New Line Cinema
By Jeremy Mathai/Feb. 3, 2022 12:58 pm EST
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— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) February 3, 2022
Bring in the Ringers
Set thousands of years before the events of “The Lord of the Rings” and likely concerning the rise and subsequent fall of the island nation of Númenor (where Aragorn’s ancestors and the race of Men who would later found the kingdom of Gondor in Middle-earth hail from, for a bit of context), we’d pin down this character’s display of extravagant wealth and prosperity as a reflection of the heights that Númenor reached at the height of its powers. The ring on his pointer finger appears just different enough to perhaps represent one of the 20 total Rings of Power that Sauron himself commissioned to secretly ensnare the races of Elves, Men, and Dwarves. Could this be one of the Nine that eventually transformed a group of kings into the terrifying Ringwraiths?
Speaking of royalty, this next character poster certainly comes with a kingly or knightly air surrounding it. The ornate armor and sword are littered with designs of a sun, possibly pointing to our first big clue of who this might be. Fans of “The Lord of the Rings” will remember that Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) struggled with overcoming the flaws of his ancestor, Isildur, who neglected his chance to destroy the Ring once and for all after defeating Sauron on the field of battle. The Peter Jackson movies left out the fact that Isildur had a brother named Anárion (fun fact: the massive Argonath monuments seen in “The Fellowship of the Ring” actually depict both brothers), whose name loosely translates to “Son of the Sun.”
We’re doubling up on these two posters, both of which seem to depict two more royal characters — one bearing a distinctive scepter with a city at its head (which may symbolize Númenor itself) and the other with more sun emblems, hearkening back to the previous poster.
Guess Who’s Back
That said, we don’t expect Sauron to look quite as outwardly evil as he does here. After all, the villain managed to fool many of the wisest Elves into trusting him and going forward with his plan to forge his Rings of Power, and he likely couldn’t do that by running around in some of the most obviously villainous armor you’ve ever seen. Though he could very well don this look later in the season, we’d bet on Sauron — then known under the beguiling name of “Annatar” — taking a page out of Frodo’s (Elijah Wood) handbook, amusingly enough. If you remember, Frodo and his Hobbit friends struggle to trust the mysterious Strider/Aragorn when he first joins up with the small group. But as Frodo shrewdly points out, “I think a servant of the Enemy would look fairer and feel fouler.” In other words, prepare yourselves now for an attractive Sauron, folks.
