Now Is The Time To Catch Up On Amazon's Biggest Fantasy Series

Published Oct 24, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT

El is a Junior TV Features Editor for ScreenRant, with previous experience as The Mary Sue's UK and Weekend Editor. She holds a Bachelor's in International Media and Entertainment Management, as well as an MA and Ph.D. in Creative Writing. There is little she loves more than discussing her favorite TV shows with fellow fans. One day, she hopes to publish an original fantasy novel.

This is the perfect time to catch up on Amazon Prime Video's biggest fantasy series. It's a golden age of small-screen fantasy storytelling, especially on Prime Video. Though The Wheel of Time was sadly canceled after three seasons, The Legend of Vox Machina is an animated masterpiece, and the God of War video game adaptation has a two-season order. The streamer is even gearing up to produce a live-action version of Rebecca Yarros' mega-selling romantic fantasy sensation, Fourth Wing. The show has been ordered to series, and its leads have been announced.

Bigger than all of these shows combined, however, is Prime Video's returning high fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Set to air its third season soon, the show chronicles the Second Age of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, inspired by Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings appendices (Amazon does not have the full rights to The Silmarillion, which largely covers the Second Age). This is one of the most volatile eras in Middle-earth's history, as the Dark Lord Sauron devises his plan to enslave the world through the titular Rings of Power.

The series features familiar characters from Tolkien's epic fantasy saga, including Galadriel, Elrond, Gandalf (having arrived an entire Age too early), and Aragorn's Númenorian ancestor, Isildur, as they and their scattered allies prepare to lead the charge against Sauron and his gathering forces millennia before Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee clamber up Mount Doom.

Planned as a five-season, 50-episode series, the show significantly shifts and condenses Tolkien's original timeline, though given the scale of the author's writings and the complexities of Amazon's deal with the Tolkien estate, the changes aren't all that surprising — even if many have proven divisive. At the end of the day, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is a beautifully shot, canon-adjacent, intricate reimagining of one of the most influential high fantasy worlds ever created, and this is the perfect time to catch up on the series.

New Episodes Of The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Release November 11th

Image via MovieStillsDB

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 premieres on Wednesday, November 11. While seasons 1 and 2 used a weekly release schedule, following a two-and three-episode premiere, respectively, season 3's release plan looks slightly different. The new season will open with four episodes, with episodes 5 and 6 streaming on November 18 and the final two arriving on November 25. Viewers who prefer to binge a series won't have to wait too long for all of season 3's episodes to become available.

This strategy may be intended to ease viewers into the show's new period. The Rings of Power season 3 will pick up five years after the season 2 finale, throwing the audience into the raging War of the Elves and Sauron. Sauron no longer hides behind pleasantries and gifts; his influence is growing, thanks to the nine Ringwraiths and his new stronghold in Mordor. He has one last secret, though: the creation of the One Ring, which the trailer for The Rings of Power's third season shows will happen in the coming episodes.

There's Plenty Of Time To Catch Up On The Rings Of Power Before Season 3

Credit: Ben Rothstein/Prime Video

Luckily, for anyone yet to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power — or anyone interested in a rewatch after the show's two-year hiatus — there's plenty of time to catch up. So far, 16 episodes have been released, split evenly between seasons 1 and 2. The episodes are fairly long, however. In total, it'll take a little over 18 hours to watch The Rings of Power in its entirety. It's not a simple weekend binge, but certainly manageable in the two and a half weeks before the new season drops on Prime.

Where the first two seasons involved major setup, worldbuilding, and deception, the new season promises a genuinely action-packed thrill ride. The battle for Middle-earth's future will take its toll. As Peter Jackson's Gandalf would say, "The board is set, the pieces are moving." This is when Charlie Vickers' magnetic Sauron proves that he's been the real main character of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power all along.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 premieres with four episodes on Wednesday, November 11 on Prime Video.