The Rings Of Power Is Fully Breaking A Tolkien Rule In Season 3

Published Jul 25, 2026, 10:15 PM EDT Angel Shaw is a Lead Writer and Critic on ScreenRant's TV team, covering new-release and classic TV shows across all major streaming platforms. She has been a writer with ScreenRant since 2022 and specializes in Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and fantasy. Angel holds a bachelor's degree in language interpreting and is passionate about all things culture and communication—especially in how it relates to popular media throughout history (from Shakespeare to Friends to Game of Thrones). Prime Video's The Rings of Power is fully committing itself to a controversial change going into season 3. The Lord of the Rings prequel series has quite the reputation for such changes, and the discourse on the subject has been rather fiery. Beginning with significant adjustments to the circumstances of the Noldor leaving Valinor, all the way to secret love triangles involving Galadriel and Elrond, Rings of Power hasn't been afraid to poke around J.R.R. Tolkien's canon story. Now, as we head into season 3, one of the more heavily debated features is returning. The first official teaser trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 was unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con on July 24, 2026. As promised, this batch of episodes will pick up five years after the fall of Celebrimbor and Eregon in the finale of season 2. By this point, the War of the Elves and Sauron is well underway, and the Dark Lord has begun using his army of Orcs, evil Men, fell beasts, and beyond to conquer nearly all of Middle-earth. Still, the Elves of Lindon and Rivendell refuse to fall, so Sauron must create a new weapon—One Ring to Rule Them All. The confirmation that Sauron's One Ring will finally appear in Rings of Power season 3 is certainly exciting. The new trailer promises a version of this Middle-earth prequel that feels far more like The Lord of the Rings than what we saw in the previous installments. Still, it's hard to ignore one rather strange detail about the San Diego Comic-Con teaser. The whole thing is narrated by a supposed enemy of Sauron, but he isn't an elf. Rather, this character appears to be an Orc. The Rings Of Power Doubles Down On Its 'Good' Orc In Season 3 While Galadriel's voice has been a popular choice for voiceovers in Rings of Power trailers, the season 3 trailer introduces a brand new character. The gravely voice certainly sounded like what we have heard from the Orcs thus far, and an actual clip of this creature standing with and talking to Arondir and Galadriel confirms it. The two Elves are in no way on guard around this Orc. In the couple of other moments we see them together, Arondir and Galadriel are completely at ease. At one point, the Orc even urgently tells the pair to "come with" him somewhere. It certainly seems as if Rings of Power season 3 is presenting this Orc as a good character—an ally to the Elves and enemy to the Dark Lord Sauron. It feels like a continuation of what we saw in season 2, when Orcs were presented as far more sympathetic than they ever were before in the Lord of the Rings franchise. Adar, a Dark Elf who used to father the race of Orcs, wanted to save his "children" from becoming slaves to Sauron, and we even saw an affectionate Orc couple cooing over an Orc infant. This naturally caused some outcry. Orcs have generally been considered inherently evil in The Lord of the Rings. However, Rings of Power aimed to show how they came to be under Sauron's control after Morgoth's regime ended, which meant casting a soft light of sympathy on these characters. Still, simply having babies in the same way as Elves and Men didn't mean Orcs have the potential for the same sort of goodness. They can feel affection toward their partners and offspring and still be vile creatures who are drawn intrinsically to evil leadership. Rings of Power might have carried on without any further suggestion that Orcs could be good, but season 3 now seems to be doubling down. This new Orc character isn't just showing camaraderie with its own kind, but actually seems to be fighting against the Dark Lord Sauron. If he truly is a friend to Galadriel, it would contradict just about everything J.R.R. Tolkien ever said about these creatures. Where The Rings Of Power's 'Good Orc' Story Could Be Heading The new Orc character in The Rings of Power season 3 is confirmed to be called Marnûkh, and he is played by actor Adam Young. Prime Video describes him as an Uruk who "may not be what he seems," which by no means clears things up. In the SDCC trailer, we see that Galadriel at some point holds her blade to Marnûkh, seemingly taking him prisoner. However, he seems later to offer himself as a guide of some sort, telling Galadriel and Arondir about Sauron's One Ring and asking them to come with him somewhere. It's difficult to tell if Prime Video means that Marnûkh "seems" like an ordinary evil Orc, but really isn't, or if Galadriel comes to see him as an ally, but he really isn't. The fact that he appears to offer help to the Elves presents him as a Gollum-like character. Perhaps Rings of Power season 3 will see Galadriel and Arondir battle both internally and externally regarding whether Marnûkh can be trusted. Then, we could even see the Orc himself battle with his own intentions. Rings of Power could be using this character to further explore the concept of inherent evil in Middle-earth. What The Lord Of The Rings Lore Says About Orcs Being Good Despite the rage around Rings of Power season 2's baby Orc, the moment didn't truly contradict what Tolkien wrote. While Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy showed Uruk-hai basically being lab-grown, Tolkien himself wrote that Orcs reproduce and multiply in the same way as Elves and Men. This naturally means that there were Orc babies, though the author never had reason to write any specifics regarding maternal or paternal relationships. The question of whether these creatures are born evil and have any potential for goodness, however, is another matter. Tolkien certainly never said that there was ever a good Orc that helped Galadriel or anyone else, for that matter. However, he did concede that nothing created by the supreme God of The Lord of the Rings, Erū Ilúvatar, could be inherently evil. This creator is nothing but good, so everything he creates is good. Additionally, nothing can exist against Erū Ilúvatar's will. So, while Morgoth captured Elves and distorted them into Middle-earth's first Orcs, the beings are still, at their core, a creation of God. Still, Tolkien heavily implies that in the case of Orcs, this doesn't necessarily mean they have kindness buried within them. They started as Children of Ilúvatar, and their corruption had to be a part of his overarching plan, but centuries of slavery under Morgoth and then Sauron took a cultural toll. Regardless of potential or what was, Orcs know nothing outside of their world of evil. It's therefore interesting that Rings of Power seems to be taking things in a different direction. Of course, only time will tell for certain. Release Date September 1, 2022 Network Amazon Prime Video Showrunner John D. Payne, Patrick McKay, Louise Hooper, Charlotte Brändström, Wayne Yip Directors J.A. Bayona, Sanaa Hamri Writers Patrick McKay, John D. Payne, J.R.R. Tolkien, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Stephany Folsom, Nicholas Adams Franchise(s) The Lord of the Rings