A Major Change In The Rings Of Power Season 3 Will Make It Feel More Faithful To Tolkien's Timeline

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has confirmed the first few details of its third season, and it sounds like it will be a departure from previous seasons in one quite faithful way. The Rings of Power season 1 burst onto screens to a mixed reception, in no small part down to its gung-ho approach to its source material. Amazon Prime Video's flagship fantasy show is based on the work of British fantasy pioneer J. R. R Tolkien, and season 3 may be about to honor that more than ever.

Rings of Power has full rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit novels but is focused on Lord of the Rings' Second Age. This requires touching on other texts, like The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. While it seemed that this may be hampering the series' faithfulness at first,the show works well within the information that is included in the appendices and has only gotten better reviews as it confirms more connections. In line with this increasing faithfulness, the show will start season 3 following a time jump that respects the source.

Sauron's War Lasted Years In Lord Of The Rings

According to The Hollywood Reporter, there will be a time jump of several years between The Rings of Power season 2 and 3, and knowing the lore, this means that the show is committed to representing Sauron's war faithfully. The War of the Elves and Sauron is outlined briefly in the appendices to Tolkien's magnum opus, The Lord of the Rings, published in three parts between 1954 and 1955. It is also described in The Silmarillion, published posthumously in 1977. But Unfinished Tales details the years that passed as Sauron overran Eriador in his Second Age rise to power.

Tolkienian Age	Event Marking The Start	Years	Total Length In Solar Years
Before time	Indeterminate	Indeterminate	Indeterminate
Days before Days	Ainur entered Eä	1 - 3,500 Valian Years	33,537
Pre-First Age Years of the Trees (Y.T.)	Yavanna created the Two Trees	Y.T. 1 - 1050	10,061
First Age (F.A.)	Elves awoke in Cuiviénen	Y.T. 1050 - Y.T. 1500, F.A. 1 - 590	4,902
Second Age (S.A.)	War of Wrath ended	S.A. 1 - 3441	3,441
Third Age (T.A.)	Last Alliance defeated Sauron	T.A. 1 - 3021	3,021
Fourth Age (Fo.A)	Elven-rings left Middle-earth	Fo.A 1 - unknown	Unknown

Adding a time jump will allow Rings of Power season 3 to embrace the full breadth of Tolkien's canon, respecting it all from the timeline in Lord of the Rings' Appendix B to the detail in Unfinished Tales. Season 2 ends with Sauron (Charlie Vickers) having Eregion sacked and claiming the nine Rings of Men, while the Elf contingent escapes to a suspiciously green and familiar-feeling sanctuary. Season 3 will fast-forward several years to the height of the war. Most likely, this will include Sauron's march west, ravaging Eriador. Without the time jump, the show may have had to compress the canonical timeline.

The Rings Of Power Seasons 1 & 2 Compressed A Lot Of Tolkien's Second Age Timeline

The Show Has Used Time Compression To Navigate A Sprawling Story

Elendil (Lloyd Owen) escorted by two guards in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 6

The Rings of Power has compressed a lot of The Lord of the Rings' timeline so far to fit Tolkien's vast and sprawling story of the Second Age into its five seasons in a suitable way. It could have placed the Númenor arc in its actual sequential order, rather than scrambling it completely, but this made sense from a commercial perspective. While Sauron's war ended in 1701, Pharazôn didn't claim the scepter in Númenor until 3255. If the show had depicted this faithfully, it would have needed a whole new cast for its Númenor arc.

Second Age Event	S.A. Year
Sauron began construction on Barad-dûr	1000
Sauron befriended the Elves of Eregion as Annatar	1200
Rings of Power were forged	1500
The three great Elven-rings were forged	1590
The One Ring was forged, Barad-dûr was completed, Sauron openly proclaimed himself	1600
Sauron began to prepare to invade Eriador	1605
The War of the Elves and Sauron began	1693
Sauron invaded Eriador	1695
Sauron sacked Eregion and killed Celebrimbor, Rivendell was founded, the Dwarves assailed Sauron, Khazad-dûm closed	1697
Sauron overran Eriador	1699
Númenóreans defeated Sauron	1700
Sauron was driven from Eriador and fled to Mordor, first White Council held	1701
Ar-Pharazôn seized the scepter	3255
Sauron became Pharazôn's prisoner in Númenor	3262
Númenor fell	3319
Elendil and his sons founded Gondor and Arnor, Sauron returned to Mordor	3320

Deciding to portray Lord of the Rings' famous Fall of Númenor story alongside Sauron's forging of the Rings meant that viewers could connect with the show's full cast right from the beginning, giving it the serialized feel that the movies had. The vast centuries between Sauron's Eregion deception and his Númenor deception would have made the show feel split in two, or episodic. Arguably, this would have been the better approach, but it is hard to say. At the very least, season 3 looks set to honor the whole scale of the War of the Elves and Sauron.

Why The Rings Of Power Season 3 Is Right To Skip Straight Into Sauron's War Against The Elves

The Time Jump Will Allow Season 3 To Flourish

Morfydd Clark as Galadriel cut up and looking intensely at Charlie Vickers as Sauron with a cliff behind her in The Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power season 2 finale

Just like it may have been hard for viewers to care about characters if they were only introduced halfway through the show's five seasons, it may be hard for the show to actually televise five or six years' worth of warin Eriador. Especially since there is minimal detail to base it off, even in Unfinished Tales. The show would have had to use some kind of montage to show time passing, which may have seemed even more jarring than a time jump between seasons. It would also entail the waste of the show's precious eight episodes per season.

Charlie Vickers as Sauron From The Lord of The Rings The Rings of Power

Sauron's War In The Rings Of Power Season 3 Can Explain A Key Part Of 2024's The Lord Of The Rings Movie

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power could explain something missed by Warner Bros.' LotR movies, including The War of the Rohirrim.

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Rings of Power is committed to showing Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring movie prologue in its five seasons, ending with Sauron's defeat during the War of the Last Alliance (The Hollywood Reporter). Eight episodes per season is only just enough to tell this story, which basically covers the Second Age in full, or at least, its notable events. The season 3 time jump will take viewers forward in time from the end of season 2, saving time and also allowing for a dramatic opening that suddenly shocks viewers with how dark Sauron's rise to power has been.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power normally finds an angle to justify its decisions.

The show played fast and loose with Tolkien's timeline since day one, but this may be the most faithful way it has dealt with difficult pacing yet. The show also introduces two of Lord of the Rings' five Istari in the Second Age, which is only referred to in one apocryphal text that constituted a contemplation on Tolkien's part, rather than a decision. The main book — Lord of the Rings — says they arrived around the year 1000 of the Third Age. But The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power normally finds an angle to justify its decisions.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter