose, or, unlike Aragorn, will they simply end up lost?
Do we witness the drowning of Beleriand?
The beginning of the Second Age comes after one of the biggest events in all of Middle-earth's long, melodramatic history. We're talking about the War of Wrath. This literally earth-shattering event is the last battle that takes place against the first Dark Lord, Morgoth. The villain is defeated, and his servants are either captured, killed, or like Sauron, they flee and show up again much later.
While the war itself is epic, the fallout from the event is also apocalyptic. Once the fighting is over, an entire portion of the continent of Middle-earth sinks below the waves in a cataclysmic ending. For those who are familiar with the Atlantis-like destruction of the island of Númenor in J.R.R. Tolkien's lore, while similar, this is a completely different event that takes place a full age beforehand.
In this one, a much larger area of land, known as Beleriand, is slowly drowned out over the course of a few years. This washing away of an entire continent leads to mass migrations and, while Tolkien doesn't go into a lot of detail, it has to be a stressful time for everyone living in the area. Halfway through the "Rings of Power" trailer, we witness a massive surge of water tossing a tiny raft around. We've seen this raft before in Vanity Fair's footage, as well, and we know that Galadriel and mere mortal Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), a character created solely for Amazon's show, are aboard the little makeshift skiff.
While it'll be interesting to see where the pair of characters ends up during the narrative, we're also wondering if this scene is showing us a bit of the chaotic destruction that ushers in the Second Age setting for the show. After all, it seems like the studio will be going much further back than the drowning of Beleriand to set the stage for the story.
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" debuts on Amazon on September 2.