The second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is just around the corner. If you haven’t watched the first batch of episodes or want to refresh your memory and have let your Prime subscription lapse, there’s a way you can do that for free. From today until August 28, you can stream season one at no cost on Samsung TVs and other devices where the Samsung TV Plus app is available.
It’s the first time that the show has legally been available to stream for free (unless you had access to Prime Video gratis). Samsung is offering the show to its users in the US, UK, Canada, Brazil and Germany on Samsung TVs and Galaxy devices. The company says that the eight-episode season “will also be available within Samsung TV Plus’ channel offering in select regions globally.”
It’s worth noting that Samsung TV Plus is ad-supported, so if you opt to watch The Rings of Power there, the episodes will include commercials. And, along with Samsung TVs and mobile devices, the Samsung TV Plus app is available on some of the company’s refrigerators, so that could be an interesting way to catch up on or rewatch the first season.
Meanwhile, Amazon has dropped the final trailer for season two of The Rings of Power. “War has come to Middle-Earth,” says one character (who I might recognize if I had watched the first season) before we briefly see an army of orcs march on what looks like Minas Tirith as Sauron exerts his authority. There are plenty of eye-popping visuals in the trailer, which shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise considering this is slated to be the most expensive TV show of all time. Season two will debut on Prime Video on August 29.