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 opened on Amazon Prime Video in 2022 to a mixed reception, but a strong commercial response ensured its renewal and will see it push into season 3 with even more eye-opening takes on the LotR books and movies. The show is no canon in its own right, frequently diverging from the lore of its source material, created by J.R.R. Tolkien. But, to its credit, Rings of Power adapted Sauron's fair form in Eregion with striking faithfulness. Similarly, it adapts some fan-favorite material that clarifies scenes the movies didn't explain enough.

For instance, Sauron's true nature in The Lord of the Rings movies isn't clear. Peter Jackson's decision to show him as a giant eye was a stroke of terrifying genius, but it led many to believe that he had no body. The Rings of Power clarifies how Tolkien's "Eye of Sauron" is actually a metaphor. The movies, show, and books each have their own unique value and should be appreciated separately. However, The Rings of Power season 3 could shed light on the Dunlendings to a faithful extent that the Warner Bros. movies never quite managed.

The Rings Of Power Season 3 May Show Who Really Started The War Of The Rohirrim

The Rings Of Power Season 3 Could Include The Dunlendings' Ancestors

Elves charging into battle in the Rings of Power season 2 trailer, possibly in the Siege of Eregion.

The Rings of Power season 3 could clarify some Tolkien lore that the Warner Bros. movies glazed over - to say the least. Season 3 "takes place at the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron," opening after a time jump of "several years" (The Hollywood Reporter). British fantasy pioneer Tolkien penned LotR and The Hobbit, which the show has full rights to adapt. But the show is really diving into other parts of the legendarium, like The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, as this is where the bulk of stories on the Second Age lie. Unfinished Tales outlines Sauron's war.

The Rings of Power has been securing one-off rights to various legendarium texts as needed.

If following this narrative, the Númenóreans will attack Sauron in his war during season 3. This is no surprise, as they have allied with the Elves since season 1. But in Unfinished Tales, Sauron had a surprising ally with him in his fight against the Númenóreans. Unfinished Tales shares how the Númenóreans colonized Middle-earth so ruthlessly that the native Northmen sided with Sauron when he fought the Númenóreans during his Second Age rise to power. These natives are the Dunlendings' ancestors. This was the real start of the War of the Rohirrim.

The Dunlendings Got A Raw Deal In Warner Bros.' The Lord Of The Rings Movies

Warner Bros. Never Fully Explained Why The Dunlendings Hated The Rohirrim

Christopher Lee as Saruman in The Lord Of The Rings: Two Towers with Wildmen holding torches in the background.

The Dunlendings were vilified in the Warner Bros. Lord of the Rings movies, which were sometimes great moviemaking but didn't fully adapt their story. Saruman is one of the most evil characters in The Lord of the Rings, and the Dunlendings were guilty by association with him in The Two Towers, as he rallied them to attack the Rohirrim. They functioned well in this movie as one of the moving parts on the chessboard of the War of the Ring, which didn't need to explain their full history. Nonetheless, they are not simple villains in the legendarium.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim came out in cinemas on December 13, 2024.

Warner Bros. dived deeper into the Dunlendings and their story in its 2024 release, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim movie. At this point, Warner Bros. had a chance to complicate the oversimplified story of the Dunlendings of The Two Towers. Although the anime movie showed how Helm killed Freca, inciting the Dunlendings to attack the Rohirrim, it still simplified the Dunlendings into villains to the Rohirrim's heroes. Wulf was the face of the Dunlendings, and he was a one-dimensional villain. The complex Dunlendings got a raw deal in the Warner Bros. movies.

The Rings Of Power Season 3 Has The Chance To Make Lord Of The Rings History

Rings Of Power Could Tell The Dunlendings' Side Of The Story

The fact is that the Dunlendings, despite being a "warlike" people, were always on the receiving end of brute force, making their vilification a skewed adaptation of their people. Warner Bros.' Lord of the Rings movies, though brilliant, lead many to believe that LotR's morality is more black-and-white than it really is. In fact, the grayscale morality of the legendarium is what makes it so brilliant. Warner Bros. assassinated the characters of the Dunlendings, also known as the Wildmen. The Rings of Power could tell their side of the story, making Lord of the Rings history.

The Gondorians and their ancestors, the Númenóreans, always brutally colonized the Dunlendings and their ancestors.

The Rings of Power season 3 can redeem the Dunlendings in its War of the Elves and Sauron by showing the root of the conflict between the Dunlendings and the Rohirrim, which goes far deeper than a punch-up. In the build-up to the war that season 3 will show, the Númenóreans destroyed Enedwaith and Minhiriath, deforesting them for timber and pushing their natives into areas that would become Dunland. They didn't recognize the long-sundered language and culture of a tribe that had once been the same as their own. They later founded Gondor and awarded Dunlending land to the Rohirrim.

The Rings Of Power Season 3 May Make The Same Mistake Warner Bros. Did With The War Of The Rohirrim

The Rings Of Power Season 3 May Oversimplify The Wildmen Like Warner Bros.

Wulf and General Targg from The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

The Gondorians and their ancestors, the Númenóreans, always brutally colonized the Dunlendings and their ancestors, but The Rings of Power may ignore this victimization as much as Warner Bros. did. The Dunlendings fought back against the Rohirrim as they populated their land, seeing them as usurpers and trying to regain physical footing in their territory, but it was Gondor pulling the strings. The Rings of Power season 3 could show the destruction caused by Númenóreans in the war and how this impacted the natives, vindicating their Third Age behavior, but it may wish to keep its hero-villain binary more simple.

Labeling "Mordor" on-screen was somewhat patronizing in season 1, but the native Northmen could be seen fleeing war-related demolition for a land labeled "Dunland" in season 3, denoting their future significance in the franchise. Demonizing Númenóreans here would also foreshadow their next arc aptly. However, the Dunlendings are not one of the pivotal types of Men in Lord of the Rings, so depicting them faithfully isn't going to make or break an adaptation. As such, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power may succumb to the same oversimplification that Warner Bros. did to avoid viewers sympathizing with Sauron.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter