The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1 just concluded on October 14, revealing Sauron's true identity in the finale. Developed by showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay for Amazon Prime Video, the epic fantasy series is set in the Second Age of Middle-Earth, thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Now, all eight episodes of Season 1 are available to stream on Prime Video, but fans still have a lot of questions after the cliffhangers of The Rings of Power's finale.
Check out everything we know so far about the release date of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Renewal Status – Did Amazon already confirm Season 2?
When Amazon Studios acquired global TV rights to The Lord of the Rings in a major November 2017 deal, it included a multi-season commitment to a LOTR series as well as a potential spinoff show. However, the streaming network still has to formally greenlight each consecutive season after the first
Back in November 2019, Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke confirmed to Deadline the news that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 was already in the works during the company's holiday party at the H Club in Hollywood.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Release Date – When is it coming?
The good news is that the cast and crew of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power went back to work in early October 2022, but while production is moving forward well, it could still be a while before Season 2 arrives on Amazon Prime Video.
The first season one took 18 months to film and while that was likely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the high production values of the show would have played their own part, so the post-production stage of Season 2 take months to complete.
According to Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke, they are not trying to rush. Speaking to Variety, she said:
"We want the shortest time possible between seasons, but we want to keep the bar just as high. So it'll take what it takes but there's been some urgency around moving quickly, which is why these guys have been writing all through their hiatus. We're moving fast."
With that being said, it's likely that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 will not be released until late 2023 or early 2024. At the time of this writing, there's still no official release date.
As expected, The Rings of Power Season 2 is not included in Prime Video's slate of programming for November 2022.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Plot – What will happen in the conflict vs. Sauron?
The finale of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1 initially revealed that the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) is Sauron, but that turned out to be a red herring. The truth was ultimately revealed later in the episode, when Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) confronts Halbrand over inconsistencies she's found regarding his supposed backstory as the uncrowned king of the Southlands. Then Halbrand admits that he's Sauron, and explains his plan, and tries to persuade Galadriel to his said. The final scene of Sauron in Season 1 is when Halbrand/Sauron is on the outskirts of Mordor and heading towards Mount Doom.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, showrunners McKay and Payne addressed Sauron's lack of screen time in The Rings of Power Season 1, insisting there's a reason why the powerful villain's true form doesn't feature more. "It would be very tempting to make the first season of this show 'The Sauron Show,' very villain-centric," McKay explained. "But we wanted that level of evil and complexity of evil to emerge out of a world that you're invested in -- not because evil is threatening it immediately."
Elaborating further as to why the writers decided not to heavily feature Sauron in Season 1, McKay explained that the creative team wanted viewers to become comfortable in Middle-Earth. "We wanted you to fall in love again with Middle-earth," McKay said. "We wanted you to understand and relate to the struggles that each of these characters are having before we test them in a way they’ve never been tested before."
It's likely that Season 2 will focus more on Sauron, with the iconic villain starting to rule in Mordor, and the story will focus more on the conflict against him.
Charlie Vickers, who plays Halbrand, spoke to ScreenRant about what future seasons of The Rings of Power hold for the chief villain of the series.
In elaborating on the plans for Season 2, Vickers said:
"We know Sauron takes on different shapes in this era. All I can say is maybe to that. Maybe we're going to do those things. I'm incredibly excited to explore him doing these things that we know he does. He has a sh-tload of rings to make, and he gets to go to Númenor, and he orchestrates the downfall of Númenor. Then he has to take another form and go and fight in the Battle of the Last Alliance. The battle at the end of the Second Age. [But] the showrunners have a really specific plan, and I don't know their plans as to how it'll unfold, but I loved playing him in this repentance stage. Whether the repentance is genuine or not is open to interpretation. But I think it's going to be really cool now that he's kind of out there. And it's like, I'm back. I've been lingering. I've been coming back very slowly. And now, thanks to Galadriel, I'm back. And I'm excited to play that."
Galadriel has been left reeling from the truth of Halbrand's identity. She had trusted in him and he manipulated her, so it's likely that she will be more driven to hunt for Sauron's blood in Season 2, and it's expected to be brutal.
The Season 1 finale featured Galadriel, Celebrimbor, and Elrond forge three rings from their only scrap of mithril in their desperate efforts to save the elven community.
New characters will likely be introduced in Season 2, and it's likely that the story will continue in Season 3.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Cast - Who will return and who are the newcomers?
Here are the cast members expected to return for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2:
- Morfydd Clark as Galadriel
- Charlie Vickers as Halbrand
- Markella Kavenagh as Elanor 'Nori' Brandyfoot
- Robert Aramayo as Elrond
- Benjamin Walker as High King Gil-galad
- Ismael Cruz Córdova as Arondir
- Nazanin Boniadi as Bronwyn
- Tyroe Muhafidin as Theo
- Trystan Gravelle as Pharazôn
- Maxim Baldry as Isildur
- Ema Horvath as Eärien
- Geoff Morrell as Waldreg
- Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor
- Daniel Weyman as The Stranger
- Owain Arthur as Prince Durin IV
- Sophia Nomvete as Princess Disa
- Peter Mullan as King Durin III
- Lloyd Owen as Elendil
- Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Queen Regent Míriel
- Leon Wadham as Kemen
- Alex Tarrant as Valandil
Showrunners Payne and McKay teased new additions to the cast, including Círdan, the Elven ring bearer. In addition to new and original characters, there will be multiple major characters from the lore of Tolkien's work.
Morfydd Clark and the showrunners hinted that Galadriel's husband Celeborn will appear in the future of the series.
During an interview with RadioTimes.com, Morfydd Clark talked about Galadriel's grief over Celeborn, saying: "I feel that she thinks that he is dead. But she hasn't mentioned it to anyone else but Theo.
“And I took that as it's so painful to talk about - the fact that he might be gone - and so it's kind of even more so than her brother to a degree.”
The actress added: “So I feel that when or if we meet Celeborn, we will meet someone who truly knows Galadriel.”
Joseph Mawle will no longer be playing orc leader Adar. Sam Hazeldine will be taking over his role.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Trailer – Did Amazon already release one?
Since The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 is not expected to come out anytime soon, don't expect the first trailer to come out this year. Amazon Studios might share more updates in 2023, so expect the first teaser to come out next year.
Epicstream will update you when a new trailer comes out, so feel free to bookmark this page for future updates. For now, you can re-watch the epic trailer for Season 1: