The following contains major spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 8, “Shadow and Flame,” now streaming on Prime Video.

More stories from Middle-Earth may yet be told as Prime Video could be on the cusp of renewingThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for a third season. The Hollywood Reporter stated an announcement regarding a third season of the epic fantasy series is forthcoming, and could likely be announced as soon as this month.

JD Payne and Patrick McKay, showrunners for Rings of Power, have reportedly been working on next season already, but an official announcement has yet to come. This week, Prime Video’s UK Upfront presentation in London, which is geared towards advertisers, featured several actors from the show.

On hand at the presentation were Rings of Power actors Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Queen Regent Míriel), Charlie Vickers (Sauron/Halbrand/Annatar) and Sophia Nomvete (Disa). Typically, studios only present shows to buyers if plans are in the works to continue them.

Studio Head Believes Viewership for Season 2 Will Grow

At the UK Upfront, Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, told advertisers that this season’s Rings of Power has had over 55 million viewers. She added it’s expected that Season 2, which has not faired as well in the ratings as Season 1, is expected to catch up to the first season in terms of ratings numbers. Season 1 had over 150 million viewers. It should be noted that Amazon does not define what a “viewer” is but said the show is in Prime Video’s top 5 series rankings.

Season 2 did top the Nielsen chart during its second week with more than 1 billion minutes streamed. On Rotten Tomatoes, both the critic and audience scores were higher for the second season than for the first. Both seasons are “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Rotten Tomatoes
Critic Score

Season 1
83%
38%

Season 2
85%
58%

Major Spoilers Ahead…

The second season concluded Oct. 3 with the deaths of several major players in the story.

The greatest of Elven smiths, Celebrimbor, who forged the Rings of Power, met his ultimate demise at the hand of Sauron in the finale. Vickers recently spoke about the day that he and Celebrimbor actor Charles Edwards filmed that fateful scene.

“It was a profound day. It was, I think, the last thing we filmed, because we filmed in order,” Vickers said in a previous interview. “And it was a big day, because it’s this real canonical bit of the book – where you fill the body with arrows and (a) really cool, huge scene with physicality and wide-ranging emotions,” he said.

Vickers was referring to how Celebrimbor died in the works of J.R.R. Tolkein, which are described in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth.

“Filming his death scene, when he’s hoisted up onto the thing (was) really emotional. Charles does such a beautiful, poignant performance and has his dying words, which are almost like a curse,” Vickers said.

The End for Two More Characters

Additionally, the finale saw the end of Adar’s (Sam Hazeldine) reign, after his Orc “children” betrayed and then brutally murdered him, falling for Sauron’s trickery. Prior to his death, Adar seemed like he was turning over a new leaf, having returned Galadriel’s (Morfydd Clark) Elven Ring, Nenya to her.

The finale also saw a final battle between King Durin III and the Balrogs he accidentally freed while mining for ore after being corrupted by his Ring of Power.

All episodes of The Rings of Power are currently streaming on Prime Video.