Released at San Diego Comic-Con, the newest trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has blessed us with a ton of exciting moments to dig into, including an array of super-cool creatures from Tolkien lore.
Part of the magic of The Lord of the Rings has always been in the esoteric selection of fictional creatures that its author brought to life on the page. Season 1 gave us orcs and a tease of a fiery beast beneath the Mines of Moria, but the Season 2 trailer reveals a number of fan-favorite Middle-earth monsters and more that'll have Tolkien fans counting down the days to the premiere. So as you're enjoying your SDCC (or the news that's coming out of the world-famous event), we've dug deep into the trailer and Tolkien's world to break down all the creatures we spotted and everything you need to know about them.
"Could it be that the trees of Fangorn were awake, and the forest was rising, marching over the hills to war?"
This is a massive moment for Lord of the Rings fans, as the peaceful tree-like people make their Rings of Power debut in this trailer. We see them offering thoughtful advice about the nature of forgiveness and get some Ent action later in the trailer as they use their immense branches to swipe a foe out of the way -- and possibly out of existence.
Canonically little is known about the Ents in the Second Age when Rings of Power is set, so this is an interesting addition and could be a way of expanding their canon. In case you aren't already familiar, the Ents are a race of tree-like people that evolved over thousands of years to become more and more like the trees they're there to protect. They allied themselves with Frodo and his friends in Peter Jackson's The Two Towers, helping to trap Saruman and destroy his stronghold.
As the Ents are thousands of years old we could potentially see a young version of Treebeard, who traveled with Merry and Pippin. But for now, we're just happy to see the peaceful Ents appear at a time when they're thriving.
"Come not between the Nazgûl and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shriveled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye."
Amidst everything else going on in the action-packed trailer, we also get an atmospheric look at what could be the famed Ringwraiths. The Lord of the Rings has innumerable spooky, folkloric figures in its midst, but these are some of the scariest out of all of them. The Ringwraiths are the spirits of corrupted Númenorians who were seduced into Sauron's servitude by the rings of power, hence their name. While the Ringwraiths are best known as the Nazgul, a sort of roving taskforce of ghouls who work for Sauron, they were around in the Second Age during the period in which Rings of Power is set. The new trailer makes clear that the rings are deeply dangerous and the threat that they pose will be a major part of the new season. Still, it feels like timing-wise we'd have to get a flash-forward or potentially some kind of vision of the future for the Ringwraiths to appear, seeing as we're still waiting for most of the rings to be forged. We know they're coming during this period, but wouldn't expect them to be here just quite yet!
If this is the Ringwraiths, it could be interesting to get a bottle episode that shows more of their journey of corruption, how they became Ringwraiths, and what the time between that and them fading into the haunted spirits known as the Nazgul looked like. There is a chance that these are just "wraiths," which would mean they're spirits killed by dark magic, but we have an inkling from what we see here that they'll be a version of the infamous corrupted wearers of the rings.
"But still, she was there, who was there before Sauron, and before the first stone of Barad-dûr; and she served none but herself, drinking the blood of Elves and Men."
We get to see Isildur (Maxim Baldry) facing down against a giant spider in the new trailer which of course sent our minds instantly to the terrifying giant spider known as Shelob. Interestingly, from what we know of her in the Second Age she would be living near Mordor, which makes sense as we left them in the Southlands. Known to be a vicious beast, Shelob first appeared in the Two Towers novel but ended up in the Return of the King movie due to the film needing some more exciting things for Frodo and Sam to come up against on their long walk.
She's a massive creature who is infamous for eating her own children. It'll be interesting to see what role she plays this season, whether it's just a simple battle for Isuldur to overcome or whether she'll end up being more significant than we think. That could definitely come true as we learn more about Sauron, who in the books allowed Shelob to live in the tunnels surrounding Mordor as something of an unofficial guard against would-be trespassers. We could see that agreement being made here, or at least get a gist of just how involved the two actually were.
"It was like a great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater; and a power and terror seemed to be in it and to go before it."
The end of Season 1 — and the series’ Season 1 SDCC trailer — left us with the knowledge that the Balrog had awakened under the Misty Mountains of Moria. It was a huge moment, as the creature is one of the most legendary in Tolkien's canon. While there are multiple Balrogs in his books, the specific Balrog we saw at the end of the series and again here is likely the one known as Durin's Bane, named because of the problems that it caused for the Dwarf King Durin. The looming fiery beast was inspired by numerous theological demons as well as the Nordic devil known as Surt. And, as seen in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the RingsLord of the Rings films, it was able to ensnare its victims with its fiery whip.
It seems likely that we're going to see the Balrog play a large part in Season 2 as the Dwarves mine deeper and deeper into the mountains for more Mithril at the command of Durinso they can forge more rings. The Balrog exists as both a legitimate threat and a representation of the price of the King’s greed. In later lore, Tolkien revealed that Balrogs were in fact angelic creatures that had been corrupted by the evil being known as Melkor, one of the powerful deities known as Valar that exist in Tolkien lore.
If you can't immediately recall the extensive lore of the Valar, here's what you need to know: first appearing in The Silmarillion, the Valar are the gods of the world of Middle Earth who existed long ago and built the world as we know it, they're also worshiped by many. Melkor was one of the 14 deities sent to craft the Earth, but he rebelled against his fellow gods causing a great war and corruption. In the Second Age they play a key part in what's to come as one of their rules "the Ban of Valar" incites the rebellion and wrath of a certain Númenórean king, leading to the drowning of the city and the fall of the once great Kingdom of men.
"'I felt that something horrible was near from the moment that my foot first touched the water.'"
While the Watcher in the Water featured in the original Rings of Power Season 2 trailer rather than this new one, we're including it here as we get a moment that connects to that appearance. In that trailer we saw a woman looking onto the Watcher in the Water while submerged, and here we see that woman is likely Queen Regent Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) of Numenor. So let's dig into the iconic The Lord of the Rings creature and then we can talk about how and why the Queen Regent might be seeking it out.
In the original Tolkien stories, the Watcher in the Water arrives in the fourth chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring, "A Journey in the Dark." The Lord of the Rings fans may remember that Watcher in the Water scene from Peter Jackson's original trilogy where it emerged during The Fellowship of the Ring — after being disturbed by the cheeky duo of Pippin and Merry rather than Boromir — as the party attempted to uncover the riddle on the Doors of Durin.
When it comes to what we know about the Watcher outside of The Fellowship of the Ring, the details are sparse. But one thing we do know is that it lives in water near the Mines of Moria. That's why it feels important to see the Watcher here, as we know that the Mines and the Dwarves who live there will be a key part of Season 2 of Rings of Power. The Watcher could be one of the "Nameless Things" that inhabit the depths of Middle-earth. But the ultimate question is what the creature is doing in the Second Age, and why Miriel is near the Misty Mountains.
The Watcher generally didn't appear until the Third Age, so we're going into uncharted territory here. But we could see the Dwarves' digging deeper and unleashing the Watcher, confirming that it is indeed a Nameless Thing. There's also the chance that we learn it's not a malicious creature as we’ve been led to believe by The Lord of the Rings so far, and is instead protecting something deep in the Earth, or even stopping the Balrog from venturing up onto the surface of Middle-earth.
As for the Queen Regent we currently have two theories : She could end up in Moria seeking council with the Dwarves, and meet the Watcher there, or perhaps the drowning of Numenor will come sooner than we think. In that case we could see Miriel seeking out the Watcher in the Water and the "Nameless Things" in order to try and save her people. Perhaps she could even head to Moria to do just that rather than asking the Dwarves for help. Another interesting possibility is that we could learn more about the Watcher in the Water and that perhaps it was originally living deep in the seas of Numenor before it found its home under the Mines of Moria.
Rings of Power takes place so long before what we know of The Lord of the Rings, that it really is the perfect place to expand on lore that has long been a passion of fans, like the Watcher, in a way that adds to both the TV series and the books.
It'll be interesting to see just what happens when the series returns to Prime Video August 29.
Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.
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