Since season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power wrapped up, fans have been waiting patiently for answers on the future of the show. The series, which is set thousands of years before the events of the Peter Jackson films, is one of Amazon Prime Video’s biggest investments, and it’s one the company definitely wants to see succeed. The show features characters and storylines that help build a vast and interesting prequel world to the plot we have all come to know and love from The Lord of the Rings movies.
The Rings of Power has been acclaimed for its vast scale and has been rewarded with Emmy nominations for sound editing, costume design, and title theme music back in season 1. Others have complained the show strays too much from the semblance and spirit of Tolkien’s world. Whatever you feel about it, you’re certainly going to be interested in how it finishes once it returns. Given the fact that the show is in between seasons, we’re offering you a rundown of everything we know so far about The Rings Power season 3, including what the plot might be and when it might be released.
Has The Rings of Power been renewed for season 3?
The Rings of Power season 3 has officially been renewed by Amazon. There is very little information about the season beyond the three directors the company announced who will be working on the season: Charlotte Brändström, Sanaa Hamri, and Stefan Schwartz. These directors have worked on some of the best shows on TV today and in the past decade from The Walking Dead to The Boys.
Amazon is touting the show’s viewership numbers from season 2. The series reportedly had 55 million viewers during just the month of its release, although viewership may also be down somewhat from season 1. Given how much Amazon has invested in the series, though, it seems like it may be committed to seeing it through, and 55 million is nothing to sneeze at, even if it’s unclear how many people actually finished the season.
It seems unlikely that Amazon will cut the show off before it finishes its run the way the creators intended. The Rings of Power has been divisive inside of the Tolkien fandom, and while season 1 was pretty widely reviled, season 2 proved that the show still has plenty of fans who are invested in this world.
Payne, meanwhile, made it clear that Amazon had purchased a 50-hour story upfront, understanding that the show would likely have to last five seasons. “They knew from the beginning that was the size of the canvas — this was a big story with a clear beginning, middle, and end,” he said. “There are things in the first season that don’t pay off until season 5.” The writer even added that they already have plans for “what our final shot of the last episode is going to be.”
When is the release date for The Rings of Power season 3?
Given that it took two years for season 2 to hit screens following the show’s first season, it seems likely that we’ll be getting the show’s third season in 2026 at the earliest. Preproduction has begun on season 3 with the official announcement of the renewal so hopefully, more information will be ready for fans in the coming months.
What will happen in season 3 of The Rings of Power?
The season 2 finale gave us a few breadcrumbs for what season 3 could contain. We now know that Sauron has the nine rings intended for men, and it seems likely that one major thread of the third season will involve him finding men to corrupt with those rings. As any The Lord of the Rings fan might recall, the men who receive those rings ultimately turn into the nine ringwraiths, who are all loyal to Sauron.
Elsewhere in the story, we could see the continued fall of Numenor, which Sauron may eventually corrupt, and the establishment of Rivendell. The dwarves, meanwhile, may be dealing with a succession crisis, and the solution to that crisis may lead Prince Durin to turn back to the ring that he knows doomed his father.
Fans will continue to be hyper-critical of the decisions made in this show. The Tolkien universe has such incredible attention to detail, but the Amazon series has been an experiment in style over substance. Too many classic plot lines and vital character developments have happened differently than expected or were skipped altogether. We’ll have to wait and see what happens in season 3 before getting too upset at the decision-makers behind the camera yet again.
