A new report reveals the future of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Prime Video.
The third installment of The Lord of the Rings series was confirmed in February 2025. It’s set to focus on Sauron’s quest to forge the One Ring. Filming began the following May, though a specific premiere date for The Rings of Power season 3 has yet to be announced.
The fantasy adaptation has faced significant scrutiny since its debut in September 2022. Due to the show’s high budget and acquisition costs, along with reports that viewership fell short of expectations, there have been rumblings from fans and industry observers about whether executives at the Amazon-owned Prime Video might cancel The Rings of Power.
A new report from The Ankler‘s Lesley Goldberg confirms that Rings of Power will complete its five-season run on Prime Video, though planned spinoffs are unlikely to happen due to the franchise’s high costs. The new reporting comes in the broader context of looking at where Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios stand under the relatively new leadership of Peter Friedlander, who is the Head of Global Television at Amazon MGM Studios, and took the role in September 2025.
What The Report Reveals About Rings of Power
The report reveals that Rings of Power is still slated to complete its plan of five seasons and 50 episodes. That is what Amazon was originally contracted to do when it signed with the estate of author J.R.R. Tolkien, publisher HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema, the latter of which was behind the fan-favorite Peter Jackson trilogy.
Thanks to global rights, production and marketing costs, Rings of Power may stand as the first television show to reach $1 billion. But despite the hefty price tag, the divisive adaptation has a big supporter in Amazon’s founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. “That’s still under Bezos’ magical halo,” one source says about the fantasy series.
The report goes on to mention that Friedlander has visited the Rings of Power set in London, telling the show’s creative team that they will finish the story that they have planned to tell, even if it goes to five seasons. On the whole, season 3 wrapped production this past December. It is expected that Rings of Power season 3 will premiere later in 2026, with a new season dropping every two years.
Amazon Would Reportedly Pay A Hefty Price For Cancelling Rings Of Power
Previous reporting on Rings of Power revealed that if Amazon failed to stick to that plan, then they’d have to pay the Tolkien estate a kill fee of $20 million per season. At this point, it may be better to let the series play out and hope that the audience increases with more seasons. This is already proving to be the case by some metrics.
Rings of Power season 1 was completed by 37% of Prime Video viewers in the U.S. Internationally, the figure was higher at 45%. However, executives were reportedly aiming for a completion rate of at least 50%. Although viewership declined for the second season, there was a silver lining in that a larger share of subscribers stayed through the Rings of Power season 2 ending.
With the confirmation that more episodes are on the way, it will be interesting to see whether the somewhat positive trend will continue for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power as it takes a deeper dive into Sauron’s journey.
- Release Date
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September 1, 2022
- Network
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Amazon Prime Video
- Showrunner
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John D. Payne, Patrick McKay, Louise Hooper, Charlotte Brändström, Wayne Yip
