EXCLUSIVE: At the beginning of the week, Amazon announced that we will see the first TRAILER for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power TV series tomorrow, Sunday, February 13th – Super Bowl Sunday in the United States. We followed that announcement with the news that TORn is partnering with Prime Video, to host the OFFICIAL Trailer Watch Party live stream.

We are now the first to reveal WHEN you’ll see the Rings of Power trailer.

Prime Video have let us know that it will debut early in the third quarter of the game. That gives us a rough window of time during which it will play. For those of you not watching the Super Bowl, the trailer will be posted on the internet almost immediately as it airs on tv; find it on Prime Video’s youtube channel. Be sure to be watching:

Feb 13th 5.35-5.40pm Los Angeles; 8.35-8.40pm Boston; Feb 14th 1.35-1.40am London; 2.35-2.40pm Wellington

We will go live from 5.15pm PT Sunday 13th; please join us across all social channels, all around the world! We’ll have guests including the Tolkien Professor Corey Olsen; artist Colleen Doran; music expert Doug Adams; and a host of Tolkien influencers and fellow fans! Not to mention TORn staffers who have been around since the First Age…

What must I do?

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel and have notifications turned on! We want to see all your comments, reactions and thoughts when the trailer drops. So grab a pint of miruvor and a plate of spicy balrog wings, and be ready to tune in! #LOTRTrailer

Meanwhile, check out the characters which have been revealed so far, here and here. Which will we see in the trailer? Even the wisest cannot tell…

Official Amazon Prime LOTR reveals now include the recent 23 character torsos, a slick title reveal, a single frame image from episode 1 (but not even 2nd Age), a now one-year-old synopsis and a lovely map of wider Arda; all of which may have left Lord of the Rings fans puzzled as to what this billion-dollar TV show is really all about. We asked the fans to list their most burning current questions that we could ask the Showrunners, just 8 months before the show’s debut on September 2, 2022.

Two decades ago, previous Middle-earth director Peter Jackson famously took “20 Questions” direct from the online fandom on AICN; facing innocent inquiries on just about everything. He returned with surprisingly generous answers to assuage the broadest of fan curiosities: offering up the earliest details of what Weta Digital’s MASSIVE software could create and even addressing for the first time “How will Gollum be created?” (we had no idea yet what motion capture miracles Andy Serkis and WETA had in store for us). It was a genuine treat.

In honor of 23 poster images we submit these 23 Questions in that same spirit as twenty years ago.

What weighs heavily on a Ringer’s soul?

  1. Will there be singing in the show? Songs (and poetry) are a big part of Tolkien’s world.
  2. Describe the challenge in writing a show with such extensive established lore – that yet has the least full narrative written by Tolkien himself? How do your writers approach this?
  3. Will we see the various different types of beings within a race (example: Noldor Elves vs. Teleri Elves)?
  4. Where is Sexy Sauron? No, really; where?
  5. Will the production seek to film in other locations globally? 
  6. Why Harfoots? Did Halflings in the 2nd Age seem essential for continuity?
  7. Fans are mainly concerned if this show will be true to the lore – Who is the Lore expert(s) on the show?
  8. Will David Salo return as Languages expert?
  9. What percentage of characters will be Tolkien canon versus newly created for the show?
  10. Looks like this is shaping up to have the most diverse casting of any Tolkien adaptation as the scope of the story expands across the planet of Arda. What do the Showrunners have front-of-mind when presenting these new characters and cultures through a wider lens?
  11. With many thousands of years of tumultuous events in the 2nd Age, when will the main timeline of the show focus on?
  12. Is John Howe involved (beyond the marketing Map)?
  13. Are the Showrunners fans of Tolkien? We know that they wrote a Star Trek screenplay, but would love to know more about their personal tastes as geeks.
  14. Are the accomplished people in the Writer’s Room pre-existing fans themselves?
  15. Why did Amazon decide to leave New Zealand as a filming location, especially when it has become so synonymous with Middle-earth all this time?
  16. Is Weta Workshop involved with physical props, weapons, costumes, and practical sets (not just Weta Digital)?
  17. Is Industrial Light & Magic involved with their “Mandalorian” digital screen set technology?
  18. Does this show connect with P.J.’s previous six films set in Middle-earth?
  19. Was Tolkien scholar/author Tom Shippey’s departure from the production amicable?
  20. End credits songs!!! We had some gems in the form of end credits songs for the movies. With a TV show, might we expect something similar at the end of each season?
  21. The Lurtz vs. Azog thing: will we get more practical makeup effects or more CGI creatures?
  22. The stories of the 2nd Age are notably bereft of magical creatures like Dragons and Balrogs. Is there a desire to include fantastical beasts and (houses of) dragons per the recent wave of poplar TV?
  23. To what degree is Howard Shore involved, since one of the most desired components of this entire enterprise is the returning embrace of his music?

Let’s hope all this recent marketing activity means the fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works have some more information to fuel their anticipation, sooner rather than later!

We welcome our readers here to join the conversation on our Discord and also join us live for TORn Tuesdays every week at 5:00pm Pacific Time on all our social channels.

Much too hasty,
Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway

EXCLUSIVE: This morning Amazon announced that we will see the first TRAILER for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power TV series this coming Sunday, February 13th – Super Bowl Sunday in the United States. We’re very excited to announce that TORn is partnering with Prime Video, to host the OFFICIAL Trailer Watch Party live stream!

Join us – and a host of guests – on Sunday 13th February to watch the trailer together, and then dissect it frame by frame! An epic analysis befitting of the Second Age of Arda. You’ll be able to find us streaming on all the socials… Stay tuned for more announcements – including specifics of timing – later this week. In the meantime jump into the new TORn Discord at https://discord.gg/theonering to chat with hundreds of other fans leading up to the big trailer… quest… thing.

What must I do?

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel and have notifications turned on! We want to see all your comments, reactions and thoughts when the trailer drops. #LOTRTrailer

What is the show about?

Last year we launched our Collecting The Precious Podcast, and were able to film 2 episodes before 2021 ended. Today, we bring you the third episode of our little collectibles chat. In episode 3, we were able to get Ben back with us, and we’re really really grateful that he was willing to take time out of his schedule to sit down with us. In this episode, we talk about price, edition size, and “value”, and really how subjective these three things are, as we collect these absolutely fantastic pieces. This was a set of topics I wanted to chat about, since it’s something that comes up all the time over the years and has been a point of contention I think, as prices rise and new companies like Prime One enter the game. I hope you all enjoy this one, and thank you for the support! Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Collecting The Precious Podcast Episode 3”

Sixty-four began the contest; in the end it came down to just two costumes, in TheOneRing.net’s March Madness 2021: the Battle of the Best Dressed in Middle-earth. Aragorn’s Strider garb took on Legolas’ ‘hero’ outfit – and the voting was fast and furious. Thousands of votes were placed – this final round saw the biggest turn out by far. The lead swung back and forth between the two costumes; but in the end, there could be only one. This year’s Grand Champion is…

Continue reading “Middle-earth March Madness Champion 2021”

‘We come to it at last – the great battle of our time….’ From 64 costumes at the start, we are down to the last two; which of those will be the Grand Champion of March Madness 2021, the Battle of the Best Dressed in Middle-earth? Here are the results of the Final Four:

Round Six – Grand Final

Strider took on the Witchking. It is said that no man can kill him; but the clothing of a ranger could defeat the wraith’s robes. By a margin of only about 150 votes, it is Aragorn who strides into the final.

Continue reading “Middle-earth March Madness Grand Final”