Amazon Prime Video has released an exclusive first image from the third season of The Rings of Power introducing teenage dwarf characters Gerda and Gamli.
The new characters are played by actors Lee Braithwaite and Amber Mendez-Martin. They appear alongside returning cast members Owain Arthur and Sophia Nomvete, who portray Khazad-dum leaders Durin IV and Disa.
The upcoming season picks up the story after a five-year time jump, providing a full reveal of the royal dwarf children. In earlier episodes, the young dwarves were seen running through their family home without their faces being fully shown.
New Dwarf Characters in Khazad-dum
In the newly shared preview, the teenage siblings stand beside their parents with a Middle-earth landscape as a backdrop. The daughter, Gerda, and the son, Gamli, have spent the intervening five years growing up in Khazad-dum while watching their parents lead the Dwarf population against the growing threat of Sauron.
Despite their young age, the brother and sister will play a crucial role in the growing turmoil deep within the mountain realm. Their introduction represents a major novelty for The Lord of the Rings franchise, as these younger dwarves never appeared in previous film adaptations and were never mentioned in the original novels by J. R. R. Tolkien.
The addition aims to complement the intimate view that the series offers of Khazad-dum, the realm that would later become known as Moria. Set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, the television adaptation explores the kingdom thousands of years before its ultimate downfall.
Legacy and Lineage of Durin
By the time of the events portrayed in the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, Khazad-dum had already fallen into ruin after being destroyed by the same Balrog that defeated Gandalf the Grey. During the second season of the series, King Durin III sacrificed his life to bury that same Balrog deep beneath the earth.
His sacrifice left Durin IV as the legitimate sovereign of Khazad-dum. Introduced as Durin's son, Gamli stands as the rightful heir to the throne, although he curiously does not carry the traditional family name passed down by his father and grandfather. Middle-earth lore indicates that the prosperous mountain kingdom will not endure for much longer.
At the start of season three, the Free Peoples of Middle-earth are expected to have spent at least five years in open war against Sauron and his forces from Mordor. Consequently, much of the lives of Gerda and Gamli will have been marked by continuous tension and fear.
In the broader history of Middle-earth, Gimli, one of the central heroes of The Lord of the Rings, descends from the line of Durin. This lineage makes either Gerda or Gamli a direct ancestor of Gimli, even though both characters remain original creations missing from Tolkien's written works.
