Full Cast & Characters of ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 3

The Rings of Power have been forged, and Sauron is on the loose with the Nine Rings meant for mortal men and he’s keen on forging the One Ring to rule them all. The Elves are in retreat, the political crisis in Númenor is deepening and threats from beneath and above bear down on the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm.

Amazon’s hit Tolkien epic, The Rings of Power, is back for its third season on November 11, 2026. Season 3 jumps five years into the future of the struggle for Middle-earth, with Sauron’s power rising and the alliance opposing him in survival mode.

Need to catch up on who’s who in the series and find out which actors will join the cast of The Rings of Power Season 3? Here’s your full guide to the show’s expansive cast and characters.

Don’t forget: Connect your Amazon Prime Video account to DIRECTV to start watching The Rings of Power Season 3 today!

Returning Cast of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 3

Here are all of the actors and characters returning for The Rings of Power Season 3.

Morfydd Clark as Galadriel

Known For: Saint Maud (2019), The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019), Dracula (2020)

The Rings of Power chiefly follows the story of Galadriel, who most of us first met on the big screen way back in 2001 when Cate Blanchett played the role in New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson’s epic The Fellowship of the Ring. In those films, she was the elegant Lady of Lothlorien, but Rings of Power focuses her early life long before that point, when she was a young Elven commander hunting her hated foe.

This version of Galadriel is a bit harder-edged than the warm, welcoming Elf that the Fellowship meets thousands of years later. She spent the entire first season doggedly hunting down Sauron after the defeat of his master, Morgoth, during the War of Wrath. Sauron murdered her brother, so she had a pretty strong incentive to run her quarry down.

In one of the show’s biggest twists so far, however, it turned out she didn’t have to look very far, whether she knew it or not. Halbrand, the man who rescued her from a shipwreck, claimed to be the true king of the Southlands and grew into an apparent ally to Galadriel, was actually Sauron in disguise the entire time. It only became apparent when it was too late.

She spent much of Season 2 trying to stop Sauron from manipulating his way into achieving one of the most consequential feats in Lord of the Rings lore: the forging of the Rings of Power. Sauron made off with the nine rings intended for mortal men, despite Galadriel’s attempts to stop him and her eventual defeat in single combat at his hands. She’ll start Season 3 as a top commander of the Elven forces opposing Sauron. Celeborn, her long-missing husband who also appeared by her side in Lothlorien during Fellowship of the Ring, will make his series debut this season.

Charlie Vickers as Sauron

Known For: Medici (2018), Palm Beach (2019), The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (2023), The Survivors (2025)

Sauron spent the first season hiding in plain sight, befriending Galadriel under the name Halbrand as she worked to hunt him down, and much of the second presenting himself as Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, to trick Celebrimbor into forging the Rings of Power for Dwarves and Men.

By Season 3, he’s made off with the Nine Rings meant for the lords of men, Celebrimbor is dead and Eregion is in ruins. He’s also gained control of Adar’s contingent of Orc defectors. He still needs the One Ring to complete his plan to conquer Middle-earth.

Daniel Weyman as Gandalf

Known For: Foyle’s War (2013–2015), Vera (2018), Gentleman Jack (2019)

Fans were left to puzzle over the identity of the mysterious, bearded man who fell from the sky and was rescued by Nori Brandyfoot.

Season 2 finally confirmed what most of us suspected: By the finale, he had found both his staff and taken on the name audiences had been waiting to hear: Gandalf, the iconic Tolkien wizard, who was famously played by Ian McKellen in Peter Jackson’s films.

Before recovering his identity, he traveled east to Rhûn with Nori and Poppy, encountered Tom Bombadil and faced a rival wizard who wanted to recruit him. His decision to protect his friends helped him understand the sort of wizard he wanted to become, and it’s a theme that remains at the core of his identity throughout Tolkien’s works.

Season 3 lets him move forward with a clearer sense of purpose, though Rhûn and the Dark Wizard still present plenty of unfinished business.

Robert Aramayo as Elrond

Known For: Game of Thrones (2016–2017), Behind Her Eyes (2021), I Swear (2025)

Anyone who remembers Hugo Weaving presiding over the council in The Fellowship of the Ring knows Elrond eventually becomes one of Middle-earth’s most respected leaders. Robert Aramayo’s version finds him much earlier in life, when he’s still learning how to navigate the competing demands of friendship, duty and survival.

Elrond is actually half-elven and the brother of Elros, Númenor’s first king. He serves High King Gil-galad, but his friendship with the Dwarf prince Durin IV has made him an important link between the Elves and the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm.

He spent much of Season 2 warning his fellow Elves against trusting Sauron and embracing the power of the Three Rings. He was proven right about Sauron during the fall of Eregion, but after Galadriel was wounded by Sauron, he used her Nenya ring to heal her. He also helped lead the survivors to the refuge that becomes Rivendell. Season 3 finds him helping establish the settlement alongside Galadriel and Arondir.

Owain Arthur as Durin IV

Known For: One Man, Two Guvnors (stage), Hard Sun (2018), A Confession (2019)

Durin IV has gone from being a prince at odds with his father to being the king who has to deal with the legacy and troubles his father left behind. That inheritance includes seven dangerous rings and a Balrog beneath his kingdom.

Durin IV’s friendship with Elrond helped bring Khazad-dûm into the wider struggle against Sauron, and Durin spent Season 2 watching a Ring of Power turn his father, Durin III, into a greedy, paranoid monster. His efforts to stop the king’s mining came too late to prevent the awakening of the Balrog, which Durin III has to remove his ring and sacrifice himself to apparently contain.

Season 3 finds Khazad-dûm shut away from much of the outside world, with other Dwarven rulers interested in the rings and Durin’s older brother, Thrain, entering the picture.

Sophia Nomvete as Disa

Known For: Swashbuckle (2019), Wednesday (2022), Mafia Mamma (2023)

Durin IV’s wife Disa can usually tell when something is wrong beneath Khazad-dûm, even when the people running the kingdom would rather not hear about it. She’s a resonator, a Dwarf whose singing helps her understand the mountain and guide those working within it.

Sophia Nomvete plays Durin IV’s wife, an original character who was not in Tolkien’s works but who has nonetheless become central to the show’s Dwarven storyline. Disa encouraged Durin to repair his friendship with Elrond, supported his claim to leadership and recognized that his father’s Ring of Power was doing more harm than good.

Her warnings about the danger below the mines proved well founded when Durin III awakened the Balrog. The king’s death left Durin IV on the throne and Disa as queen, with a kingdom to protect and two children growing up amid the uncertainty.

Season 3 adds strain to the marriage, with Durin keeping secrets about the Seven Rings.

Maxim Baldry as Isildur

Known For: Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007), Years and Years (2019), Last Christmas (2019)

Isildur has a big role ahead of him, even if his early adventures haven’t exactly suggested that things will go smoothly. He’s the man who eventually cuts the One Ring from Sauron’s hand, then makes the disastrous decision to keep it, setting off the events of the Lord of the Rings saga.

The version Maxim Baldry plays is still some distance from that moment. He began as a restless young Númenórean trying to find his place in the Sea Guard, then joined the expedition to the Southlands. His family believed him dead after Mount Doom erupted, but his horse, Berek, found him alive.

Season 2 followed his journey with Arondir, Theo and Estrid, a Southlander with whom he developed a romantic connection. He ultimately returned to Númenor, leaving Estrid at Pelargir and stepping into a homeland now controlled by Pharazôn.

Season 3 previews describe a more hardened Isildur working undercover against the king’s regime, with Míriel trying to guide him.

Lloyd Owen as Elendil

Known For: The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992–1993), Monarch of the Glen (2002–2005), Miss Potter (2006)

Elendil is one of the few Númenóreans who still believes his people’s old friendship with the Elves is worth defending. That position has become increasingly dangerous under Pharazôn, especially for someone who served Míriel as openly as he did.

Lloyd Owen plays the Guard captain and father of Isildur, Anárion and Eärien. He brought Galadriel to Númenor, sailed with the expedition to the Southlands and returned believing Isildur had died in the eruption that created Mordor.

Season 2 pushed his loyalty to Míriel almost to the point of no return. She took his place in the trial by abyss, and he later received Narsil from her before escaping the capital. He fled to western Númenor, rather than leaving the island, and Season 3 finds him working with Anárion to train the Faithful.

Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Míriel

Known For: Spartacus (2012), Arrow (2013–2016), The Accountant (2016), Shooter (2016–2018)

Míriel has spent most of The Rings of Power trying to keep Númenor from meeting the terrible end she glimpsed in a palantir. That’s a difficult enough job without half the island questioning her judgment and her cousin quietly jostling to take her place.

She began the series as queen regent, ruling while her father, Tar-Palantir, was still alive. After agreeing to help Galadriel, she led a Númenórean expedition to the Southlands, where the eruption that created Mordor left her blind. Coming home brought another blow: Her father had died in her absence.

Her Season 2 coronation fell apart when Eärien revealed that she had used the palantir. The arrival of a Great Eagle gave Pharazôn’s supporters an opportunity to claim divine approval for his rule. Míriel later survived the trial by abyss and gave Elendil the sword Narsil, but ended the season under arrest. In Season 3, she’s headed west to help mobilize the Faithful against Pharazôn.

Trystan Gravelle as Pharazôn

Known For: Anonymous (2011), Mr Selfridge (2013–2016), A Discovery of Witches (2018–2021)

The ever-scheming, power-hungry Pharazôn spent the first season looking like the politician who most understood how Númenor really worked, and by the end of Season 2, he had used that knowledge to usurp the cousin, Míriel, and seize the throne for himself.

While Míriel was away fighting in the Southlands, Pharazôn remained at home, building the support that would eventually help him displace her. The disruption of Míriel’s coronation gave his supporters their opening.

When a Great Eagle appeared, Pharazôn and his supporters took it as an endorsement of his right to rule. Season 3 leaves him facing a rebellion at home while his attention is increasingly drawn toward the threat posed by the Dark Lord abroad.

Ema Horvath as Eärien

Known For: Like.Share.Follow. (2017), The Mortuary Collection (2019), What Lies Below (2020)

Eärien is Elendil’s daughter and the sister of Isildur and Anárion, but sharing a family doesn’t mean sharing a view of Númenor’s future. Her growing support for Pharazôn has put her sharply at odds with her father.

Ema Horvath plays an aspiring architect, an original character whose place in the family lets the show explore the political schism in Númenor from the viewpoint of one household. She also formed a connection with Kemen, Pharazôn’s son, drawing her closer to the people working against Míriel.

In Season 2, Eärien revealed Míriel’s use of the palantir during the coronation, helping turn the gathering against her. But her loyalty to Pharazôn had limits. When the king moved against the Faithful, she warned Elendil and helped him escape. Season 3 leaves her caught between the regime she helped empower and the family now resisting it.

Leon Wadham as Kemen

Known For: Under the Mountain (2009), Go Girls (2013), The Bad Seed (2019)

Kemen started out as Pharazôn’s privileged son, eager to advance his father’s interests and his own stature. By the end of Season 2, he had become one of the show’s most openly vicious human antagonists.

Leon Wadham plays the Númenórean noble, whose opposition to the Southlands expedition first led him to sabotage the ships preparing to leave. His relationship with Eärien also placed him close to Elendil’s family, even as their political loyalties pulled them apart.

His worst act came during the crackdown on the Faithful, when he killed Valandil after a confrontation at the faction’s shrine. He later arrived in Pelargir, where Númenórean control brought fresh demands and threats for the Southlanders who had survived Mordor’s creation.

Season 3 returns to a character who now has both the backing of a king and a clear willingness to abuse the authority that comes with it.

Ismael Cruz Córdova as Arondir

Known For: Sesame Street (2013–2015), Mary Queen of Scots (2018), The Undoing (2020)

The Elf Arondir’s character was created just for the series, giving us no Tolkien precedent for his story. He’s a quiet soldier who has repeatedly found himself protecting people his own commanders might prefer he leave behind.

He started out stationed in the Southlands, where he fell in love with the human healer Bronwyn. Their relationship drew him closer to her son, Theo, and made the threat to their village much more than a routine military assignment.

Bronwyn eventually died, leaving Arondir and Theo struggling with the loss. Arondir later joined the battle at Eregion, survived an encounter with Adar and ended up among Galadriel and the other Elves sheltering in future Rivendell.

Season 3 pairs him with Galadriel and Marnûkh, an Orc claiming to have deserted Sauron that he, understandably, is having a hard time trusting.

Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor

Known For: Downton Abbey (2012–2013), The Crown (2019–2020), The Duke (2020)

Celebrimbor wanted to make something that would preserve the beauty of Middle-earth. Sauron understood that ambition well enough to turn it against him, and the results were disastrous for just about everyone.

Celebrimbor’s collaboration with Sauron, in disguise as Annatar, produced the Seven Rings for Dwarves and the Nine for Men. By the time he realized he was being manipulated, Sauron had trapped him in an elaborate illusion and his city was under attack. Sauron killed him during Eregion’s fall.

He’s still dead in Season 3, but he’ll appear as a ghostly presence haunting Sauron as he struggles with the One Ring.

Benjamin Walker as Gil-galad

Known For: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012), In the Heart of the Sea (2015), The Choice (2016)

Gil-galad is the High King of the Elves in Middle-earth. He doesn’t always agree with Galadriel’s methods, but by now they have more than enough reason to share the same fears.

Gil-galad began the series trying to bring an end to the long hunt for Sauron, but he soon faced another problem: The Elves were fading, and remaining in Middle-earth would require a solution beyond anything his people could easily provide. (Say, perhaps, a set of powerful magic rings?)

The Three Rings offered hope, and Gil-galad became the bearer of Vilya. Elrond’s objections didn’t stop him from accepting their power, though the events at Eregion showed just how deeply Sauron had become involved in the wider ring-making effort.

Season 3 finds Gil-galad trying to hold the remaining Elven realms together against Sauron’s armies.

Tyroe Muhafidin as Theo

Known For: Dusk (2018), Caravan (2019)

Theo started The Rings of Power as a Southlands teenager who stumbled upon something he really should have left alone. The broken sword hilt he kept hidden turned out to be part of the mechanism used to unleash the eruption that transformed his home into Mordor.

Tyroe Muhafidin plays the late Bronwyn’s son, whose mix of angst and curiosity have repeatedly put him in danger. His mother’s relationship with Arondir gave him a complicated connection to the Elf warrior, who gradually became a protector and mentor despite Theo’s initial resentment.

Bronwyn’s death made that relationship harder. Season 2 followed Theo as he grieved, struggled with Arondir and formed a friendship with Isildur. By the finale, he was back among the people trying to build a life at Pelargir, now under Númenórean control.

Theo is another original character, so his eventual role in Middle-earth’s history remains unknown.

Ciarán Hinds as the Dark Wizard

Known For: Rome (2005–2007), Game of Thrones (2013–2015), Belfast (2021)

The Dark Wizard is a powerful figure with a staff, a following and an apparent interest in the fate of Middle-earth, but that’s where his similarities to Gandalf end.

Ciarán Hinds joined the show in Season 2 as the mysterious wizard operating out of Rhûn. His followers had already crossed paths with Gandalf, and his influence helped make the eastern lands a dangerous place for Nori, Poppy and the Stoors.

When the two wizards finally met, he claimed that they shared a history and tried to draw Gandalf into an alliance. His willingness to endanger others made that offer difficult to take at face value, and Gandalf ultimately chose to help his friends instead.

We were left without an answer as to the Dark Wizard’s true identity at the end of Season 2, but Season 3 is expected to reveal it early on.

Rory Kinnear as Tom Bombadil

Known For: Skyfall (2012), Penny Dreadful (2014–2016), Years and Years (2019), Men (2022)

Tom Bombadil is one of Tolkien’s strangest and most beloved characters, and his introduction in Season 2 didn’t do much to make him less mysterious. He knows far more than he explains, seems perfectly comfortable in dangerous places and has his own ideas about what a wizard needs to learn.

Rory Kinnear plays Bombadil, who Gandalf encountered in Rhûn Bombadil helped the wizard begin to understand his purpose, and their conversations made clear that finding a staff wasn’t the same thing as learning how to use power wisely.

Bombadil appears near the beginning of Tolkien’s original telling of The Fellowship of the Ring, though Peter Jackson left him out of the films. The Rings of Power brings him into a much earlier period and gives him an early connection to Gandalf’s development. He returns in Season 3.

Ben Daniels as Círdan

Known For: House of Cards (2013–2014), The Exorcist (2016–2017), The Crown (2019), Interview with the Vampire (2024)

Círdan is one of the oldest and wisest Elves in Middle-earth, which made him a good option for Elrond to consult about getting rid of the Three Rings when they arrived with a troubling connection to Sauron.

Things didn’t go quite as Elrond intended. Círdan decided the rings could be used to preserve the Elves’ place in Middle-earth and became the bearer of Narya. That put his judgment on the opposite side of Elrond’s early objections, alongside Galadriel and Gil-galad.

Círdan’s home at the Grey Havens will eventually be familiar territory for anyone who remembers the ending of The Return of the King. His connection to Gandalf also becomes important later in Tolkien’s history.

New Cast of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 3

Season 3 of Amazon’s Tolkien epic will bring plenty of new faces, and a few that will be familiar to longtime fans of The Lord of the Rings.

Jamie Campbell Bower as Celeborn

Known For: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010), Stranger Things (2022)

Galadriel’s husband has been missing from The Rings of Power for a pretty important reason: She believes he died long before the show’s main story began. Season 3 brings Celeborn back, with Jamie Campbell Bower taking on the role.

Lord of the Rings fans first met an older Celeborn alongside Galadriel in Lothlórien in The Fellowship of the Ring, where he was played by Marton Csokas. The show’s version has been absent since the First Age, leaving Galadriel to believe that the war had taken him from her.

Turns out, he was actually imprisoned by Orcs, and their reunion means she will have to reckon with everything that has happened while they were apart, including her disastrous alliance with Sauron’s Halbrand facade.

Bower is best known for playing Henry Creel, One and Vecna in Netflix’s hit sci-fi series Stranger Things.

Adam Young as Marnûkh

Known For: Don’t Breathe 2 (2021), Masters of the Air (2024)

Marnûkh is an Orc who claims he wants to defect from Sauron’s army, which puts him in a difficult position with just about everyone he meets. His former master isn’t known for tolerating dissent among the ranks, and the Elves have plenty of reasons to be suspicious of an Orc who suddenly offers to help.

But Marnûkh comes bearing intel that could help prevent Sauron from forging the One Ring, drawing Galadriel and Arondir into an uneasy partnership with someone they would usually consider a mortal foe. The arrangement is particularly uncomfortable for Arondir, who has spent most of his life fighting Orcs, being forced into captivity by them and watching them annihilate his adopted home in the Southlands.

The show has already explored the Orcs’ desire to escape another master’s control through the Adar arc, and Marnûkh gives that question a more personal focus: Whether an individual Orc can choose a different path, and whether anyone will give him the chance.

Andrew Richardson as Anárion

Known For: A Call to Spy (2019), Daughter of the Bride (2023), Guys and Dolls (stage)

Anárion has been part of Isildur’s family dynamic since the first season, but Season 3 finally introduces Elendil’s younger son and Isildur’s brother in person. Anárion’s decision to leave the capital put some distance between him and his father, which has been alluded to in the first two seasons.

While Isildur was trying to find a place in Númenor’s Sea Guard, Anárion had gone west, toward the part of the island where the Faithful maintained their older traditions. Elendil wasn’t particularly eager to discuss that choice when the series began.

Pharazôn’s rise has changed the family’s circumstances. Elendil is now in the west himself, and father and son are working together to prepare the Faithful for the struggle against the king. Their reconciliation gives Anárion an immediate role in Númenor’s political story.

Zubin Varla as Khamûl

Known For: Little Dorrit (2008), Andor (2022), Tammy Faye (stage)

Khamûl is one of the new faces in Season 3, though his future is anything but reassuring. Tolkien readers know him as one of the most powerful of the ghastly Nazgûl, the Ringwraiths who eventually become Sauron’s most feared servants.

Zubin Varla plays the Easterling from Rhûn, introduced as the show begins exploring the humans corrupted by the Nine Rings. Season 2 ended with those rings in Sauron’s possession, ready for the next part of his plan.

Season 3 will depict the Nazgûl as the Nazgnagôl, an earlier stage of the fearsome hunters audiences know from The Lord of the Rings. Khamûl gives the group’s descent into darkness a recognizable name from Tolkien’s writing, rather than leaving all nine figures anonymous beneath their cloaks and chainmail.

Eddie Marsan as Thrain

Known For: Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), Sherlock Holmes (2009), Ray Donovan (2013–2020)

Durin IV’s problems don’t end with inheriting the throne. Season 3 introduces his older brother, Thrain, played by Eddie Marsan, giving Khazad-dûm another family feud to contend with while Sauron’s war closes in outside. Durin’s brother was mentioned at the end of Season 2 as a potential rival with supporters of his own and a potential interest in claiming power.

Simon Pegg as the Balrog (voice)

Known For: Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), Star Trek (2009), Mission: Impossible films

The creature beneath Khazad-dûm doesn’t need much help making an impression. Its appearance in the Season 2 finale cost Durin III his life and left the Dwarves with a very good reason to finally stop digging.

Season 3 gives the Balrog something new: a voice, provided by none other than Simon Pegg. The showrunners have emphasized that the creature is highly intelligent, making it more than a dangerous, brutish beast the Dwarves happened to disturb.

In Tolkien’s mythology, Balrogs are corrupted Maiar, spirits who served Morgoth. The one beneath Khazad-dûm will eventually become known as Durin’s Bane, the enemy Gandalf confronts on the bridge in The Fellowship of the Ring. The series has brought its awakening into its Second Age storyline.

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