The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is filled with everyone from humans to elven high kings, with the upcoming season poised to bring us on new adventures with all of our favorites. All the marketing thus far has made it extremely clear that we will see all of Rings of Powers’ protagonists challenged in Season 2 as darkness spreads across Middle-earth — but what of its villains?
Charlie Vickers’ Sauron (formerly Halbrand) has easily become a fan favorite as we see the darkest evil in Middle-earth connive his way to power. The lore has always spoken of his slipperiness, but we’ll be seeing it play out in real time as Sauron shifts from persona to persona and form to form to manipulate those around him. This exclusive featurette — tied to a very fun lead-in happening on Prime Video that we’ll chat more about shortly — showcases how he’ll impact those around him in Season 2, but it also drops one heck of a bombshell: Vickers won’t be the only actor playing Sauron in Season 2 of Rings of Power.
Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay revealed to us at SDCC that Sauron will take creature form in Season 2, but now we know that we’ll be seeing the villain in multiple human forms as well. As revealed in the above featurette, Jack Lowden will be playing an earlier form of Sauron in the upcoming season.
It’s certainly interesting to see Sauron take on a different face in the flashback scene, but what’s most exciting here is the setting in which we meet Lowden’s Sauron. Adar (formerly Joseph Malwe, with Sam Hazeldine taking on the role in Season 2) and Sauron have always had a contentious relationship in the present, but we seem to be meeting Lowden’s version of the villain at the beginning of the two’s little war.
In the featurette, Lowden confirms that his scene takes place a thousand years before Season 1, right after the fall of Morgoth. While we know Morgoth created the orcs, we’ve seen that Adar very much sees the creatures as his children. But even clearer than his paternal feelings toward them is his disdain for Sauron as the dark lord tells the orcs that he will be their new master. Adar seems prepared to let Sauron lead the orcs over his dead body and, given that Adar is still standing in the present and Sauron has a massive grudge against the character, it seems pretty obvious that Sauron will not leave that cave very happy.
Not for nothing, but Sauron having a different face when the two’s (presumably) first altercation went down also solves the mystery of why Adar had no idea who Sauron was when he showed up as Halbrand in Season 1.
While the featurette gives us a glimpse of Sauron’s interaction with a couple other characters, let’s take a second to talk about what’s happening over at Prime Video to lead into Season 2. The above featurette — which you’re seeing here first! — is tied to little snippets about each character on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s “explore” page. Fans will be able to click through and learn about eight different important Rings of Power players: Galadriel, The Stranger, Celebrimbor, Pharazon, Adar, Durin, Arondir, and Elrond. After watching the featurettes on those other characters — each of which depict each character’s journey through the season — the above Sauron featurette will unlock. We may have brought you the evil goods here first, but hey, if such a massive reveal for Sauron was baked into his featurette, imagine what tidbits you can learn about the other characters! Stay tuned to Prime Video’s social media to learn more (but a little birdie told us that the feature will become available at 2:30PT today).
In the meantime, let’s get back to Sauron’s shenanigans.
We don’t see much, but we do get a little glimpse of the Dark Lord (still in Annatar form) looking on at Prince Durin (Owain Arthur). The dwarves will play a critical role in the creation of the titular rings of power so, while Durin’s presence is of no surprise, it does leave a lot of intrigue over how the two will interact. Will King Durin’s (Peter Mullan) greed lead him to side with Sauron without a second look and result in driving the wedge further between father and son, or will Prince Durin be just as enamored by Annatar and his false promises?
That’s certainly what we see of Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards). This poor elf just wants to create the coolest, most powerful rings in the land. He’s not trying to destroy all of Middle-earth! But his ambition will be his undoing, as we see him tightly wrapped around Annatar’s finger throughout every interaction we’ve seen thus far. (With the exception, of course, being the glimpse we have of Celebrimbor learning the truth and realizing what he’s done in other trailers.)
Edwards says it best in the featurette: Villains really are seductive in all kinds of ways!
McKay and Payne seem to be pretty honed in on that, as the showrunners tease above that we’ll be learning a lot more about Sauron’s motivations in Rings of Power Season 2. Evil for the sake of evil is quite boring. But, if Sauron believes that he’s saving Middle-earth, well… that’s a different story entirely.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 drops on Prime Video on August 29.
