Warning: The following contains speculative spoilers from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, premiering this September on Amazon Prime.
With promises of multiple seasons and a billion-dollar budget, it was always clear the Amazon was going to pull out all of the stops for it’s new Lord of the Rings series. For years, anything and everything about the project was kept tightly under wraps. Recently, though, fans of Tolkien’s work have finally been getting key details about the coming series.
A synopsis revealed that the series would take place in the Second Age of Middle-earth, and the project’s title – The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power — confirmed its focus on Sauron’s ring-based machinations. Amazon also revealed a massive amount of beautifully detailed, character posters, but none of the posters showed the characters’ faces, making character identification difficult. Recently, though, Vanity Fair released an article that gave a first look at The Rings of Power, which revealed some plot details and a first look at some characters. So, we now know whose hands are in some of the following posters. However, there’s still plenty of room for speculation, so here are our best guess at who’s who in the hand posters.
Here’s A First Look At Galadriel And Elrond
One of the Most recognizable things about the Lord of the Ring’s Elves was their sense of fashion. As became their immortality and self-righteousness, most of them dressed in clothing that set them apart. So, based on that fact, the characters in these first four posters look to be Elves of the highest regard.
The figure in all gold could be a number of characters. The most obvious guess could be that he’s Ar-Pharazôn the Golden, the last king of Númenor. However, depending on the series’ timeline, Season 1 might be too early to introduce Númenor’s last king. With that said, the clothing looks too refined, even for a Númenórean and is most likely Elvish. It could be Celebrimbor, but the star-shaped ornament hints at this being Glorfindel. In the First Age, he was the Lord of the Gold Flower, which coincidentally had an eight-sided star as it’s banner.
Only a few characters are decidedly female, but this next character is one of them. Based on the armor, the character is definitely Elvish. Meanwhile, the dueling gold and silver in the dagger give a clear nod to the two Trees of Valinor: Laurelin and Telperion. Those trees have the most significance to Galadriel, laying the groundwork for The Rings of Power to take a more militant approach to her character. While it was one of the easier posters to predict, Vanity Fair’s article did confirm that the character is, indeed, Galadriel.
The figure in blue could be a king of Númenor, but again, the flowing clothes make him look Elvish. If that is the case, it’s likely that he’s the highest ranking Elf in Middle-earth — King Gil-galad himself. The key factor in that speculation is the fact that his banners were blue during the War of the Last Alliance. The final Elf in the picture is Elrond, according to Vanity Fair. During the Second Age, he was the herald to Gil-galad and a politically ambitious young leader. On his staff is likely an engraving of the Valinorian city of Tirion upon Túna.
These Characters Are Decidedly Elvish
The next batch of four posters are, again, Elvish, but their identities are more difficult to pin down. The first one is especially hard to predict. The star-shapes on the clothing point to something Elvish. Beyond that, though, nothing really lines up. Based on the process of elimination, it could Galadrial’s husband Celeborn, or if the golden figure isn’t Glorfindel, this could be him. However, it’s quite possible that this is a yet-to-be-identified Elf. The next character, looks very important with the red robes and golden scroll. Again, Celeborn and Glorfindel are possibilities, but this is probably the poster that’s most likely to be Celebrimbor. He was a very important Elf during the Second Age. In fact, he was the one that built the rings of power with Sauron’s help. As a wild card, it could actually be Sauron. After all, he did pose as Annatar (an emissary from the Valar) for the early part of the Second Age.
The third poster, could be no one, or it could be the most important character in the series. The ropes point to some kind of labor, and that could very well be shipbuilding. If that’s the case, it might be Ciridan the Shipwright – the oldest Elf in Middle-earth. He was renowned for his wisdom and his ability to grow a beard, which no other Elf could. The figure in the orange dress is likely a female. While her dress looks more Elvish that Manish, her identity is a complete mystery. Her book appears to have waves etched on its cover, but that doesn’t really help with who she is.
Rings Of Power Introduces Its Dwarves
While Dwarves don’t play a huge role in Middle-earth’s Second Age, there will be a few of note. Narvi — the dwarf who helped Celebrimbor build the Doors of Durin at the West-gate of Moria — will likely show up, but he isn’t one of the two dwarves here. According to the Vanity Fair article, the Dwarf with the red beard is Durin IV, the prince of Khazad-dûm. The runes on his large hammer say, “Awake sleeping stone,” which references the Doors of Durin, and his father, Durin III, the ruler of the dwarf kingdom, received one of Sauron’s rings. The second dwarf is wearing regal robes, along with a fair number of golden trinkets, wich points to royalty. Indeed that is the case because it’s a new character — the dwarven Princess Disa.
There Were No Shortage Of Weapons In The New Posters
These next three posters are super cool, and they give some pretty good hints to their characters’ general identities. The first one is holding an arrow, but more importantly, his breastplate features what looks like an Ent. Sauron torched the Entwives’ gardens during the War of the Last Alliance, so it’s possible that the character could have some contact with the Ents or the Entwives before Sauron went scorched earth on everything. Vanity Fair introduced the character as the Silvan Elf Arondir, which would put him in the right part of Middle-earth to see the Ents. His main storyline, though, will follow a forbidden relationship with the human healer Bronwyn. The second poster looks like one of the Rohirrim, but they didn’t exist, as such, during the Second Age. However, the character with the horse sword is probably one of the Northmen, who become the Éothéod — the ancestors of the Rohirrim.
The final character in this batch of three has offered some confusion. Some fans have suggested it being Glorfindel, but the sun-like emblem on the sword and breastplate don’t look like Glorfindel’s crest. Likewise, the armor doesn’t look Elvish because there’s no ribbing or ornate metal-work, just a simple embossment. That leads to the assumption that the poster portrays a Man, and given the golden color of the armor, this could very well be Ar-Pharazôn the Golden or another Númenórean king.
Is That Sauron Or Someone Worse?
Given that this is the Lord of the Rings, there has to be evil afoot, and there was no shortage of that in these posters. The first one features a character with a black, broken blade. There’s no question that something foul is afoot in the picture, and there are a couple of possibilities. Some fans have suggested that the sword was Gurthang, but it was buried with Turin Turambar. It’s more likely that the sword has something to do with the Cult of Melkor, meaning that the character holding it is likely a Black Númenórean and a future Nazgul.
Everyone thinks that the second poster here has to be Sauron, and while that’s possible, it’s simply not very likely. Unless there’s a flashforward, fans won’t get to see much of Sauron’s true self in Season 1, due to his disguise as Annatar. A second possibility could be the Witch King. However, that, again, is unlikely because the Witch King doesn’t appear until 2251 SA. Thus, we have to see Sauron forge the Rings of Power, distribute them and wait for them to take their affect before the Nazgul can appear. That leaves the most likely possibility of this being Morgoth. The Lord of the Rings’ prologue showed the downfall of Sauron, so hopefully an intro to The Rings of Power will show the downfall of Morgoth. That is all the more likely since Episode 1 is titled “Shadow of the Past,” which references the War of the Powers.
Wait, Is That A Blue Wizard?
The next poster shows a woman holding what appears to be a flower from the White Tree of Númenor. That probably means that she’s a queen of Númenor — perhaps Tar-Ancalimë, the first Ruling Queen or Tar-Míriel, the last rightful queen before her cousin Ar-Pharazôn usurped the thrown and took her as his wife. Finally, because of the flower, this could be theoretically be Yavanna. She was one of the Valar and essentially Tolkien’s “Mother Nature” figure.
Vanity Fair also introduced the woman in blue as the brand new character Bronwyn. She is a human healer and in a forbidden relationship with Silvan Elf Arondir. The final poster here features an older-looking man with a really cool, twisted walking staff with what looks like a bear claw on it. Perhaps it’s just an old man, but the staff is giving off serious wizard vibes. The Blue Wizards actually appeared in the Second Age, so it’s theoretically possible that it could be Alatar or Pallando.
Is That Tom Bombadil Or Just A Hobbit?
Frankly, these last five posters are a guessing game. There are hopes that the apple-holding character could be the powerful Tom Bombadil, but that’s probably a fool’s hope. It’s far more likely that he, along with the other five characters, are of the race of Men or even some early version of Hobbits. As such, we don’t who they could be at this point, even if they will play major roles in the series.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres Friday, Sept. 2 on Prime Video.
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