First teaser trailer (and full title) released for Amazon series

[kzer_za]

A lot of very abstract and stylized footage that probably won't be in the final show, it's neat though. The big reveal is that the title is "Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power." The voiceover is the ring poem (which I must say, is not read as well as Cate Blanchett).

Since the rumors have pointed toward a heavily Númenor-centric show starting in the late Third Age, it does kind of make me doubt them more (which is a good thing)...or maybe it's just a hyper-compressed timeline. Who knows.

I thought it would be good to have a new thread for this, but if Voronwë wants to move it into the other one it's fine.

[Eldy]

Yeah, my first thought was that this is an odd choice of subtitle for a show that all indications are will be a very loose adaptation of the Akallabêth, unless Amazon has been conducting a truly masterful disinformation campaign for the past couple years. Or maybe they are just leaning into emphasizing connections to LOTR: the Ring-verse is far more recognizable to the average potential viewer than anything to do with Númenor.

[Inanna]

It’s a lonnngg connection then - how are they even going to make it?

[elengil]

Okay I had been going to reserve judgement but now I think I'm in the Nope, no-longer-care, I-have-absolutely-no-faith-in-this-production, they-are-going-to-do-something-horrible phase of this.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm not sure how you make that leap from this, elengil. I actually find this somewhat encouraging, and a confirmation that much of what we have been hearing is Hooie. I do agree that the reading of the ring poem is not as good as Cate Blanchett, but that is a high bar.

[Eldy]

The Hollywood Reporter has a quote from the showrunners saying they want to cover basically the entire Second Age:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv ... 235077310/

“This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien’s other classics. The Rings of Power unites all the major stories of Middle-earth’s Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men,” said showrunners J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay. “Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring — but before there was one, there were many… and we’re excited to share the epic story of them all.”

I don't really see how this could work, even in five seasons, except through a ton of compression and fusion of elements. The most limited canon timeline one could construct from this summary—Sauron's arrival in Eregion to his defeat by the Last Alliance—covers more than 2200 years. That's obviously untenable if they want human and Dwarvish major characters who exist across the entire show. And there's just too much material without cutting and restructuring.

Peter Jackson made no references to the War of the Elves and Sauron in the FOTR prologue, giving the impression that the War of the Last Alliance was the first and only major showdown between Mordor and the "some who resisted" Sauron's bid to conquer Middle-earth. I could see Amazon making this explicit and placing the forging of the Rings, the reveal of Sauron's deception, the primary Akallabêth narrative, and the Last Alliance in relative close chronological succession. Not saying that's definitely going to happen (and I certainly don't want it), but ... something's gotta give.

[elengil]

I'm not sure how you make that leap from this, elengil.

I didn't claim it made any sense.

[narya]

https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/lord-o ... 235156784/

Here's more on how the teaser was made.

[kzer_za]

I think you could pull every major Second Age event off (even Aldarion and Erendis) with a reasonable moderate level of compression if you had a mid-series time jump where you refreshed the entire human cast.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I agree. Though I don't think that The Mariner's Wife will be included.

[Alatar]

Honestly I'm a little surprised anyone thought this wasn't going to be about the forging of the Rings of Power with a compressed timeline and most major events. That's kinda what I've been banking on...

[elengil]

Honestly I'm a little surprised anyone thought this wasn't going to be about the forging of the Rings of Power with a compressed timeline and most major events. That's kinda what I've been banking on...

To be clear, this is not the least bit unexpected to me, and I cannot fathom myself why this has thrown me into the mood it has.