How to watch " The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power " on Netflix and other services – including free options. Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, the Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and forge the legendary Rings of Power , threatening to bind all peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Season 2 plunges its most beloved characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find his or her place in a world on the brink of calamity. The first season of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is based on J. R. R. Tolkien 's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). Set thousands of years before the novel in Middle-earth 's Second Age, the series begins in a time of relative peace and follows various characters as they face the re-emergence of darkness. The season includes a mystery about the whereabouts of the ... Set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings , this epic drama follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.