Is Legolas Going to Appear in The Rings of Power? (Here’s How He Could)

There are plenty of different characters that were popular in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and one such elf that tops the list is Legolas because of his innate beauty and rare skill with the bow. Of course, Legolas teamed up with Aragorn and Gimli to form a legendary trio of fighters that could take down hordes of orcs on their own. Nevertheless, the LOTR trilogy is in the past as we are now looking at the future, which is The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. So, is there a chance that Legolas is going to appear in The Rings of Power?

It is unlikely that Legolas is going to appear in The Rings of Power because he was said to be born during the Third Age. As we know, The Rings of Power takes place during the Second Age. As such, it is unlikely that Legolas will appear in a time period when he wasn’t even born yet.

While we don’t have an official number for Legolas’s birthday because JRR Tolkien was never specific in relation to that, we do know that the movie canon version of Legolas was born during the Third Age. The Rings of Power would have to go against movie canon if Legolas were to appear in the series. Nevertheless, let’s look at the possibility of him appearing in The Rings of Power.

Is Legolas Going To Appear In The Rings Of Power?

The different characters in The Lord of the Rings are now quite popular because of how big the trilogy movies were. One of the most popular characters found in the LOTR trilogy is Legolas, who was portrayed by Orlando Bloom. While Legolas didn’t have a lot of exploits in JRR Tolkien’s writing, he was portrayed as one of the best fighters in The Lord of the Rings, as there were a lot of instances when he seemed unstoppable.

It was the fact that Legolas was an incredible warrior during The Lord of the Rings that made him so popular. Of course, Legolas was one of the few original characters (along with Gandalf, Elrond, and Saruman, among others) from the LOTR trilogy that made his way to The Hobbit trilogy. Though he was a bit more of a jerk in The Hobbit movies, he still ended up playing crucial roles as a great warrior that dominated the orcs that he faced in battle.

Due to Legolas being as popular as he always was, there are some people who are wondering whether or not he could possibly make another return appearance in the newest The Lord of the Rings project. Of course, considering that he is an immortal elf that can live for thousands of years, the possibility of him appearing in a series that takes place thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings isn’t too impossible. So, is Legolas going to appear in The Rings of Power?

While it might be true that Legolas is an elf that could live for thousands of years, the fact is that he still has to actually be born during the time of The Rings of Power for him to appear in the series. And this is where it can become quite confusing.

Legolas may be an incredibly popular character, but there was no clue in any of JRR Tolkien’s writings regarding his age or his early exploits. This makes it difficult for us to tell whether or not he was around during the Second Age, which is the setting of The Rings of Power. The Second Age lasted for more than 3,400 years, while the Third Age lasted for 3,000 years and ended upon Sauron’s defeat. That means that, for Legolas to be around in The Rings of Power, he should have been more than 3,000 years old in The Lord of the Rings.

But the thing is that, as mentioned, Tolkien never mentioned anything about Legolas appearing in any events during the Second Age because none of his early exploits were ever chronicled. On top of that, his birthdate wasn’t even mentioned at all. 

Nevertheless, in the official movie guide of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film adaptation, Legolas’s birthday was set to year 87 during the Third Age, and that means he was around 2,931 years old in the movies. But there are reasons to believe that this was an honest mistake on the part of the ones who created the movie guide because Aragorn was born in year 2931 during the Third Age. In that regard, this age might be canon in the movies but not in the true lore of Tolkien’s LOTR.

But we do know that The Rings of Power was written to be canon to the LOTR trilogy and The Hobbit for the sake of continuity. In that regard, even though Legolas wasn’t actually born during the Third Age as far as Tolkien was concerned, he was still born in the Third Age in the film adaptation of LOTR.

So, with that in mind, it would be impossible for Legolas to appear in The Rings of Power if the writers were to follow his movie canon age. That’s because, again, The Rings of Power takes place during the early part of the Second Age and will quite possibly conclude the entire Second Age in what is set to be a multi-season series.

How Could Legolas Appear In The Rings Of Power?

At this point, we have no idea whether or not Legolas could appear in The Rings of Power. But if Legolas were to appear in The Rings of Power, here are some of the scenarios that we can look at in terms of how he could possibly appear in the series.

The Rings of Power Will Retcon His Birthdate

While we did say that The Rings of Power tried its best to stay close to the continuity already established in the LOTR trilogy without encroaching on any legal concerns regarding the ownership of those movies. In that regard, the series tried to make sure that it followed any canon event or information that had already been established by Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations, although the people over at Amazon Prime probably never made any references to the trilogy.

So, if The Rings of Power were to include Legolas, that would mean that they would have to go against his already established movie canon birthdate. Even though year 87 of the Third Age isn’t his real birthday as far as Tolkien was concerned, it had become a generally accepted birthdate for the fans. That means that The Rings of Power would have to completely retcon Legolas’s birthdate and age if they really want to bring the character in.

Of course, Amazon is free to do what it wants with Legolas’s age because it was never established in the source material. And, of course, Amazon now owns the license for the film adaptation of Tolkien’s works, and that means that they are not under any legal obligation to follow his movie canon birthdate.

He Will Appear At The Very End

If The Rings of Power doesn’t plan on retconning Legolas’s birthdate, then the only possible way he would appear is at the very end. We do believe that The Rings of Power will not only chronicle Sauron’s rise to power but will also tell the story of how his reign during the Second Age would end.

So, if the series were to make Sauron’s defeat at the hands of Isildur the final event of The Rings of Power, then there is a chance that the series will fast-forward into the Third Age to feature some of the characters and people that thrived after the dark lord’s disappearance.

This could possibly show King Thranduil together with a young Legolas during the first century of the Third Age. That’s because Thranduil only ascended to the throne of the Silvan Elves during the final years of the Second Age. It is possible that the series will allow us to see the lives of the different Second Age characters during the Third Age, and that could include Thranduil raising Legolas, who was born 87 years after Sauron’s defeat.

Nevertheless, that is merely speculative on our part because we are only looking at some of the possibilities of Legolas appearing in The Rings of Power. Still, at this point, we do believe that he won’t be appearing in the series due to the fact that he was born during an entirely different time period and era.