The Lord of the Rings franchise continues with The Rings of Power Season 3, which will premiere on Amazon Prime Video this week. The trailers for Season 3 have been getting fans hyped over the fact that it will cover some of the biggest moments in J.R.R. Tolkien’s lore. That would be Sauron (Charlie Vickers) forging the One Ring, and with it, tightening his hold over the various races of Middle-earth. We’ll also see the Elves rise up for a war against Sauron, leading to the infamous battle that cut the One Ring from Sauron’s finger and left the dark lord banished and formless until the Third Age, when he would make his move to recapture the Ring and conquer the world.
In that context, it would seem like The Rings of Power Season 3 is on solid ground to deliver a season that even the show’s biggest detractors will enjoy. However, Rings of Power showrunner Patrick McKay has teased that the show is going to be taking some big swings in terms of how it tells the story and which characters it chooses to focus on.
The Rings of Power Season 3 Showrunner Patrick McKay revealed to /Film that Episode 2 of the new season will make a surprise detour into a character that no one expects to see in the protagonist slot: “The second episode this season, arguably the protagonist is Ema Horvath’s character, Eärien over in Númenor – who you abstractly would never think that the sister of the [character] over in that particular story would take that kind of prominence,” McKay explained. He let fans know that it’s a calculated risk being taken: “We’re just looking [for] ways to shake it up and surprise you, and we know what Ema can do. And we were very excited to give her that chance.”
Ema Horvath plays Eärien, the little sister of Isildur (Maxim Baldry), and daughter of Elendil (Lloyd Owen). While the men in her family go on to fulfill pivotal roles in the war against Sauron and the fate of the One Ring, Eärien was created for the show and has been a peripheral character, at best.
While the island kingdom of Númenor has its own pivotal history within the saga of Middle-earth, those Game of Thrones-style political workings and schemes aren’t necessarily fan-favorite portions of Tolkien lore. The portions of The Rings of Power TV series that are set in Númenor have similarly not been fan-favorite story arcs to follow. There are early rumors that Eärien’s story could lead to a surprise twist where the original character transitions into a familiar villain from The Lord of the Rings lore, so hopefully, Episode 2 is planting some necessary seeds for a later big reveal.
That all said: Númenor is (as stated) a key piece of Tolkien’s lore about Middle-Earth in the Second and Third Ages, and the battle against Sauron. Ignoring it entirely is impossible, but hearing that characters like Eärien are taking the reins of that arc is concerning. The Rings of Power Season 3 is only 8 episodes long and is releasing on a 3-week batch schedule (4-episode premiere week, then 2 weeks of 2-episode releases); it doesn’t feel like there’s a single episode to waste.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3 streams on Prime Video starting on November 11th.
