Middle-earth invaded San Diego Comic-Con with the release of the brand-new trailer for Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming fantasy series,The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.The highly-anticipated series will premiere on September 2nd on the streamer and will usher in a new vision of Middle-earth for new and returning fans of the iconic franchise.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerwill take place before Peter Jackson’s iconic films, which focused on Fordo and the fellowship’s adventure to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom to save Middle-earth from destruction by the hands of Sauron. The brand-new Amazon Prime Video series will step back thousands of years before those events and will center on the rings of power that allowed the Dark Lord Sauron to spread evil across Middle-earth.
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Stephen Colbert, host ofThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert, took the stage in Hall H to introduce the brand-new footage, which included stunning images of the deterioration of peace and prosperity in Middle-earth. The spine-tingling soundtrack accompanying the footage adds to the growing intensity of each captivating moment, providingcloser looks at the Orcsand other unfathomable new and familiar monsters that will plague the series' new cast of protagonists. The footage also included a surprise in the form of a balrog, which fans of the Peter Jackson trilogies will quickly recognize. The demonic monster appeared in 2001’sThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ringand met its demise in an iconic clash withIan McKellen’s Gandalf. The demonic creatures' shocking appearance is quick toward the end of the new footage but hints toward an unimaginable threat that may be difficult to overcome in the shifting tides of Middle-earth.
JD Payne and Patrick McKay created the upcoming series, developing a new adventure based on the world from J.R.R. Tolkien’s original writing about the Second Age in Middle-earth. The series will look to make a ground-breaking splash once it officially arrives in September, anchored by a jaw-dropping $465 million budget. The series will look to fill a void left by the absence of HBO’sGame of Thronesbut will have to compete with theHouse of the Dragonspinoff series, which will premiere in late August.
The brand-new trailer generates tremendous excitement, but only time will tell if the series can live up to the hype it’s been developing over the past few months. The adventure’s grand landscape opens up an exciting new world for audiences to immerse themselves in, bringing the fandom ofJackson’s iconicLord of the Ringsfilmsback to life in a new way. If done right and successfully handled, the Amazon Prime Video series could be an unstoppable force to be reckoned with for years to come.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerwill premiere on Amazon Prime Video on July 01, 2025.
