Season 2 of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has wrapped, and given how long it took for us to get it, fans are already wondering when we might see season 3. 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.
Given the fact that the show is now done with its second season, we’re offering you a rundown of everything we know so far about the third, including what the plot might be, when it might be released, and whether it’s even been renewed at all.
Has Rings of Power been renewed for season 3?
The third season of Rings of Power has yet to be officially confirmed, but reports from Amazon and the show’s creators suggest that they are planning for there to be five seasons in total. While the third season hasn’t officially been renewed, a renewal does seem likely, and several people affiliated with the show have hinted that it could be coming soon.
“I can’t say much about season 3, but I think there’ll be good news soon,” executive producer Charlotte Brändström said.
Morfydd Clark, who plays Galadriel in the series, added: “At some point, season 3 will be happening.”
It seems likely, then, that season 3 of the series will be coming at some point. This is further bolstered by the fact that 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.
All in all, it seems like season 3 is coming, and if we get season 3, it seems unlikely that Amazon will cut the show off before it finishes its run the way the creators intend. 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.
Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay are already working on season 3 in spite of the fact that the series hasn’t officially been renewed. “We think the show is just hitting its stride, and we anticipate that season three will be onward and upward,” McKay told The Hollywood Reporter.
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 will the release date for season 3 of Rings of Power be?
Because we don’t know whether it’s been officially renewed, we also don’t know when we might get to see 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. It could take even longer than that, but given the lack of any sort of official renewal, it’s hard to pin down a precise timeline.
What will happen in season 3 of 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 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. All this is only speculation, of course, and we won’t know exactly what happens in the show’s third season until the series actually returns.
