Sauron Takes Over ‘The Rings of Power’ in Season 2 Trailer

Sauron’s power only grows. On Tuesday, Prime Video dropped the first trailer for the second season of Lord of the Rings: the Rings of Power and announced its premiere date of Aug. 29.

“An evil, ancient and powerful has returned,” declares a voice at the start of the teaser.

The trailer captures an action-packed new season as the Rings of Power crew—Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), Elrond (Robert Aramayo), Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova), and Isildur (Maxim Baldry)—faces a new enemy that “worms himself inside your mind as the rest of him slithers in.” The anticipation-building trailer then reveals Sauron’s new look (he’s disguised as an elf), before clips of destruction and chaos play rapidly.

“The new season plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity,” reads a synopsis of the new season. “As friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.”

The second season of Rings of Power started filming in late 2022 after its first season’s eight episodes premiered earlier that fall. Rings of Power serves as a prequel to the original Lord of the Rings trilogy and follows how the power rings were forged, Sauron’s rise to power, and the destruction and corruption of major kingdoms.

“Rings of Power isn’t some scrappy underdog where it’s easy to forgive the growing pains along the way. No one involved is being asked to do more with less,” read a Rolling Stone review of the first season’s finale. “We just have to hope they can do even more with more whenever this behemoth of a franchise returns.”