The impending darkness over Middle Earth has become more evident in the newest trailer for the upcoming The Lord of the Rings TV series, The Rings of Power.
The series features Afro-Latine actor Ismael Cruz Córdova, who plays Arondir, a silvan elf, on the show. The casting of Córdova makes him the first person of color to play an elf onscreen in a Tolkien project.
In the latest trailer, which debuted at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con on Friday (July 22), Córdova’s Arondir leaps from the top of a castle and carries a set of bow and arrows, ready to battle anything evil that comes his way. He shows off his fighting skills when he kicks a massive stone off the side of the fortress.
Later the impending darkness takes over Arondir physically. Although he is wielding a blade and seems well aware of his surroundings, a malevolent creature lurking behind him in the shadows can pull him into the mangroves before he can do anything to save himself.
Despite some pushback from a minority of close-minded LOTR fans who weren’t really interested in seeing a more diverse Middle Earth, executives strongly defended their decisions in casting.
“It felt only natural to us that an adaptation of [author J.R.R.] Tolkien’s work would reflect what the world actually looks like,” Lindsey Weber, a co-executive producer of the series, told Vanity Fair. “Tolkien is for everyone. His stories are about his fictional races doing their best work when they leave the isolation of their own cultures and come together.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will debut on Prime Video on September 2, 2022.