Breaking down The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power teaser trailer, and all its easy-to-miss connections

polygon.com:

Amazon Studios released a first teaser for its blockbuster Lord of the Rings television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power today, and while it was full of lush imagery from the show’s first season, it revealed very little about the show’s plot or characters.

Luckily, there’s plenty of Tolkien lore, casting information, and story hints that connect many of the dots. Read on, as we show you everything from the first teaser for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is secretly showing you without actually telling you.

We start off with a shot that evokes some of the most iconic imagery of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. This city on the shore has big Minas Tirith vibes, but the large striding statue with one hand out stretched will click for most viewers as related to the Argonath. The two massive statues featured prominently in initial posters advertising The Fellowship of the Ring (2001).

In Tolkien lore, the two Argonath statues are one of the great works of the kingdom of Gondor, which is what makes it such a good bet that this is a human city, rather than an elven one. But this definitely isn’t Gondor. It’s more likely that we’re looking at the island country of Númenor — the human civilization whose survivors founded Gondor.

All we know about these guys is that a Vanity Fair article described them as “nomadic hunters wandering the fields of Middle-earth.” But they do look pretty wild, huh?

All this time we’ve been listening to the trailer’s only dialogue, a female voice saying “Have you ever wondered… what else is out there? There’s wonders in this world beyond our wandering. I can feel it.” As she finishes speaking, we cut to a shot of actress Megan Richards, which is editing