‘The Rings of Power’ Season 3 Officially Brings the One Ring to Life in New Sneak Peek [Exclusive]

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Published Oct 22, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT

Hannah covers horror, sci-fi, and games at Collider, where she writes news and features, reviews new releases, and interviews the people who make them. She’s helping build out Collider’s gaming coverage, with Pokémon as one of her specialties. If she isn’t writing about a monster, she’s probably watching one on a tape from her VHS collection.

There are plenty of powerful weapons in Middle-earth, but its most dangerous creation can fit in the palm of a hand. The One Ring has inspired generations of fantasy fans to debate who could resist it, quote its inscription, and occasionally make questionable jewelry purchases. For all that familiarity, there is still something especially sinister about returning to the moment before Sauron’s greatest weapon exists, when stopping him remains a possibility.

That possibility is getting smaller as The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power approaches its third season. The fall of Eregion has left the Dark Lord with the upper hand, and the surviving kingdoms have more to worry about than the armies advancing toward their borders. While his enemies struggle to hold their ground, Sauron is preparing something that could make their resistance impossible.

Collider can exclusively reveal a new featurette for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3, which premieres November 11 on Prime Video. The extended look brings together behind-the-scenes material and interviews with Simon Pegg, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Aramayo, Morfydd Clark, Charlie Vickers, Ciarán Hinds, and more to explore the One Ring’s place in popular culture and its long-awaited creation within the series. Audiences already know what eventually becomes of Sauron’s precious achievement, but this season takes them into the making of the object that will define Middle-earth’s future.

Collider Exclusive · Middle-earth Quiz Which Lord of the Rings
Character Are You? One Quiz · Ten Questions · Your Fate Revealed

The road goes ever on. From the green hills of the Shire to the fires of Mount Doom, every soul in Middle-earth carries a destiny. Ten questions stand between you and the truth of who you are. Answer honestly — the One Ring has a way of revealing what we most want to hide.

💍Frodo

🌿Samwise

👑Aragorn

🔥Gandalf

🏹Legolas

⚒️Gimli

👁️Sauron

🪨Gollum

BEGIN YOUR QUEST →

You are handed a responsibility that could destroy you. What do you do? The weight of the world falls on unlikely shoulders.

AAccept it. Someone has to, and running changes nothing. BStay by the side of whoever carries it. They shouldn't go alone. CStep forward and lead. This is exactly what I was made for. DIt's mine now. I won't let anyone else have it.

NEXT QUESTION →

Your closest companion is heading into terrible danger. You: True loyalty is revealed not in comfort, but in crisis.

AFollow them without hesitation. I'd rather die beside them than live without them. BRally others and forge a plan to help — strength in numbers. COffer wisdom and guidance. My counsel may save them where swords cannot. DLet them go. Only the strong survive, and sentiment is a weakness.

NEXT QUESTION →

Enormous power is within your reach. Your instinct is: Power corrupts — but only those who reach for it.

ADestroy it. Nothing good comes from power this absolute. BUse it to protect those I love — just this once. CWield it wisely. I have the will and the knowledge to do good with it. DSeize it. I have waited long enough. It belongs to me.

NEXT QUESTION →

What does "home" mean to you? Where we long to return reveals who we truly are.

AA simple, peaceful place — green hills, good food, no adventure required. BWherever the people I love are. Home is a feeling, not a place. CA kingdom I must earn before I can truly claim it as mine. DI lost it long ago. That loss is what drives everything I do.

NEXT QUESTION →

When a battle is upon you, your approach is: War reveals what we are made of — whether we like it or not.

ASurvive by any means. I'm not a fighter — but I'll do what I must. BFight for the person beside me, not for glory or honour. CLead the charge. Nothing inspires an army like a king at the front. DStrike from range, fast and precise — never let them get close.

NEXT QUESTION →

Someone comes to you for advice in their darkest hour. You: Wisdom is not knowing all the answers — it's knowing which questions to ask.

AListen, then offer honest encouragement. Sometimes people just need belief. BGive them practical help — words are fine, but action is better. CSpeak carefully. I have seen much, and I know what counsel can cost. DTell them what they want to hear. Trust is a tool like any other.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you see yourself, honestly? Self-knowledge is the most dangerous kind.

ASmall and ordinary — but perhaps that's exactly why I was chosen. BDefined entirely by who I serve and love. I am nothing without them. CForged by hardship into something the world has not yet fully seen. DDiminished from what I once was — and consumed by the need to reclaim it.

NEXT QUESTION →

Which of these best describes your relationship with the natural world? Middle-earth speaks to those who know how to listen.

AI find peace in it — forests, rivers, open skies. Nature restores me. BI prefer the earth underfoot — stone, mines, solid and real things. CI have watched the world change for longer than most can comprehend. DNature offers hiding places, cold water, raw fish. That's enough for me.

NEXT QUESTION →

You encounter a wretched, pitiable creature who has done terrible things. You: How we treat the fallen reveals the height of our character.

AShow mercy. Even the most broken souls deserve a chance at redemption. BPity them — but never trust them. They made their choices. CSee them as a tool. Their knowledge or skills may still serve a purpose. DDestroy them before they can cause more harm. Mercy is a luxury we cannot afford.

NEXT QUESTION →

When the quest is over and the songs are sung, what do you hope they say about you? In the end, we are all just stories.

AThat an ordinary person did an extraordinary thing — and came home. BThat I never abandoned the person who needed me most. CThat I was worthy of the crown — and everything it demanded. DNothing. I don't need songs. I needed it, and now it's gone.

REVEAL MY FATE →

The Fellowship Has Spoken Your Place in Middle-earth

The scores below reveal your true character. Your highest number is your match. Even a tie tells a story — the Fellowship was never made of simple people.

💍 Frodo

🌿 Samwise

👑 Aragorn

🔥 Gandalf

🏹 Legolas

⚒️ Gimli

👁️ Sauron

🪨 Gollum

You carry something heavy — and you carry it alone, even when you don't have to. You were not born for greatness, and that is precisely why greatness chose you. Your courage is not the roaring, sword-swinging kind; it is quiet, stubborn, and terrifying in its refusal to quit. The Ring weighs on you more than anyone can see, and still you walk toward the fire. That is not weakness. That is the rarest kind of strength there is.

You are, without question, the best of them. Not the most powerful, not the most celebrated — but the most essential. Your loyalty is not a trait; it is a force of nature. You would carry the person you love up the slopes of Mount Doom if it came to that, and we both know you'd do it without being asked. The world needs more people like you, and the world is lucky it has even one.

You were born to lead, and you have spent years running from it. The crown is yours by right, but you know better than anyone that right means nothing without the will and the worthiness to back it up. You are tempered by loss, shaped by long roads, and defined by a code of honour you hold to even when no one is watching. When you finally step forward, the world shifts. Because it was always waiting for you.

You have seen more than you let on, and you say less than you know — which is exactly as it should be. You are a catalyst: you do not fight the battles yourself, you ignite the people who can. Your wisdom comes not from books but from an age of watching what happens when it is ignored. You arrive precisely when you mean to, and your presence alone changes what is possible. A wizard is never late.

Graceful, perceptive, and almost preternaturally calm under pressure — you see things others miss and act before others react. You do not need to make a scene to be remarkable; your presence speaks for itself. You are loyal to those you choose to stand beside, and that choice is not made lightly. You have lived long enough to know that the most beautiful things in this world are also the most fragile, and that is why you fight to protect them.

You are loud, proud, and absolutely formidable — and beneath all of that is one of the most fiercely loyal hearts in Middle-earth. You don't do anything by half measures. Your friendships are forged like iron, your grudges run as deep as mines, and your courage in battle is the kind that makes legends. You came into this fellowship suspicious of everyone and ended it willing to die for an elf. That is not a small thing. That is everything.

You think in centuries and act in absolutes. Order, dominion, control — not because you are cruel by nature, but because you have decided that the world left to itself always falls apart, and you are the only one with the vision and the will to hold it together. You were not always this. Something was lost, or taken, or betrayed, and the version of you that stands now is the answer to that wound. The tragedy is that you're not entirely wrong — just entirely too far gone to course-correct.

You are a study in contradiction — pitiable and dangerous, cunning and broken, capable of both cruelty and something that once resembled love. You are defined by loss: of innocence, of self, of the one thing that gave your existence meaning. Two voices war inside you constantly, and the tragedy is that the better one sometimes wins, just not often enough, and never at the right moment. You are a warning, yes — but also a mirror. We are all a little Gollum, given the right ring and enough time.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

What Is ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 3 About?

The featurette also sets up a season in which Sauron is moving closer to victory while Elves, Dwarves, Númenoreans, and others face his forces. Bringing those peoples together will be essential, even as their own homes and futures hang in the balance. With the forging of the One Ring ahead, the series is approaching one of the most consequential moments in Tolkien’s Second Age.

Season 3 begins five years after the fall of Eregion, with Sauron’s armies having conquered much of Middle-earth. The Dwarves remain sealed within Khazad-dûm, while Lindon and Rivendell survive under the protection of the Three Rings. Those remaining strongholds stand between Sauron and total victory, giving him every reason to finish the weapon he believes will bring them to their knees. Deep in Mordor, Sauron works inside his newly completed tower of Barad-dûr, obsessed with obtaining the power to dominate all life. The free peoples of Middle-earth must find a way to unite before he achieves that goal. For viewers who have watched the consequences of the One Ring unfold across The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, its arrival gives this conflict an especially ominous deadline.

The first two seasons of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are available on Prime Video. The eight-episode third season will release over three weeks, beginning with four episodes on November 11. Episodes 5 and 6 follow on November 18, with the final two episodes streaming November 25.