SNAPSHOT
This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone. (official synopsis courtesy Prime Video via IMDb)
Are you familiar, and who won’t be if you’ve been on the dating market in the last 15 years or so, with those profiles on dating apps that hint at just about everything, especially pictorially?
They’re all mystery and no substance, meant to beguile and intrigue you but honestly, all they really managed to do is act as a giant red flag, compelling your swipe happy fingers to just have them gone.
You might say much the same thing about these headless character posters for Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (there are 23 in total, 10 featured in this post – see The Nerdist for the complete set), which gets Tolkien well and truly into the prequel business – on screen at least; in books, he was always the king of extra, gorgeously detailed information – but there’s something about their lush, gritty grandeur that makes you want to keep on looking and swipe right to see what’s actually on offer.
Okay, you do have to wait until 2 September when The Rings of Power debut in all its mystical glory on Prime Video, but there’s enough here, even in its Headless Horseman mode, to make you wonder what might lie further up (which, without being crass, is the opposite direction for many dating apps; yes, I know, behave), something with which The Nerdist, which has lots of well-informed conjecture on who the posters might refer to (yes, they are coyly, and given the anonymity of this campaign, happily nameless) concurs:
“These new images from The Lord of the Rings show may be enough to keep you fed through first and second breakfast, possibly even elevenses. Although the new posters don’t yet reveal a look at any of the characters faces, or even assign them names (though we now know for sure who a few of the characters are), we can still glean a lot from what we see. And it feels fitting for a show so focused on rings to primarily feature characters’ hands.”
So, slip on your rings – the good kind, not the world dominating ones thank you and get ready to ride once more to a land where darkness, seeking to rule, is oft thwarted by good men and women all fantastically blinged up …
