“The Rings of Power” season 2 will explore new aspects of Middle-earth

J.R.R. Tolkien never explained how the dwarf rings worked or what exactly lies in Rhûn. Get ready to find out.

The new season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set to feature some familiar faces from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth mythology. The most recent trailer, unveiled at Comic-Con last month, showed off fan favorites such as the treelike Ents, the spider Shelob, and even a giant eagle. But as Entertainment Weekly learned as part of our exhaustive new cover story, season 2 will also explore aspects of Middle-earth that Tolkien left mysterious, such as the seven dwarven rings and the desert region of Rhûn.

The Lord of the Rings readers know a lot about the three rings of power worn by elves. Although their role is minimized in Peter Jackson's film adaptations, Tolkien's writing clarifies the powers of Vilya (worn by Gil-galad and then Elrond, who used it to protect the sanctuary of Rivendell), Nenya (worn by Galadriel to sustain Lothlórien), and Narya (worn by Círdan and then Gandalf, used to fire up and inspire the people of Middle-earth in their struggle against Sauron).

Related: Evil takes root: Darkness rises in The Rings of Power season 2

By contrast, Tolkien never explained the names or function of the seven dwarf rings — just that they were all lost by the time of Lord of the Rings. In The Rings of Power season 2, viewers will get to see them in action — and they'll definitely have a noticeable effect on Khazad-dûm's ruler, King Durin III (Peter Mullan).

“There are tantalizing hints in the source text that the dwarven rings didn't really control the dwarves the way Sauron might've liked, but it did stoke their greed,” co-showrunner Patrick McKay tells EW. “That sent us down this rabbit hole of ‘What about Peter Mullan going mad as a villain in Khazad-dum in season 2?’"

The whole idea of doing a show in the Second Age was that it's not a fixed target, there's an enormous amount of room for creation and improv within a loose framework. The dwarven rings are a great example where it's like, ‘What exactly did they do? How might that play on a father-son relationship?’”

Meanwhile, Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh), Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards), and the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) are going to explore Rhûn. This desert region, which lies to the east of Mordor, does not factor much into The Lord of the Rings' story. One of the only things we know about it is that the two Blue Wizards went there while their compatriots (Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast) were at work in Gondor, Rohan, and the Shire. So though the show has hinted that the Stranger is Gandalf, this could mean he's actually one of the Blue Wizards.

The showrunners remain tight-lipped about the Stranger's identity, but were enthusiastic to tell a Lord of the Rings story in the desert. "Rhûn is this blank check that Tolkien has given us to go somewhere that's never been depicted before," co-showrunner J.D. Payne says.

Adds McKay, "we're huge admirers of Lawrence of Arabia, one of the greatest movies ever made, and we love Mad Max: Fury Road. These are movies that are set in a vast desert landscape, but they make the desert feel beautiful. We've never seen deserts before in Lord of the Rings, so the idea to have a spice like that thrown into the mix was really exciting to us."

The Rhûn scenes were greatly aided by the show's move between seasons. While season 1 was filmed in New Zealand, season 2 switched to the United Kingdom, which gave the production access to the nearby Canary Islands.

"We were filming in Tenerife, which was a beautiful and incredible landscape in its own way," Kavenagh says. "We really got to feel as if we were in completely new territory. Nori's excitement about being somewhere new was mirroring our own excitement to be in Tenerife. It was really helpful for me in channeling that energy of being in a new place."

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 premieres Aug. 29 on Amazon Prime Video.

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