The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Fans return to Middle-earth to explore the Second Age

After two big-screen trilogies adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit books, fans get to explore Middle-earth once more with Amazon Studios’ The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The sprawling eight-episode first season is set within the Second Age of Middle-earth’s history, thousands of years before the events shown in both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books.

The show will begin during a time of peace, but will depict events that play a huge role in the LOTR and Hobbit franchise, including the forging of the Rings of Power.

The episode begins with Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) giving a speech, with flashbacks to her youth, saying the world had been so young, there wasn’t even a sunrise.

‘But even then, there was light,’ she says, as we see a group of kids coming upon young Galadriel, asking if it is finished yet.

They all walk to a stream as one boy says, ‘Even you can’t believe that scrap can float,’ as a defiant Galadriel says sit will sail.

The paper boat transforms into a paper swan, as the boys all start throwing rocks at it and sink the boat, causing her to attack the boy before her brother Finrod (Will Fletcher) stops them.

‘It was a good ship, sister,’ her brother says, trying to comfort her.

He asks why the stone sinks, and he says  it goes towards the darkness, adding the ship doesn’t gaze downward, but up.

She adds sometimes it’s hard to know which way is up and which way is down, as her brother Finrod whispers a secret to her.

She adds it seems so ‘simple’ but he says the most honest truths are, as he takes them to see mother and father. 

‘We have no word for death, for we thought our joys would be unending,’ Galadriel says in voice over, as Finrod is seen walking towards their village. 

‘We thought our light would never dim,’ she adds, as she explains how a legion of elves went to war, leaving their home in Valinor, journeying to a distant realm… Middle-earth.

The episode cuts to a massive battle in Middle-earth, as Finrod is overcome by the enemy, as Galadriel explains they thought it would be over quickly, but the war woul leave Middle-earth in ruin and last centuries.

Galadirel is seen on the battlefield long after it had ended, picking up her brother’s golden helmet and placing it on a massive pile.

‘Now, we learned many words for death. In the end, Morgoth would be defeated, but not before much sorrow, for his Orcs had spread to every corner of Middle-earth.’

She explains that the Orcs were under the spell of a cruel and cunning sorcerer, who was called Sauron, who is seen only in shadows, his face not exposed quite yet.

‘My brother vowed to seek him out and destroy him… but Sauron found him first,’ she says, as she’s seen standing over his corpse.

She adds Sauron branded his flesh with a symbol, which even the wisest among them could not discern.

‘And there, in the darkness, his vow became mine,’ Galadriel says, while clutching her brother’s dagger.

‘To the ends of the earth we hunted Sauron, but the trail grew thin. Year gave way to year, century gave way to century, and for many elves, the pain of those days, passed out of thought and mind,’ she says in voice over.

We see the icy kingdom of Forodwaith, a.k.a. The Northernmost Waste, as Galadriel explains that many elves began to believe that Sauron was just a memory and the threat had ended.

As the shot moves closer on the icy peak, we see Galadriel hopping onto an icy sheet, sticking her brother’s dagger in the ice.

‘I wish I could be one of them,’ Galadriel says as she scales the icy peak, with others seen scaling behind her.

Galadriel gets to the top first and consults a crude map, as Thondir (Fabian McCallum) comes up to her.

‘This company has followed you to the very edge of the world, but none who ever dared search for this last stronghold has never found anything,’ he adds.

He says that it has been years since the last Orc was seen, adding, ‘Is it not possible the other commanders are right and our enemy is no more?’

Galadriel doesn’t answer as he suggests they should camp there before starting the journey home, but she only says, ‘We’re losing light’ and continues onward.

Night has fallen as they move ahead with torches as Thondir tries to get her to stop when one of the company has fallen.

Thondir says there is nothing out there and they should have been there by now, when lightning strikes and they see a massive castle ahead of them.

‘We are there,’ Galadriel says as they journey inside the castle, with Galadriel saying this is where the Orcs gathered after Morgoth’s defeat, adding, ‘Far more must have escaped than we eve imagined.’

One man in the company says his hand is beyond feeling, as Galadriel insists that this place, ‘is so evil our torches give off no warmth.’

She leads them on to another place deeper inside, saying it is ‘colder than the rest,’ as a stony hand moves as they pass.

Galadriel approaches an icy wall which she punches through, telling her company to bring the wall down as they find a path inside.

They find skulls inside and tables for medieval experiments, and Thondir opens a door and find an orc skeleton embedded in the wall.

‘These Orcs were meddling with the powers of the Unseen World,’ Galadriel explains, adding it was ‘some dark sorcery of old,’ wondering what its purpose was.

Thondir says the purpose was ‘lost to the ages’ and whatever happened here happened long ago… as a solitary snowflake falls on the table… which somehow sizzles and disolves.

Thondir hand Galadriel some water, pouring over the table, revealing the mark that was embedded on her brother.

‘Even stone cannot hide the mark of one whose very hand is flame unquenched,’ Galadriel says as she sees a vision of Sauron’s mark in flames.

‘He was here. Sauron was here,’ Galadriel exclaims, telling the others to ‘rest while they can,’ adding they will take their search further north at sunrise.

Thondir wonders why they’re going further north as Galadriel explains the mark was left as a trail for orcs to follow, and the last time she saw it was on her brother.

An argument ensues between Thondir and Galadriel, with Thondir saying they exceeded their orders months ago and they should go home and take counsel with the High King.

‘I promise you there is not a soul in our company that yearns for home more than I,’ Galadriel explains.

‘Until we are certain every trace of our enemy is vanquished, I can never return,’ she tells him. 

The show made history long before the first two episodes debuted on Thursday evening, since it’s considered the most expensive series ever.

The show’s inception can be traced back to July 2017, when a grueling lawsuit between Warner Bros. – the studio behind the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films – and the J.R.R. Tolkien Estate, was settled.

Both the studio and the estate started offering the television rights to the franchise to streaming services, with Amazon quickly becoming a front-runner.

Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos has previously given a mandate to the Prime Video streaming service that he wanted a large-scale franchise.

Bezos was also reportedly a huge fan of the franchise and was personally involved in the negotiations for the just the rights alone, which were ultimately acquired in November 2017 for a whopping $250 million. 

Amazon also struck a deal with the Tolkien Estate and the Tolkien Trust where they are believed to have given the green light for upwards of five seasons of the show.

With an estimated production commitment of between $100 million and $150 million per season, Amazon is expected to shell out $1 billion for the production costs and the rights, when all is said and done.

The series was created by Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne, who had previously only worked on 2016’s Star Trek: Beyond as uncredited writers.

The duo pitched a series that would be set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, a history glossed over in a five-minute prologue during the Lord of the Rings films.

They wanted to expand this into roughly 50 hours of television, which would include the forging of the Rings of Power, the rise of the dark lord Sauron, the fall of the island kingdom Numenor and the final alliance between men and elves.

There will be characters fans will recognize, though, most notably Galadriel, played in the LOTR movies by Cate Blanchett, with the much younger version played Morfydd Clark.

There have been rumors that a white-haired character shown in the trailers, played by Bridie Sisson (previously thought to be Anson Boon), is actually Sauron himself, though producers have not confirmed that.

Executive producer Lindsey Weber would neither confirm nor deny Sisson’s character, she did offer a hint as to his origins to Time.

‘We are enjoying all the speculation online and can tell you Bridie Sisson is an incredible actor,’ Weber began.

‘We also thought fans might like to know that her character is traveling from far to the east—from the lands of Rhûn…’ Weber teased.

The new episodes will roll out simultaneously across the globe, with the first two episodes dropping on Thursday at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET/2 AM UK.

The final six episodes will roll out weekly at 9 PM PT/12 AM ET/5 AM UK, with the finale of the eight-episode season arriving Thursday, October 13 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.