Contrary to earlier reports, the Harfoots are still a part of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Season 3 albeit not to the degree they were featured in the Prime Video show’s first two seasons.
“[We] have not written out the Harfoots [from Season 3]”, co-showrunner Patrick McKay recently informed me at the show’s press junket.
“I would say for myself and J.D. [Payne], my co-show runner, every season is its own opportunity and its own challenge. With Season 3, we really wanted to level up our game as dramatists. We really wanted to focus the show. We wanted to be more psychological, more emotional, wanted to do a darker season,” McKay explained.
“It’s the season where Sauron forges the One Ring, and we wanted that to unify every single storyline. We didn’t want it to have sprawl the way we enjoyed having in the past. No, no. This was a time we wanted it to be one journey and on rails.”
McKay continued: “That meant that if a story wasn’t about the rings and wasn’t about Sauron and wasn’t about the One Ring, that to put it in there would feel forced and it wouldn’t do justice to those characters. But don’t worry, you can’t count a halfling out, the Harfoots and Markella [Kavenagh] and Megan [Richardson]’s characters. They’ll be back maybe sooner than you think.”
How exactly the Harfoots will factor into the overall plot to stop Sauron from forging the One Ring – and just how much they will actually appear in Season 3 – remains to be seen.
The last time we saw the Harfoots at the end of Season 2, Nori Brandyfoot (Kavenagh) and her bestie Poppy Proudfellow (Richardson) bid farewell to the Stranger (Daniel Weyman). The two duo joined the Stoors as they left looking to find a new home after the Dark Wizard (Ciaran Hinds) destroyed their canyon. By the end of the Season 2 finale, the Stranger is dubbed “Grand Elf” by the Stoors, and thus the name Gandalf is born.
The Rings of Power, Season 3 picks the story up five years later and chronicles the war to stop Sauron from forging the One Ring and binding its peoples to his will. The season introduces new characters, including an enigmatic “Orc with an Arc” who may or may not be an ally to the Elves.
The first four episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Season 3 will premiere on November 11, 2026. Episodes 305 & 306 will be available to stream on November 18, while the final two episodes of the season will be released on November 25.
Jim Vejvoda (he/him) is IGN’s Assoc. Director of Entertainment Content.
