{"id":71383,"date":"2026-07-24T21:16:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T13:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=71383"},"modified":"2026-07-24T21:16:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T13:16:59","slug":"the-rings-of-power-will-invent-an-early-version-of-the-ringwraiths-named-the-nazgnagol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=71383","title":{"rendered":"The Rings of Power Will Invent an Early Version of the Ringwraiths Named the Nazgnag\u00f4l"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The Rings of Power will continue introducing more elements from The Lord of the Rings by showing early versions of the Ringwraiths, re-invented as the Nazgnag\u00f4l.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Amazon&#8217;s ambitious Lord of the Rings prequel will return for its third season later this year, now with Sauron ruling over swathes of Middle-earth. The nine human rulers previously given rings have now been corrupted, and while they are not yet the Ringwraiths seen in the Third Age, they will be shown as well on their way.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Tolkien named this group the Nazgul, though the Rings of Power&#8217;s showrunners are adopting a slightly different name for their proto versions: the Nazgnag\u00f4l, which means &#8220;Ring-servant.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-slideshow\"><button type=\"button\" style=\"display:none\" class=\"jsx-2228525885\"\/><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">The Cast and Characters of The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img alt=\"Exploring the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth's history, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Some characters will be familiar while others have been created entirely for the series.&#10;&lt;p&gt;&#10;Read on for a rundown of every actor and character we know about so far.\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3027214138 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"\/><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;We love looking back at what inspired Tolkien,&#8221; showrunner J.D. Payne told Empire. &#8220;He led with language. Language became a scaffold on which the myth would hang. The word Nazgul means Ringwraith in the Black Speech of Mordor. But before they were Ringwraiths, we know that these were just men. So we were able to derive in the Black Speech that nag\u00f4l could mean servant. Nazgnag\u00f4l, therefore, literally means Ring-servant.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Only two of the Nine were ever named by Tolkien: the fearsome Witch-king of Angmar, and his second-in-command: Kham\u00fbl, the Black Easterling, who will be played in the upcoming season by British stage actor Zubin Varla. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;Every character stays the hero of their own story,&#8221; Payne concludes. &#8220;From Kham\u00fbl&#8217;s point of view, he is a warlord who deserves to be a king, whose power has been usurped by a dark wizard. Sauron offers him a way back to the top.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-video\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">This appears to suggest an intertwining of the meandering subplot featuring the halflings and Gandalf in the east, where Kham\u00fbl is from, with the series&#8217; more central plotlines. Curiously, there has been no mention yet at all of the halflings returning for the series&#8217; third season. Meanwhile, the identity of the Dark Wizard remains a mystery \u2014 though it is believed he is likely one of the two Blue Wizards left out of Tolkien&#8217;s main work.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Earlier this week, we learned that Galadriel&#8217;s husband Celeborn will also finally be introduced in the show&#8217;s next season. The role is set to be portrayed by Stranger Things&#8217; Jamie Campbell Bower, who described the character as acting like a &#8220;lover-boy.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Rings of Power is still on-track to run for five seasons, with the $1 billion Prime Video show claimed to be still under the protection of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos&#8217; &#8220;magical halo&#8221; despite its huge costs.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Image credit: Andreas Solaro\/AFP via Getty Images.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Tom Phillips is IGN&#8217;s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky <\/em>@tomphillipseg.bsky.social<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-will-introduce-the-ringwraiths-and-has-invented-an-early-version-named-the-nazgnagl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Rings of Power will continue introducing more elements from The Lord of the Rings by showing early versions of the Ringwraiths, re-invented as the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1709,10084,3565,27127,1214,2034,27126,2023],"class_list":["post-71383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-early","tag-invent","tag-named","tag-nazgnagol","tag-power","tag-rings","tag-ringwraiths","tag-version","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/71384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}