Lord Of The Rings – Rings Of Power Teaser Breakdown: Everything You Missed In The Show’s First Teaser Trailer

Amazon Prime’s new Lord of the Rings TV show has debuted its first teaser trailer during the Super Bowl. Here’s everyth

We’ve still got a ways to go before Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Amazon Prime, but the first looks at the new show have been rolling in at a steady clip. Earlier, Vanity Fair posted a series of behind-the-scenes shots, promotional stills, and full character posters with an interview from the directors. Prior to that, we had over twenty mysterious character posters drop teasing who could be expected in the cast. Now, on Super Bowl Sunday, our very first teaser trailer has arrived.

The teaser is only a minute long but it manages to pack in a ton of information and glimpses at some never before seen moments in LoTR canon. Most noticeably, we get our very first look at the realm of Numenor, and at a much younger Galadriel and Elrond who movie fans will recognize from Peter Jackson’s trilogy. In addition to familiar faces, several new characters made exclusively for the show are also featured.

That said, there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding Rings of Power. We know the show will center on the Second Age in Middle-earth, and that it will (obviously) deal with Sauron and the Rings (of Power) but exactly how faithful it will be to the source material remains to be seen. Given how huge portions of the Second Age are speculative at best, there is plenty of wiggle room for the show’s writers to work in.

So, bearing all of this in mind, we combed through the trailer for every possible detail we could glean to help you kickstart your theorizing engines.

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuts on Prime on September 2.

1.) Opening on Numenor

It’s very likely that this is our first real look at Numenor. It was the greatest realm in the Second Age, and we already know thanks to interviews and press releases that it will be one of the focal points of the show. Elrond’s brother, Elros, was the realm’s first king (and likely the man depicted as a giant statue), which might provide some interesting drama given Elrond’s position in the show. Also, it’s worth noting that Numenor’s fall sprang up from a conflict between elves and humans (with the added issue of the rings) and eventually culminated in a Numenorean king becoming so powerful that even Sauron submitted to him. This, unsurprisingly, backfired and led to Numenor being swallowed by the sea. It’s unclear how much of this will be featured in the show, or how much will deviate from the source material, but it’s definitely worth speculating about!

2.) “Nomadic hunters”

These people toting giant anglers around were shown in more detail in a behind the scenes look at Vanity Fair. They were called “nomadic hunters, wandering the fields of Middle-Earth.”

3.) A hobbit-like girl, lit by a lantern

This is likely Markella Kavenagh in full costume and make up. Her character name has yet to be confirmed, but she seems to either be a Hobbit or a direct Hobbit ancestor. The actual lineage and evolutionary progress of the Hobbits isn’t completely clear, with the prolog of Lord of The Rings stating that their “beginning lies far back in the Elder Days that are now lost and forgotten.” Whether those Elder Days are the subject of the show’s dive into the Second Age or not is yet to be determined.

4.) A big glacial waterfall

This huge, scenic waterfall might be Lanthir Lamath, which is located at the foot of the Blue Mountains, a significant landmark for the First Age war against Morgoth. Here in the second age, it’ll be known as Lindon. Or, it could just be a waterfall with no real significance. Who can say?

5.) Galadriel in action

Though she’s practically covered from head to toe, we’re pretty sure this is Galadriel in her days as the Commander of the Northern Army executing some Lara Croft moves on a glacier.

6.) Stormy seas

More clues from the Vanity Fair first look. The person being rescued here is Galadriel and the person doing the rescuing is Halbrand. Halbrand was invented for the show, so it’s unclear what the context of this meeting actually is, but it’s obvious both of them have seen better days.

7.) A new elf

Another newly created character for the show, Arondir, a silvan elf. It’s clear that he’s an extremely adept archer (catching and refiring an arrow without missing a beat, blink and you might miss it) but it’s not clear who happens to be firing at him in the first place. Later we get a look at him in what looks like an ankle chain so it’s possible this particular battle doesn’t go well for him.

8.) A fiery comet in the sky?

We see an ominous comet streaking across the sky in the middle of the day, which could be any number of things–magic, a weapon, you name it.

9.) An elf in gold

This dark haired elf in gold could be any number of characters. Assuming he’s standing on the same platform we see zoomed out, he’s probably in Lindon or Rivendell. Maybe he’s related to Elrond? Interestingly, while the movies portrayed all male elves as having long hair, this character is the only male elf we see with long hair.

10.) Horses riding across the plains, led by Galadriel

We know that Galadriel is going to be the leader of the Northern Armies and it looks like we’re getting a chance to see her in action here.

11.) A possible troll

An unfortunate elf seems to be in the wrong place and the wrong time as what looks like a massive troll, or troll-like creature storms in.

12.) A beautiful autumnal forest, with some elves

This is likely a corner of Rivendell or possibly Lindon, but it’s so brief and zoomed out we can’t tell what the elves might be up to.

13.) Prince Durin

Dwarven prince Durin IV is the prince (and later king) of the Dwarven realm of Khazad-dum and ancestor of some of the dwarves that went on the quest with Bilbo in the Hobbit. There were six Durins in total spanning thousands of years, so the idea that this is Durin IV is actually a best guess assuming the show will be following the timeline of the books exactly.

14.) Young Elrond

Our first good look at Young Elrond in this particular trailer–but what is that happening behind him? A party? We wonder what it could be celebrating.

15.) Dwarven princess Disa

Our first ever look at a female dwarf in action is this brief glimpse of Disa, played by Sophia Nomvete.

16.) Galadriel being rescued from the ocean

We don’t know what happened to land Galadriel and Halbrand in this particular sticky situation, but we got a behind the scenes look at this moment in Vanity Fair. We see this moment earlier in the trailer as well, but neither clip provides much context. It’s worth noting that Numenor is an island realm, so if boats are being used it’s possible they’re either coming to or from Numenor in this moment.

17.) A person in a fiery crater

It’s difficult to tell given how brief this moment is but it certainly looks like a person situated within a fiery crater being either rescued by someone or attacking someone. This is likely magic, since no one seems to be being actively incincated, which means it’s possibly one of the Valar or the wizards (you know, like Gandalf), though this would be a deviation from the canon of the books since they established that the Valar didn’t arrive in Middle Earth until the Third Age. As for the person being grabbed or attacked, we have to guess it’s that Hobbit-like girl from before, just based on the shape of what looks like twigs in her hair.

18.) Dwarves splitting a stone

The Dwarves are in their (sometimes literal) golden age here, with Khazad-dum a thriving and bustling city at the height of its power. Their mining efforts are going to cause them some serious problems in the future, but not quite yet.

19.) Arondir in trouble

It’s difficult to really tell but this split second shot looks like Arondir making a valiant leap (wielding an ax, which is unusual for an elf) towards some sort of ledge. He’s also got what looks like a chain around his ankle, so there’s a possibility that that fight we saw him in earlier (where he was firing arrows) didn’t go so well for him after all.

20.) A battle

People in golden armor are going up against orcs, and things don’t seem to be going well for them.

21.) Big hand/small hand

One of these hands is clearly featured in the character posters–the knit work is pretty distinctive. But we’re still not entirely sure who it could be. The gray color and texture feels like it could be hinting towards Gandalf (though, again, canonically Gandalf wouldn’t have been in Middle-earth just yet) but it could be someone else. Perhaps the mysterious Tom Bombadill? And the small hand is either a hobbit or a child–but we can only make guesses right now.