The newly released teaser trailer for Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power dropped on July 14 and sent ripples of excitement throughout Tolkien fandom, including through the ranks of TORn staff. Here below is a presentation of spur of the moment reactions; there will be another post soon that delves deep into some of the lore being presented in this teaser trailer.
But first, if this two and a half minutes is a ‘Teaser Trailer’ in Amazon’s estimation, we can’t wait to see what they consider a full Trailer! Check out our post from Thursday morning about the teaser trailer; and not to be lost in all the flash and bang from the teaser trailer, take a moment to read the official Amazon Press Release at the bottom of the post, and note that when the show debuts on September 2, it will be an 8-part series. It’s still not clear if the episodes will drop all at once or one episode a week. Hopefully we’ll find out that answer during Amazon’s panel at San Diego Comic-con next week, so keep an eye out for our reports from the panel and exhibit hall floor throughout the week.
Staff reactions
Entmaiden:
Oh my gosh, I love it! I have to watch a few more times to get my thoughts together, but at one point, I said aloud “Mithril”. Fondly remembering the days of the first Fellowship trailer, when many of us were still on dial-up modems and had to wait until the late hours of the night to download.
Kelvarhin:
Watched it several times already, atm all I can think of saying is “Wow!”
added later (in reaction to the red hued death and destruction scene) – I zoomed in on the top of the tower. Is it just me or does it look like ripples of water around it? Which would support this being from the sinking and possibly a vision Galadriel has. Could that explain why she goes to Numenor and sees Elendil? To warn the Faithful?
Sarumann:
That was fantastic! The previous promos and trailers have looked cool, but haven’t fully “felt” like LOTR to me. This one did. Looking forward to September! I’m leaning heavily toward THAT [editor’s note – red hued death and destruction] shot being a vision of the Fall of Numenor, and here’s why: above the water, we can see a flaming tower. I’m have a strong feeling that’s supposed to be Ar-Pharazon’s temple to Morgoth.
Deej:
This trailer has renewed my excitement for the show. Everything about it screams ‘Middle-earth’ and at the same time looks different than anything else we’ve seen before.
Earl:
I may be reaching here … but perhaps Galadriel will be portrayed as having some sort of foresight. Since she emphasises “you have not seen what I have seen” by saying it twice, it almost as if she’s talking not about the past (as Elrond assumes!) but is instead referring to some vision of the future that she may have foreseen. It would give credibility to her belief that the evil is still out there, and explain her motivation for continuing her fight.
Meanwhile, I’m loving the use of music and song here. What is this song and who is the singer? And right at the beginning, when Galadriel lifts her eyes, we hear Howard Shore’s Rivendell theme. 😍 This shot even seems reminiscent of Galadriel’s “footsteps of doom” shot in FOTR when the Fellowship enters Lorien.
added later – There’s two reasons I don’t *think* that fiery scene is Numenor …
1. It looks like someone’s been speared, but there was no battle at the downfall of Numenor. When Ar-Pharazon sailed to the West and set foot on Valinor, Eru caused the cataclysm that sunk the place. Unless the showrunners are going to hype up the tension by showing a parallel battle sequence with the Faithful while Ar-Pharazon sails West.
2. Why would Galadriel be battling at the fall of Numenor, and how does she escape? With the Faithful?
The possibilities exist!
Meanwhile, on a total tangent, is that one scene of Elves raising their swords depicting the sons of Feanor taking their oath?
Elessar:
As has been made clear I’ve been slow in my excitement for the show. I’m still not loving blonde Elrond. I also if what we were told from the get to in England to be true we’ve not seen Narsil. I still have hope it’s going to match at least super close to what was in Peter Jackson’s Trilogy. That being said this trailer on two watching has VERY much increased my excitement to the point I got goosebumps watching it both times. The use of previous LOTR music mixed with new was genius. The scenery and costumes look amazing and you can tell Weta has been involved with some of this. I’m also totally in on Morfydd Clark as Galadriel. She seems to be a fantastic choice to take on the mantle of Galadriel. I think I’m putting my chips all in on this series.
Garfeimao:
I’m going to go in clean, having not read any of the other staff reactions, and kind of do a ‘play by play’ reaction to what I see from the 2min 32sec trailer.
Opens with the same ship sailing in the narrow cliff lined canal, but is the narrator still Elanor, or perhaps Galadriel this time, with a line like “There was a time the world was so young, there had not yet even been a sunrise”.
And that last phrase “but even then, there was LIGHT” is our entry point into the flash back to the Two Trees, how delightful.
Ooh, we get a song about wandering, and one of the Harfoots claims that they’re safe, but I wonder what it is about being wanderers that makes her say that.
There seems to be two sequences with Galadriel interspersed, her and a handful of Elves in the snowy mountains, and her in Lindon with Elrond, who is trying to convince her she no longer needs to fight, while she is still worried about the Enemy still being out there, somewhere.
The overhead shot of a port city is absolutely stunning, is this Numenor? Which city though?
And then during Elrond and Galadriel’s debate, she claims he has not seen what she has seen, he claims he’s seen his share, and then we see that close up image of her lit up in red with ash and dust in the air and her claim ‘You have NOT seen. . . what I have seen’ and then the image that took my breath away, I gave an audible gasp at the sequence of fire and falling (maybe floating) bodies all lit up in a fiery red. A terrible past (or future) brought to life, such a visceral sequence here.
Oh my, that ship sailing into the harbor, those sails, magnificent.
Looks like Gil-Galad agrees with Galadriel’s concerns about the Enemy, that ALL peoples are in danger, and then we see some of the other races, and a torch-bearing army of Orcs marching across a bridge or causeway.
When Elrond is being brought into the Dwarf realm, he’s escorted by an armored dwarf across a bridge and we see an underground realm with buildings and waterfalls, it’s glorious and beautiful, and we see both Durins, the father and son, briefly.
An interesting philosophical debate about the Past seems to be presented by different characters in different realms. Durin III says “I am sorry that their time has come”, but no idea who he’s referring to or who he’s talking to, but it’s followed by Durin IV breaking the boulder with his axe. We then see Arondir say ‘The past is with us all’, again, no idea who he’s speaking to, but that is cut away to Numenor and a cavalry charge while Elendil is heard saying ‘the Past is dead. . . we either move forward, or we die with it’ and then Durin IV says ‘this could be the beginning of a new era’ while he is holding what looks like a nugget of Mithril.
There is a series of fights, but one interesting one is a chained Arondir fighting what looks to be a large Warg, and we also see Galadriel fighting that snow troll.
Ummm, when we see the Meteor man trying to get out of the burning crater, helped by Elanor, the overhead shot shows the circle of flame suddenly blow out, but the actual image is so very reminiscent of the Eye of Sauron, lidless and burning. Is this character supposed to be Sauron, or is this a huge, flaming Red Herring?
And then we are back to Harfoots wandering, accompanied by the song again.
And thus, the trailer ends. And then I watched a dozen more times, just to make sure I saw what I thought I saw.
Alyse:
First reaction: WOW. Still cautious in my excitement to temper expectations but it looks far more Middle-earth than what we’ve seen previously. They are really going for something EPIC here and I hope they pull it off!
Altaira:
I echo the ‘WOWs’ from everyone else.
The more I see of this version of Middle-earth, the more things I like. I’m seeing a lot of continuity with the previous films, not only in the landscapes, but the look of the buildings, the details of the costumes, etc. I think that will help the believability for the audience that this new series is still Middle-earth.
I’m really liking most of the casting that we’ve seen so far, especially Galadriel, Elendil, Durin, and the Harfoots . I’m with others who can’t really get into Robert Aramayo as Elrond. He took me out of Game of Thrones as a young Ned Stark too. Fine actor, he just has a face that says ‘comedy’ to me.
One other niggle: I hope they’re going to improve the CGI of the white birds flying around the ships. To me they look like flat, paper cutouts. Shockingly so.
I don’t think ‘meteor man’ is Sauron. Sauron went into hiding after the fall of Morgoth, and when he reappeared it was in a fair form intended to put people at ease and hide his evil-ness. I doubt he’d call attention to himself by riding back onto the scene via a meteor streaking across the sky for all to see.
It’s exciting to see the Dwarves’ discovery of mithril in Moria. It’s what caused them to ‘delve too far and too deep,’ eventually waking the Balrog. Again, good continuity here. It would be nice to see other references to the future Middle-earth.
All-in-all, I’m very excited to see more!! Not too long to wait now.
WeeTanya:
Here are a few of the points I haven’t seen covered yet.
* Whenever I see Galadriel and Elrond chatting, I think, “Hey Galadriel, that’s your son-in-law.”
* Who is the guy that’s the dead ringer for Aragorn? Is it Elendil?
* If it’s Elendil, that would put the story nearer to the fall of Numenor. Maybe this tale is also about Elendil’s founding of the Realms in Exile?
😀 This is so much fun.
