Fresh off the news that Warner Bros is re-teaming with Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis for their Gollum spin-off, comes Prime Video’s announcement of the return of their own ambitious Lord of the Rings series, The Rings of Power. The new trailer teases the return of Charlie Vickers’s Sauron, sporting a new look, with the season making its debut on August 29th.

Despite being the most ambitious series in Prime Video’s history, it’s worth noting that the first season got a rather middling reception from fans. Whether or not the show was seen as a success for Prime ended up being a matter of perspective, with the streamer boasting that it had the streamer’s biggest premiere ever. However, a report in the Hollywood Reporter revealed that the series was only finished by 37% of it’s initial U.S viewers, which is a troubling statistic. Truth be told, I was one of those viewers who abandoned the show early on, as despite the lavish production values, it simply could not hold my attention.

Nevertheless, the streamer has ploughed forward with season two, with the series seeming to embrace a more story-driven, darker tone as opposed to the world-building (overkill, in my opinion) of the first season. We’ll see if this brings people around, but I have my doubts. The fact is, people view Peter Jackson as the ultimate architect of the saga on the big screen, even if the Tolkien estate doesn’t appreciate him (they made sure he had nothing to do with the series). With WB green-lighting more Lord of the Rings movies, it can’t be denied that some may decide to wait for the next LOTR movie and ignore The Rings of Power altogether. However, I could be wrong, as it’s possible the second season will win people over in a way the first simply couldn’t. Check out the trailer embedded above, and let us know what you think in the comments!

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