The first Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power trailer will arrive this weekend – but will it be a full-length reveal or just a brief teaser?
Announced on Prime Video’s Twitter account on Monday (February 7), and subsequently confirmed by outlets including THR, fans will get their first look at The Rings of Power during Super Bowl LVI. The trailer’s official release date was solved by diehard Lord of the Rings fans, who worked out that the elvish text in the tweet’s 10-second teaser translated to Sunday, February 13 – i.e. the day of this year’s NFL Championship game.
The #LOTRROP Teaser Trailer will arrive precisely when it means to. pic.twitter.com/3LVaX2sTQUFebruary 7, 2022
The trailer announcement shouldn’t come as a major surprise. After all, Amazon Studios has been ramping up its marketing campaign for The Rings of Power since the turn of the year.
The Prime Video TV show doesn’t officially launch until September but, in the past few weeks alone, the fantasy series’ official title has been revealed and 23 posters have been released that tease the show’s sizeable cast.
While we’re excited to finally get a glimpse at Amazon Studios’ Lord of the Rings series, though, the trailer’s release during the Super Bowl may seem like an odd choice.
On the surface, releasing the show’s first trailer seems like a perfect fit. Millions of US households will be tuning into the game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams. Debuting the show’s first trailer during the biggest sporting event in 2022 so far, with countless eyes glued to television screens as it makes its debut, then, is an obvious move for Amazon Studios to make.
The Sindarin reads “Paenel en nínui” meaning “10-3 of the Teary One (Sindarin for February)” – translation curtesy of @dreamingfifi pic.twitter.com/4WRjcZ2lWfFebruary 7, 2022
But there are plenty of other companies – entertainment-focused or otherwise – who want to put their products in front of viewers’ eyes during the Super Bowl, too. The demand is so great, in fact, that corporations and studios stump up huge sums of cash just to get one 30-second commercial break slot during the event. According to West Michigan University, advertisers will pay anywhere between $6.5 million and $7.1 million for a single slot.
This, then, begs the question: will The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power only receive a 30-second teaser? Or will it get the full trailer treatment?
Based on the above, viewers may expect The Rings of Power to get a 30-second trailer. But, while it would be good to finally see some footage, that would be a huge disappointment for the franchise’s fanbase, who have waited long enough for a full-length trailer. If Amazon Studios simply releases a brief teaser after all of this build-up, diehard fans would not be happy.
We’d be amazed, then, if The Rings of Power didn’t receive a full trailer on February 13 – and there’s precedence for such an occurrence if we take a look at previous Super Bowls, too.
Interestingly, film and TV studios (and likely other companies) can buy multiple slots if they want to release a full-length trailer during the Super Bowl Halftime show. In 2021, Marvel Studios debuted a two-minute long trailer for its Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV show. A year earlier, Fast and Furious 9, Disney’s live-action Mulan remake and Prime Video’s Hunters TV series received similarly long trailers.
That means that companies aren’t restricted to releasing 30-second trailers during the Super Bowl’s commercial breaks. If that’s the case again this year, we’re pretty confident that The Rings of Power’s first trailer will be a two to three minute affair.
So will Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV show get a full-length teaser this weekend? Yes, in our view. If it doesn’t, you can cast us into the fires of Mount Doom. We’ve reached out to Amazon for an official comment to make sure this is the case – we don’t actually want to be thrown into that fiery pit – and we’ll update this article if we hear back.
Set in the Second Age of Middle-Earth, The Rings of Power will launch exclusively on Prime Video on September 2.
