Rings of Power Season 3 trailer: another quick take

The wait for the full trailer is over, and we are now a mere three weeks from the start of Season 3 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Book fans have been itching to see more of the Númenor plot in the show and we have been given a tease towards the dramatic events that we know are in the pipeline. Even before he published The Hobbit, even when The Lord of the Rings was just a twinkle in the publisher’s eye, from the very beginning Tolkien’s core Númenor plot involved Sauron in an essential way.

Season 1 of the Rings of Power gave us a little tease on the Sauron/Númenor front: an original story thread that set up the trajectory we are going to get to this season, or, more accurately, we are going to see the very beginning of. We know that in Season 2 Ar-Pharazôn used his knowledge from the palantir to accuse the deposed Queen Regent Míriel of collaborating with Sauron, though at the time he was in his ordinary-Middle-earth-dude/lost-Southlands-king Halbrand guise.  But in the trailer we get a hint of more: Ar-Pharazôn is not just content to use this knowledge to domestic political advantage, but sees Sauron’s styling himself as King of Men as a challenge, talking about getting Sauron under control, in the most hubristic way possible:

This is, in Tolkien’s telling, the pebble that starts an avalanche.  And we see Númenórean ships that could be making good on Ar-Pharazôn’s plan: apparently having arrived in Middle-earthl somewhere that seems southerly, perhaps the haven of Umbar. We know that there is going to be an Elvish delegation to Númenor, with Gil-galad walking with Ar-Pharazôn in the teaser trailer and spy photos of Elrond and Gil-galad on location there. The trailer, though, is giving a first indication that there is going to be some kind of action by Númenor, but the motivations might not be at all out of desire to help the beleaguered Elves.

Meanwhile, in Middle-earth, we know from the season description that Sauron is absolutely dominating the continent-spanning war in the north-west, but his actions in the east, in Rhûn, are something we can only infer from the hints Tolkien gave. What we do know in the show is that Gandalf is hanging out in Rhûn wising himself up, encountering and riding at least one Oliphaunt (as Sam later wished he could see!), and generally working on or towards opposing Sauron.

And now as Gandalf is up to speed, operating more or less on his own, he presumably is acting a bit like what Tolkien described the “other two” Istari doing in his later ideas: opposing Sauron and building up opposition to him in a way that pays off during the War of the Ring. However, we also have an actual Blue-ish wizard hanging around, so who knows how the dynamics of the fight between Gandalf/Sauron/the Dark Wizard (cough “Pallando” cough) will play out?

We also got, unannounced, a second breakfast video, a mini behind the scenes look at some filming and with cast and showrunners dropping hints and descriptions. From what Daniel Weyman says, it seems Gandalf is turning up in Mordor, and from both videos together, it looks like he’s in Barad-dûr itself. A now-bearded Maxim Baldry (Isildur) says, while walking down a narrow passage in a ruin: “Walls are closing in. And if you know your Tolkien, it’s about to get real“, almost surely talking about the situation in Númenor hotting up. Indeed, in the trailer, we get what appears to be an assassination attempt on Ar-Pharazôn:

This golden carriage featured in a recent magazine article showing Ar-Pharazôn riding it as if in a triumph, arms spread wide towards the crowd. We also are shown the execution by hanging of what seems to be a woman. This is just the on-ramp to where Númenor is expected to go next season, and if the showrunners draw inspiration from all the versions Tolkien wrote it will get dark.

But perhaps more exciting is a tease of the climax of the scene the showrunners have described as their favourite in the whole story, which is said to be a 15 minute dialogue-free sequence: the forging of the One Ring itself. We see Sauron in heart of Mount Doom and he is pronouncing the first part of the famous Black Speech inscription on the Ring: Ash nazg gimbatul… the words that Tolkien has Gandalf explain the Elves heard and suddenly knew, well, that things just got real.

Recently, at DragonCon, Ben Walker said on stage that one of his “favourite aspects of the Silmarillion and Tolkien at large is going to happen this season…and it’s not the forging of the Ring”.  Spoilers, but I suspect this is is going to be the big end-of-season event, the surrender of Sauron to Ar-Pharazôn when he turns up with his armada in Middle-earth. This is really the only other big-ticket book event expected this season aside from when Sauron manages to forge the One Ring.

And when this happens, Númenor is set on a road to the very bottom.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on 11th November 2026, watch the full trailer here:

and you can watch the follow-up “Many Faces” featurette here: