'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' Season 3 Review
Season Three.
Aired On: Prime Video.
Release Date: 11/11/26.
Genre: Drama. Fantasy.
The Verdict: A Maybe
The Lord of the Rings prequel series, The Rings of Power, has often felt as circular as its namesake. The production values are undeniably impressive, with high-end visual effects, sweeping landscapes, and gorgeously staged battles. Unfortunately, the storytelling has sometimes taken the scenic route, with subplots that move at the pace of a weary hobbit trudging toward Mount Doom. There has been plenty of spectacle, but not always enough momentum.
Season Three picks up five years later. Rivendell is taking shape, Sauron's dark fortress of Barad-dûr is rising, and his orcs are spreading across Middle-earth. An opening battle involving the orcs delivers a welcome echo of Peter Jackson's original trilogy, calling back to the epic scale and visual language that made this world so captivating in the first place. The elves are heroic, Sauron whines, and, for once, the story seems eager to get somewhere. Across the first three episodes, the pace picks up, and the series edges closer to Middle-earth recognition.
Series creators Patrick McKay and John D. Payne bring back familiar faces, including elves Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), Elrond (Robert Aramayo), and Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova), as well as Durin (Owain Arthur), now firmly established as king of the Dwarves, and, of course, Sauron (Charlie Vickers). The season premiere, directed by Charlotte Brändström, finds Sauron doubling down on his quest to claim the remaining three Elven Rings of Power. Galadriel and Elrond are determined to stop him. Meanwhile, trouble brews beneath the mountains of Khazad-dûm. Durin's brother, Thráin (Eddie Marsan), has his own designs on the throne and hopes to use the Dwarven Ring to further Sauron's ambitions.
The biggest improvement, however, is Sauron himself. His origin story always felt like an answer to a question nobody was particularly desperate to ask. Still, at least this Dark Lord didn't begin his journey as a whiny podracer. Right? Here, Charlie Vickers finally gets to embrace the character's full villainous potential. Sauron creates the Nazgûl, tightens his grip on both humans and orcs, and becomes the manipulative force of darkness the story has been promising all along. He's considerably more interesting when he's busy corrupting Middle-earth than when he's explaining his feelings.
McKay and Payne also turn their attention to Galadriel's relationship with Celeborn (Jamie Campbell Bower). This is another significant piece of Middle-earth history, and the romantic thread adds a more personal dimension to Galadriel's journey. Thankfully, the storytelling is moving with greater purpose. After two seasons in which several subplots seemed content to settle into slow-burning fantasy melodrama, the new episodes show a welcome sense of urgency.
The humans of Númenor return in episode two, bringing with them the familiar troubles of political infighting, invasion, and competing ambitions. Much like the Dwarven storyline, their struggles are meant to reflect the larger conflict consuming Middle-earth. Unfortunately, Númenor remains one of the show's less compelling destinations, and its intrigue feels a little too much like Game of Thrones cosplay at a family-friendly fantasy convention. Still, there's an intriguing wrinkle in the form of the young squire Theo as his story takes a deliciously dark turn in these opening episodes.
Gandalf’s (Daniel Weyman) return in episode three delivers some welcome fan service for longtime Tolkien devotees. Having a friendly wizard along is exactly the kind of magic this series’ journey needed.
For all its technical achievements, The Rings of Power continues to wrestle with the same fundamental problem: its story is so sprawling, and its cast so enormous, that many of its characters feel only tangentially connected to the figures and events that made Middle-earth special in the first place. The further the series wanders from those familiar touchstones, the harder it is to care about every kingdom, succession dispute, and political maneuver along the way. I see you, Númenor.
Still, these first three episodes suggest that McKay and Payne may finally be finding their footing. There's more urgency, a more fully realized villain, some welcome connections to Tolkien's wider mythology, and a growing sense that all these separate threads are beginning to weave into something larger. The journey has been long, occasionally exhausting, and not always worthy of the precious screen time it demands. But Middle-earth is beginning to feel like a place worth fighting for. Or, at the very least, worth settling in to watch.
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