Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV show may focus on Sauron’s rise to power

Amazon Studios’ upcoming Lord of the Rings series has been shrouded in secrecy. We know it takes place in the Second Age of Middle-earth, but it’s still over three thousand years of fictional history. It doesn’t restrict things very much.

But the official synopsis for the show, obtained by The One Ring.net, seems to indicate that the show will almost inevitably develop towards the fall of Númenor, a cataclysmic scenario of the wrath of the gods that leads to the founding of Gondor and ultimately at the movie lovers of the great battle prologue will remember the very first scenes of The Fellowship of the Ring.

Here’s the synopsis:

This epic drama takes place thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, and will take viewers back to a time when great powers were forged, realms came to glory and fell into ruin. , unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the slimmest son, and the greatest villain that ever sprang from Tolkien’s quill threatened to cover everyone in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows a set of characters, both familiar and new, as they face the dreaded re-emergence of evil in Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elven capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the far reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that will endure long after they are gone. .

There is only one “biggest bad guy” in the old age. This is Sauron, the same as in The Lord of the Rings correct, but not as you recognize it in the movies. In the Second Age, Sauron still had the ability to take physical form, and he chose to be, to paraphrase, totally hot and extremely charismatic. Far from the 3 meter high armor swinging a mass of Peter Jackson’s early scenes The Fellowship of the Ring.

A “much-dreaded re-emergence of evil in Middle-earth” can only really mean Sauron, too, but if the show’s creators follow the obvious rhythms, there are two to choose from. The Dark Lord’s first seizure of power in the Second Age was to impersonate a benevolent emissary of the gods and trick the Elves into teaching him ringcraft so that he could forge the Rings of Power. Eventually they figured out that he was, you know, actually this really powerful servant of the last Dark Lord, and they kicked him out – that’s when he retreated to Mordor, built the Black Doors and began to be Evil on Main.

The Elves teamed up with the mightiest Realm of Men, kicked it in the buttocks, and brought it back to Númenor as a prisoner. Which brings us to the second possibility for a long feared re-emergence of evil.

There are many kingdoms that “rose to glory and fell into ruin” in the Second Age, but there is only one that basically defined The era. This is Númenor, the “breathtaking island kingdom” mentioned later in the synopsis, the land of the very, very, very ancient ancestors of Aragorn. It was a very powerful and shining human land which the gods bestowed on the first king of Númenor in thanks for his help in defeating the former patron of Sauron at the end of the First Age.

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From his prison cell, Sauron concocted a plan to corrupt the Númenor government from within, Wormtongue style, and after many years and generations of kings had ridiculous success. In Sauron’s ultimate triumph, the last king of Númenor attempted – paraphrasing slightly here – to invade the sky. In response, the gods raised a giant wave, crushed his fleet, and buried the entire island under the sea. (The wave also drowned a bit of Lindon, mentioned in the synopsis, but best known as the location of Havens. Grey.)

The Fall of Númenor is both Tolkien’s homage to Atlantis, a mythological relic that interests him, and his recurring childhood nightmare of his house drowned in a massive wave. Only nine ships survived the cataclysm, carrying, among others, Isildur – who you might know as this guy from the very beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring who refuses to destroy the One Ring and then dies like an idiot.

These two scenarios represent the known arcs of the Second Age of Middle-earth, as Tolkien described them in the retrospective of The Lord of the Rings and posthumously in The Silmarillion. Amazon’s series might not have to choose between them.

The show has been given the green light for a guaranteed five-season run, plenty of time to make a The iron Throne– multi- (multi-multi-) generational style of story that ends up making its way to the destruction of Númenor and the escape of Isildur – or even the founding of Gondor and the final battle against Sauron that marks the end of the Second Age.