Remember when we got a bunch of hands as posters for the upcoming Season 1 ofThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power? After Prime Video unveiledfirst-look imagesand a trailer during the Super Bowl, it became much easier to figure out who those hands belonged to (not that we hadn’t triedbeforehand). However, neither the images nor the trailer unveiled the full main cast of the series, and three characters who haven’t been prominently featured have officially had their identities revealed. So, naturally, it’s time to speculate.
In case you missed it,Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerwill tell the story of the creation of the small, circular artifacts that ultimately made Sauron the biggest villain in Middle Earth. The series will feature (much) younger versions of Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and Elrond (Robert Aramayo), and the three new characters revealed were previously featured in the posters, and they all seem to be from different backgrounds.
The first one revealed was Elanor ‘Nori’ Brandifoot, who is played byMarkella Kavenah. In the posters, she’s the one who holds berries in one hand. Elanor will be one of theharfoots, which are early types of hobbits in theJ.R.R. Tolkienmythology. She could just be another character, but the fact that Kavenah is billed in the main cast suggests that once again, hobbits will have a big part to play in the adventure.
RELATED:‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Posters' 8 Most Significant Easter Eggs
The second character reveal is also the most mysterious. Described simply as “The Stranger”, this character will be played byDaniel Weyman. There is no indication as to what race he belongs to, and even though his title and poster – dirty hands holding an apple – might suggest a villain, we all know that the Middle Earth stories are not as black and white as that. Also, dirty attire can be associated with at least two wizards in previous films: Radagast (Sylvester McCoy) and Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen).
Finally, the third character is the easiest to speculate about. The fanciest one of the slate is wearing all gold in his poster, and his name is High King Gil-galad, played byBenjamin Walker. Of course, it was easy to assume by the poster that the character would be some form of royalty, and he’s briefly seen in the trailer atop a stone platform. Fans of Tolkien mythology know him as the fourth and last high king of the Noldor, a clan of elves. Gil-galad was previously featured briefly in the originalLord of the Ringsfilm series as one of the three Elven ring-bearers beside Galadriel and Círdan. He’s also the one who formed the last alliance with Men in order to fight Sauron. So it’s safe to say that at some point – or maybe even as the series starts —, Gil-galad will team up with Galadriel and Elrond. Gil-galad was played byMark FergusoninThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, but his role was reduced in the final cut.
Season 1 ofLord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerpremieres on Prime Video on September 2. Check out the Super Bowl teaser trailer below:
