Sauron's fortress in Mordor
Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power returns for its third season on November 11, 2026, with a Fellowship of the Ring-style prologue designed to welcome new viewers after a two-year absence. The season jumps five years past the fall of Eregion into all-out war across Middle-earth, with Sauron's armies conquering everything in their path.
Amazon has confirmed the Harfoots will take a backseat in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3, with co-showrunner J.D. Payne telling Empire the nomadic hobbit ancestors won't feature in a main storyline. The shift clears space for Sauron's forging of the One Ring, Galadriel's husband Celeborn, and Gandalf's full transformation, arriving November 11, 2026.
Amazon unveiled a speaking Balrog battling Sauron in The Rings of Power Season 3 footage at San Diego Comic Con 2026, with Simon Pegg voicing Durin's Bane. The scene shows Sauron deflecting a flame sword strike using the Crown of Morgoth — a moment entirely absent from Tolkien's writings — and has split the fanbase between excitement over original action and outrage over canon violations.
