‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’: Sauron will be the great protagonist of the second season

SPOILER attention!

* This article reveals important details about the ending of the first season of “The Rings of Power”.

“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” has already completed its first season on Amazon Prime Video. The eighth episode has begun to forge, never better to say, many of the stories that will form the backbone of the next seasons of the series based on the works of JRR Tolkien. This chapter also contains a couple of very important answers. We’re entering spoiler territory, so stop reading if you haven’t seen the episode yet.

In this last episode we finally know that the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) is an Istar, that is, a magician. One of the most popular theories was that we were facing Gandalf himself, although that would have messed up the timeline established in the books a little. Tolkien wrote that the Istari arrived in Middle-earth 1000 years after the start of the Third Age, sent by the Valar (the creators of the world) to help stop Sauron. The Stranger, however, has details that inevitably lead him to be related to Gandalf, such as his affinity for halflings and slightly more brazen winks, such as the repetition of advice we had previously heard from the wizard to a halfling, in this case in Peter Jackson Movies: “always follow your nose”. This revelation will be important in the future of the series and in the fight against Sauron, but it has been completely overshadowed by the great unknown we had seeing “The Rings of Power”.

Sauron’s identity and location remained hidden throughout the season, although we now know (even if we already imagined it) that he was before us and much closer than we thought. Halbrand, the character of Charlie Vickers, has been revealed as the dark lord who will bring Middle-earth back into the shadows. In addition to starting to manipulate Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), he also offers Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) a place with him in his conquest of Middle-earth. The showrunners explained to the Hollywood Reporter that they had never looked for a surprise that, precisely because it was totally unexpected, made no sense with the construction of the series, and suggest that they review the season to enjoy it as “A different experience. We hope that as we get closer to the second season, people will end up enjoying the first a lot more because they can see it in a new light.”says Patrick McKay.

Charlie Vickers reveals that not even he knew Sauron was behind Halbrand: “I didn’t fully find out until the beginning of the third episode. We recorded the first two and the series was stopped due to COVID. Towards the end of the break, the showrunners sat down with me and told me about it.. I recorded the raft scene without knowing it. He was Halbrand through and through. But I had a hunch, to be honest. My last two auditions made me read “Richard III”, who we know wasn’t the best guy in the world. And the other was with ‘Paradise Lost’, where you literally make a speech like Satan. This gave me the feeling that something was happening here “. Vickers is convinced that the Sauron we have known is now “in a phase of regret” and the great unknown will now find out if that repentance is genuine or is it a trick: “I think, ‘Why would Tolkien’s second greatest villain, in terms of power, want a job as a blacksmith in Númenor?’ it’s not, if he’s faking it, maybe it’s a tactic he can buy time and appear busy in Númenor while certain events unfold. You can see it either way. I have an answer for myself that I used to play it. But I think it’s interesting leave it to ambiguity and that people interpret it however they want “ says Vickers.

The story of Sauron has just begun, and in fact its importance will grow in the second season until it becomes almost the protagonist, as Galadriel was in the first: “Season 1 opens with who is Galadriel? Where did she come from? What did she suffer? What triggered her? We’ll do the exact same thing with Sauron in Season 2. We’ll fill in all the gaps.” says JD Payne and his partner adds: “Sauron may already be Sauron. Like Tony Soprano or Walter White. He is bad, but overall bad. We figured if we did this in Season 1 it would overshadow everything else. The first season is like “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight” will be the next, with Sauron moving without hiding. We are very excited. The second season has a canonical history. There may be viewers who think: ‘this is what we expected from the first season!’ In the second, we will give it to you”. Charlie Vickers adds that the questions we have, such as Halbrand’s previous moments before the raft, will be resolved next season: “We will see such an exciting story and things I loved reading about in ‘The Silmarillion’. Those famous stories will be enriched in the next season.”.

The showrunners explain this character build, which is located in the same base as “The Rings of Power”: “In the books, it’s an evil so vast and powerful that it doesn’t even need to physically manifest itself. It’s the image of an eye, an eye in a tower. We thought Sauron could be a character in its own right. We wanted to study what flows in the his veins of In a way that will hopefully be satisfying to viewers who follow him as he becomes the dark lord, you now know him as the person behind the name Sauron. In a way, we wanted to create an origin story for Sauron. We didn’t want to do a series about the hunt for Sauron, but we love the idea of ​​Sauron as someone who misleads and hopefully misleads the public.”.

Bad news for shippers

But what about the Galadriel courtship we saw in the first episode? Charlie Vickers has some bad news for Shippers Halbrand / Sauron and the Elf (via Variety): “He thinks he can (get her to join him). At this point he believes tremendously in his own power. When he says to her ‘unite as queen’ it shouldn’t be misunderstood as romantic. Morfydd taught me the word ‘navigator’ the other day, that he had no idea of ​​his existence. I think it’s amazing that people have seen further, but my point of view with that scene is that it is to his advantage. At that moment he thinks: ‘if he joins me, yes it will fit my plan perfectly and it will happen faster. ‘ meeting someone so close to her level in terms of power, age and aura, that it must make her blood pump. Inevitably, she brings back her darkness and Galadriel doesn’t realize it at that moment, but it arouses a thirst for power. It’s inside”. Now, he believes that if there is anyone who can resist him, he is the Stranger: “Sauron is probably the strongest Maiar, in the same way that Margoth is the strongest Valar. Meeting someone who controls magic would be a real threat. Elves together are a threat, but not on the same level as someone who is literally a demigod “.

The second season of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is currently shooting And it doesn’t have a release date yet.