New Teaser For The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Looks Expensive

With the success of "Game of Thrones," it was practically inevitable that every other distributor in town would attempt their own high fantasy (and high-budget) series. Since "Game of Thrones" ended in 2019, Netflix has released "The Witcher" and "Shadow and Bone," both based on successful fantasy IPs. Amazon has already dropped "The Wheel of Time" and Disney is prepping its own reboot of the "Hobbit"-inspired "Willow" franchise. It's a good time to be a fantasy geek.

While most of these series have found audiences and become hits in their own right, Amazon's upcoming "Lord of the Rings" prequel, "The Rings of Power," is undoubtedly the 6,000-lb Oliphaunt in the Shire. It's been in the works since as early as 2017, and Amazon has already made it the most expensive TV series in history with a first-season budget of $465 million (via The Hollywood Reporter).

It's an especially big bet, because "The Rings of Power" covers territory that's relatively unknown to the casual Tolkien fan. It takes place during the Second Age of Middle Earth, just after the war between the evil Lord Morgoth and most of the free peoples of Middle Earth. During this time, blacksmiths working for Lord Celebrimbor create the 20 rings of power, including the One Ring to Rule Them All at issue in "The Lord of the Rings." This period also sees the emergence of the Dark Lord Sauron, Morgoth's successor and noted volcano enthusiast.

The first trailer for "The Rings of Power" gave us a brief glimpse of the upcoming show. Now that the second trailer is available, we have a much better idea of what that nine-figure budget is going to look like on screen.

Unfortunately, we can only share the 15-second teaser for the new "Dark Skies" trailer. The full 60-second version of the ambitious promotional video is only available to Amazon Prime subscribers (though fan uploads have been flitting in and out of existence on YouTube). Even the short clip, however, debuts several new looks at the Second Age of Middle-earth.

Since "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is set 2,000 years before the events of "Lord of the Rings," that means few characters from Tolkien's book trilogy will make an appearance in the upcoming series — barring those with ultra-long lifespans, like the elves. Morfydd Clark appears here as Galadriel, Lady of the Lothlórien, while Robert Aramayo will portray Elrond, Lord of Rivendell.

The rest of the main cast includes: Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor; Benjamin Walker as High King Gil-Galad, leader of the elves; Maxim Baldry as Isildur, ruler of Gondor; Ismael Cruz Cordova as Arondir, an elven archer who's in love with a human woman, Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi); Markella Kavenagh as the harfoot Nori Brandyfoot; Owain Arthur as Dwarven Prince Durin IV, ruler of Khazad-dum; Charlie Vickers as Halbrand, a new character created for the show; and Daniel Weyman as the Stranger, whose identity is one of the mysteries that drives the series.

"Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" premieres September 2, 2022, which is just weeks after HBO's "House of the Dragon." The battle between these shows should be just as exciting as anything that happens on either of them.