Sauron recruits his future Ringwraiths in Rings of Power S3 trailer

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Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerreturns next month for its third season. Prime Videounveiled a teaserearlier this year at San Diego Comic-Con, but we haven’t heard much about the new season otherwise. We now have the official full trailer, and it’s jam-packed with a rising Sauron, who is intent on conquering Middle-Earth with his army of Orcs—with the fractured opposition of elves, dwarves, and men scrambling to figure out how best to stop him. We also meet the human men who will become the Ringwraiths; the showrunners have dubbed them the Nazgnagol (“Rings-servant”).

(Some spoilers for the first two seasons below.)

Prime Videomade a majorinvestment inThe Rings of Powerwhen it acquired the rights to the source material from the Tolkien estate, even committing to multiple seasons upfront. S3 is set seven years after the events of S2 and opens when the war between the elves and Sauron is at its height. Per the official synopsis:

In season three, Middle-earth is at war. Five years have passed since the fall of Eregion. Sauron’s armies have marched across the whole of the world, conquering all in their path. Only a few isolated pockets stand between the Dark Lord and total victory—Khazad-dǔm, where the Dwarves are now sealed deep within their mountain halls, and the elven realms of Lindon and Rivendell, which are protected by their Three Rings.

But deep in the land of Mordor, in his newly completed tower of Barad-dûr, the Dark Lord toils day and night, obsessed with harnessing a power that will bring the last of his enemies to their knees:One ring to rule them all.Now, all the free peoples of Middle-earth—Dwarves, Elves, Men, and Wizards alike—must find a way to come together, in a race against time to prevent Sauron from achieving his goal of utter domination of all life

We’re also getting some new characters this season, most notably Jamie Campbell Bower as Galadriel’s (Morfydd Clark) long-lost husband, Celeborn. Zubin Varla will play Khamul the Easterling of Rhun; Eddie Marsan will play Thrain, older brother to King Durin IV (Owain Arthur); Andrew Richardson will play Anarion, youngest son of Elendil (Lloyd Owen) and brother to Isildur (Maxim Baldry); and Adam Young will play an Orc named Marnukh, who “might not be what he seems.” Oh, and none other than Simon Pegg will voice the fiery Balrog.

The first four episodes ofThe Rings of PowerS3 premiere on November 11, 2026, on Prime Video. The fifth and sixth episodes will be available on November 18, and the final two episodes will premiere on November 25, 2026.

Senior Writer

Senior Writer

Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban.

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