Sauron Takes Center Stage (And No One Is Safe) In The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season 2 Trailer

Heavy is the head that wears the crown ... unfortunately, that crown belongs to a certain Dark Lord with a talent for swapping wigs and changing faces.

Prime Video may have just debuted a lengthy "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" preview tied to this year's San Diego Comic-Con presentation, but that's not stopping it from doubling down like second breakfast and releasing yet another official trailer for fans to obsessively dissect all over again. And, even better, this features all sorts of new footage that we haven't seen before. The theme this time around? It's all about the Artist Formerly Known As Halbrand (played by Charlie Vickers) now in his new elvish form as Annatar, whom we all know is Sauron in disguise. He's still intent on deceiving all the most powerful individuals in Middle-earth after pulling the wool over the eyes of Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and poor, poor Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) in season 1, handing out all his lesser rings of power like Halloween candy to anyone unwise enough to take them, and, oh yeah, causing the impending war that's now closer than ever to erupting in Eregion.

Doom and gloom is everywhere to be seen in this footage, but not all hope is lost just yet. Our heroes still have plenty to say about these troubling developments, even as they're running out of time to stem the tide against the darkness at their shores. But don't simply take my word for it. Check out the new trailer above!

"War is coming to Middle-earth." As far as tone-setting first lines of dialogue go, this one in this "Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" trailer wastes absolutely no time letting viewers know that all the action we were waiting for in season 1 is practically on our doorstep in its sophomore season. Armies of fearsome orcs (sorry, they prefer to be called uruks) are on the prowl with the realm of Eregion squarely in their sights, all our main characters seem to be having a tremendously hard time keeping the forces of evil at bay, and throughout it all there's Sauron causing no shortage of mischief in his elvish disguise. In short, the bad guys are everywhere, nobody is safe, and it's all building towards the biggest battle we've seen in this series yet: the Siege of Eregion. What could possibly go wrong?

Season 2 of "The Rings of Power" comes from creators, showrunners, and writers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, who've assembled an even more expansive fellowship this time around starring the likes of Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, Charlie Vickers as Sauron, Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor, Robert Aramayo as Elrond, Ismael Cruz Córdova as Arondir, and many, many more. This new chapter in the prequel series, set in the Second Age of Middle-earth (i.e. thousands of years before the events of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy), is set to debut on Prime Video with its first three episodes on Thursday, August 29, 2024, followed by additional episodes every following week.