The Rings of Power season 3 begins at the darkest moment yet for Middle-earth. Sauron is in possession of the Nine Rings for men and is plotting his path to forge the One Ring, all the while sending his Orcs out to conquer new locales.

As a result, the stakes are pretty high for each of the show's beloved characters, and the showrunners reveal that there will be "tragic consequences".

"The elves are clinging on to being able to hold Sauron at bay, but only by the power of their three rings," co-showrunner J.D. Payne tells GamesRadar+. "And Sauron, his plan this season is to be able to neutralize the power of those rings by making One Ring to rule them all. Beyond that, he's also recruiting a massive army by giving out the Nine Rings for men."

As Patrick McKay adds, it's a tense situation to be in and one they wanted to acknowledge with real stakes. "In Lord of the Rings, people turn to the dark side; they fall to evil, and when that happens, there are tragic consequences," he adds. "And we felt that it was important for the audience to feel those viscerally, and for people that you love and whose stories you're excited to watch continue, sometimes the end is not happy for them. That can be painful. But it should be. It shouldn't be fun."

As Payne alludes to, the main frontier against Sauron is the Elves, led by a war-beaten Gil-galad, played by Benjamin Walker.

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