With just under a month to go until The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power returns to Prime Video for Season 3, a new poster for the series has been released (via SFFGazette.com).
As we get deeper into the Second Age and the ascension of Lord Sauron, the streaming series will finally introduce the Ringwraiths before they became the terrifying, inhuman Nazgûl. In The Rings of Power, they're known as the Nazgnagôl and are still normal men who loyally serve their master, Sauron.
Sauron and his Nazgnagôl are front and centre on this poster, standing tall before a suitably fiery background. That's obviously Mordor, which was first introduced in Season 1 after the volcanic eruption of Mount Doom.
Earlier this year, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay revealed that they immersed themselves in J. R. R. Tolkien's work to figure out how best to portray the origin story of the Nazgûl.
"We love looking back at what inspired Tolkien," Payne explained. "He led with language. Language became a scaffold on which the myth would hang. The word 'Nazgûl' means 'Ringwraith' in the Black Speech of Mordor. But before they were Ringwraiths, we know that these were just men."
"So we were able to derive in the Black Speech that 'nagôl' could mean 'servant,'" he continued. "'Nazgnagôl,' therefore, literally means 'Ring-servant.'"
This exploration of familiar characters and how they became the heroes and villains we first meet in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was this show's biggest draw from the start. It took a couple of seasons to get there, of course, but many fans feel it's now on a better track.
In The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3, Middle-earth is at war. Five years have passed since the fall of Eregion. Sauron’s armies have marched across the whole of the world, conquering all in their path. Only a few isolated pockets stand between the Dark Lord and total victory – Khazad-dûm, where the Dwarves are now sealed deep within their mountain halls, and the elven realms of Lindon and Rivendell, which are protected by their Three Rings.
But deep in the land of Mordor, in his newly completed tower of Barad-dûr, the Dark Lord toils day and night, obsessed with harnessing a power that will bring the last of his enemies to their knees: One Ring to rule them all. Now, the free peoples of Middle-earth – Dwarves, Elves, Men, and Wizards alike – must find a way to come together, in a race against time to prevent Sauron from achieving his goal of utter domination of all life
The series is produced by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay. They are joined by executive producers Lindsey Weber, Justin Doble, Kate Hazell, and executive producer-director Charlotte Brändström. Matthew Penry-Davey is producer, and Ally O’Leary, Tim Keene, and Andrew Lee are co-producers.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power returns to Prime Video on November 11.