This weekend sees the release of Prime Videos The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Amazon’s mega series is one of the big TV events of the year, and it’s also a good reason to revisit previous entries in JRR Tolkien’s universe.
Believe it or not, almost a decade has passed since Peter Jackson’s third and final Hobbit film. The Battle of the Five Armies, came out in theaters. It’s been a long wait for more entertainment in this world, and it’s exciting to just be able to return (and Rings of Power is not everything; an anime is on the way).
There is also a lot of catching up to do! While Rings of Power As it can take place thousands of years before the movies, it’s only natural that you’d want to revisit the previous installments of the franchise and brush up on your knowledge of Middle-earth. So here’s a guide to watching the films, or a cheat sheet of essential clips to watch before the new show.
Lord of the Rings watch order
If you just want to watch the Peter Jackson saga, you have two options. You can view them in chronological order:
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Keep looking Prime video and HBO Max)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Keep looking Prime video and HBO Max)
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Keep looking Prime video and HBO Max)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Keep looking Prime video and HBO Max)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Keep looking Prime video and HBO Max)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Keep looking Prime video and HBO Max)
Alternatively, you can view them in release order:
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
If you’re a completer, you can also throw in the animated films from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Putting these in chronological order doesn’t make much sense, but they would (obviously) be first in the release order, starting with the 1977s The Hobbit
But hey, that’s more than 17 hours before watch the show (or 22 if you include the animated films). Not everyone has that much time! Here are some alternatives if you don’t want to go that route.
If you want to catch up quickly without seeing anything
The Rings of Power is not based on any specific book but rather builds on Tolkien’s post-script appendices.
The show is set in the second age (here is a map of what Middle-earth looks like), after the war against Morgoth. That’s long, long before the events of the films, but there are still plenty of memorable characters and locations that appear in both.
Galadriel, played by Cate Blanchett in the films, is an important character in the series. Polygon’s Susana Polo spoke to actor Morfydd Clark about the Fairy Queen and went deep into the character’s story.
Elrond (Robert Aramayo), Isildur (Maxim Baldry) and Sauron (we literally don’t know) are the other characters from the movies that we know will be in the show, and fans of the books (or the video games) . Shadow of Mordor and shadow of war) will surely recognize Celebrimbor.
Harfoots, a sort of hobbit, will be featured on the show. The elves play a big role, as do the dwarves and orcs.
If you want to see the most relevant stuff
We’ve put together some relevant clips for you! Some have to do with recurring characters, some with recurring attitudes, some with similar ~vibes~.
Galadriel’s introduction
The Moria sequence
When Galadriel banished Sauron (calling him a servant of Morgoth)
The Siege of Barad-far
Saruman tells the story of the orcs to a newborn Uruk-hai
It was then that Legolas mentioned Morgoth
