Amazon’s new series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power edges ever closer to its September 2 premiere date. From the looks of this new official trailer, they’re holding nothing back.

Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. Set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the series will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness.

Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they themselves are gone.

It is only through the incredibly deep backstory work Tolkein did before writing his books that such a work is even possible. Tolkein literally wrote volumes on the languages and customs of the fantasy world he would bring to life in the pages of his novels. Now, let us see what this prehistory looks like. Will it be great? Or, will it be, as Bilbo put it, be “thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread”?

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