It may not look it, but Prime Video is playing the long game with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. While its second season seems to be flying through J.R.R. Tolkien’s source material — and a third season has yet to be officially announced — the streamer reportedly has no plans to bring its fantasy prequel series to an end.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon sees The Rings of Power as a multi-season affair. Season 3 has apparently been in the works for months (despite not getting an official green light just yet), and the series’ showrunners have at least five seasons planned out.
“The rights that Amazon bought were for a 50-hour show,” J.D. Payne told Empire in 2022. “They knew from the beginning that was the size of the canvas — this was a big story with a clear beginning, middle and end. There are things in the first season that don’t pay off until Season 5.”
That’s certainly a comfort for fans of the series, especially in the face of so much doubt elsewhere. From the moment Amazon scored the rights to adapt a small corner of Tolkien’s Legendarium — spending hundreds of millions to do so — the issue of budget and viewership has dominated the conversation. There are those who don’t see five seasons of The Rings of Power as a sound investment, but said opinion is based solely on how many people may or may not be tuning in each week. When it comes to the story, however, there are plenty of reasons to keep the series going. One in particular could redeem not only The Rings of Power, but one of its least popular characters.
Redemption for Isildur
If Amazon has its way, the path for The Rings of Power is pretty clear. It’s set to cover the forging of the Rings of Power, the creation of Sauron’s One Ring, and the Dark Lord’s eventual defeat at the end of the Second Age. That means, in future seasons, we’ll be seeing a lot more of characters like Isildur (played in The Rings of Power by Maxim Baldry). He’s instrumental to Sauron’s downfall, and in fact may be one of the saga’s most important heroes. But he’s also the one responsible for the survival of the One Ring, as he famously refused to destroy it. His shadow looms large over Middle-earth in the Third Age, as the Fellowship of the Ring are basically tasked with redeeming his mistake.
Isildur is a crucial figure in The Lord of the Rings itself — even if he’s not playing a direct role in Tolkien’s trilogy. That’s part of what makes The Rings of Power such an exciting prequel, as it could feasibly chart the character’s rise and subsequent fall across multiple seasons. Isildur could become The Rings of Power’s most nuanced, complex, and compelling hero... unfortunately, though, he needs a bit more time to do so.
The Isildur we meet at the beginning of The Rings of Power is nothing like the figure that later informs the legacy of Men. He’s a half-baked hero at best, a navel-gazing romantic with a vague (if tragic) backstory and a thirst to prove himself. Tolkien aficionados know that his big moment won’t really come until the War of the Last Alliance, where he cuts the One Ring from Sauron’s own hand. But while we wait for fate to present Isildur with that major opportunity, he’s just kind of... hanging around.
From Zero to Hero
Season 2 in particular is struggling to justify Isildur’s role in The Rings of Power, saddling him with a tedious forbidden love story while he wanders through the Southlands searching for purpose. Were it not for the promise of his future, his prominence would feel like a total waste. And if The Rings of Power were to be cancelled prematurely, Isildur’s stunted arc would be one of its biggest disappointments.
In a lot of ways, Isildur the personification of this show’s potential. The Rings of Power isn’t perfect — and even though Season 2 is improving on its predecessor, the series does still need time to flourish. With five seasons, it could become one of the strongest fantasy stories of the era. The same could be said for Isildur, if he’s given the chance to grow into the hero we recognize from The Lord of the Rings.
With the streaming bubble all but burst, there’s not much room for the benefit of the doubt, especially for a show as pricey as The Rings of Power. But investing in something new, however lucrative, does require trust. Amazon seems to understand that, so it couldn’t hurt to get on board, too.
