Amazon Releases ‘Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Sneak Peek to Hype Prime Day

Todd Spangler
·3 min read

To push its one shopping event to rule them all, Amazon dropped a new 60-second sneak peek at its mammoth upcoming series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”

On Wednesday, the company launched the exclusive sneak peek for the “LOTR” series, which is set to debut Sept. 2 worldwide on Prime Video. Earlier this week, Amazon also surprised 20 randomly picked Prime members from around the world with an opportunity to attend the London global premiere of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” in August.

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“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Second Age of Middle-earth’s history — thousands of years before the events of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” books.

In the new 60-second sneak peek, an ominous sign in the night sky raises questions for the inhabitants of Middle-earth. Prime members can watch the sneak peek at this link exclusively for 48 hours. “The skies are strange,” one Middle-earther intones darkly in the teaser.

The first teaser trailer for “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” debuted during the Super Bowl in February. Amazon will continue the build-up to the show’s launch with another teaser trailer scheduled to drop July 14.

The “LOTR” teaser is part of Amazon’s multipronged effort to drive signups to Prime ahead of Prime Day, the ecommerce giant’s annual shopping-deals event taking place this year on July 12-13. In the U.S., Prime costs $139 per year or $14.99 per month; a standalone Prime Video membership is $8.99 per month.

In addition, to hype Amazon’s first exclusive NFL “Thursday Night Football” game on Prime Video on Sept. 15, Amazon is offering members Prime Day deals a week early on a range of home entertainment devices, including Fire TV-based smart TVs, as well as NFL fan gear “for members to prepare their living rooms and get ready for game day.”

Amazon also announced that U.S. Prime members can receive a free, one-year Grubhub+ membership with no food-delivery fees on eligible orders. That’s under Amazon’s partnership with Grubhub, which gives Amazon the option to acquire up to a 15% stake in Grubhub. Prime members can use this new perk in more than 4,000 cities with hundreds of thousands of restaurants across the country when ordering on Grubhub.

Also, Amazon touted the “Ultimate Crown” July 9 matchup pitting MrBeast and Ninja battling it out live in “League of Legends” with a lineup of gamers and content creators live from Las Vegas at the HyperX Arena. That event will stream on Twitch and Prime Video on July 9 between 7-10 p.m. ET.

“Being the first to watch a sneak peek of one of the most highly anticipated shows of 2022 or ordering your favorite takeout while watching a football game on a TV you snagged for a great price — that’s the promise of Prime, and there’s never been a better time to take advantage of all the membership has to offer,” said Jamil Ghani, VP of Amazon Prime, in announcing the promotions.

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