Potential spoilers follow for The Rings of Power season 2.
The Rings of Power season 2‘s release date is fast approaching, and Amazon is ramping up the marketing campaign ahead of the return of its most-watched TV Original.
Indeed, not only have we been treated to an epic new teaser – read my article breaking down The Rings of Power season 2’s official trailer – recently, but we’ve also been gifted a new behind-the-scenes video to pore over. Check it out below:
After watching it, I’m sure you’ll agree that there are some interesting insights and reveals hidden within the Prime Video featurette’s near-four minute runtime. From the grand reveal about other returning faces from The Rings of Power season 1 to the occasional subplot confirmation, here are six of the biggest hidden details within.
1. Kemen, Theo, and Eärien will return in season 2
While I expected three of The Rings of Power‘s younger cast members – Kemen, Theo, and Eärien – to return in the show’s sophomore season, we hadn’t actually received confirmation that they would. Indeed, the trio were conspicuous by their absence in The Rings of Power season 2’s first teaser and were equally nowhere to be seen in the official trailer.
Thanks to its latest behind-the-scenes video, though, we know they’ll be part of proceedings, with the three characters showing up at various points in the assembled footage.
2. Gil-galad goes to war
Season 2 of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings prequel series is going to be a darker, spookier, and more action-packed chapter than its predecessor. Where the latter of those three are concerned, there’ll be more large-scale fight sequences – and few will be as spectacular as they are grimdark than The Siege of Eregion, which I’ve long predicted to be season 2’s tentpole battle.
As part of that bloody and brutal conflict, it appears we’ll see High King Gil-galad take up arms and enter the battlefield. We had an inkling that he would see some action this season – actor Benjamin Walker teasing he’d pick up his legendary spear Aeglos in a November 2022 chat with Nerdist. Based on the two brief glimpses we get of Walker in elven armor in this featurette, it seems nailed on that this will be the case.
3. March of the Ents
The Rings of Power season 2’s official trailer confirmed that we’ll see one Ent – The Lord of the Rings‘ sentient, tree-like beings – in one of the best Prime Video show’s next outing. But, we’re likely to be introduced to more than just a solitary Ent, with Theo actor Tyroe Muhafadin letting slip that we’ll see multiple Ents in the show’s latest installment.
4. Queen Regent Míriel, the Sea Worm, and the Sea Trial
One of the biggest mysteries surrounding season 2’s Númenor storyline involves a giant sea creature we’ve briefly seen in both trailers. Some fans and reporters have suggested this is just a younger version of the Watcher in the Water, who Frodo and company fight outside the Mines of Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring.
That theory, though, is incorrect. As I mentioned in my season 2 official trailer breakdown, the aquatic beast is actually a Sea Worm – and, thanks to this new behind-the-scenes video, not only do we get confirmation that it is a Sea Worm, we also know what role it’ll play in the forthcoming season.
Essentially, it’s used in what’s known as a Númenórean Sea Trial. Individuals who are rumored to be guilty of committing some form of crime and/or sin must wade into the lake that the Sea Worm inhabits to face it. If they’re innocent of the accusation leveled against them, it won’t kill and/or eat them.
Given what we know about the Númenor-based subplot of this season – that Ar-Pharazôn will try to usurp Queen Regent Míriel, who currently sits on the Númenórean throne – I speculate that Míriel will need to prove her innocence after Ar-Pharazôn accuses her of some form of wrongdoing. We’ll see if I’m right soon enough.
5. Orc-hestrating some individuality
One of my biggest bugbears with season 1 is that there was a distinct lack of individuality within the ranks of Adar’s orc army. Considering there were a few orcs and Uruk-hai who displayed different personalities in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, that was something of a disappointment.
But it looks like season 2 will rectify that error. Indeed, we know there’ll be at least one named orc – Glûg, who’ll be played by Robert Strange and who appears to be Adar’s lieutenant-in-chief. Let’s hope there are even more unique orcs who have major or minor roles throughout this season.
6. Adar’s merciless ace in the pack
First revealed by Empire magazine and later teased in season 2’s main trailer, a new race of troll – the Hill-troll – will make their debut in The Rings of Power. The towering, monstrous figure we were introduced to in both instances is named Damrod, who is also know as the ‘Eater of Dragon Bones’. Sounds ominous.
Anyway, it looks like Adar recruits Damrod for his assault on the city of Eregion, but Damrod – like the Mumakil in The Return of the King‘s Siege of Gondor/Battle of Pelennor Fields – will be used in a later phase of this conflict, especially if the tide is turning against Adar’s forces.
Damrod, then, looks like he’ll be Adar’s terrifying and merciless ace in the pack. Tat said, it appears he’ll have little regard for soldiers on both sides of the fight, meaning he’s as likely to kill his orc comrades as he is to butcher any elves. That won’t sit well with Adar’s orc warriors and might lead to an orc insurrection against their ‘All-Father’ if they think his decision to send Damrod into the fray resulted in the unnecessary deaths of their orc brethren.
The Rings of Power season 2 debuts exclusively on Prime Video on August 29.
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