THE RINGS OF POWER showrunners compare Sauron to Walter White in season 2 and say it will be the season fans are hoping for

The first season of The Lord of the Rings: The rings of power is in the books, and the climax of the finale revealed the surprise that Sauron has been hiding in plain sight this season as Halbrand, the Aragorn-like drifter who pretended – or, at least, allowed Galadriel to believe – to be a long lost king of the Southern Lands. Showrunner JD Payne And Patrick McKay he sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about the process of introducing the Dark Lord as a charming “short man” and also teased what comes next for the character in Season 2.

McKay began, explaining:

“What’s in the [The Lord of the Rings books] it is an all-encompassing evil that everyone is afraid of and is so powerful that it doesn’t even have to be physically manifested. It is the image of an eye inside [Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings] movie, he is the eye on the tower. We felt that Sauron had to be a character in his own right. We wanted to study the currents flowing within him in a way that hopefully rewarded audiences as they followed him as he moved forward as he became the Dark Lord. Now you know him as a person outside of the name “Sauron”. In a way, we wanted to create an origin story for Sauron. We didn’t want to do a show about the hunt for Sauron, but we love the idea of ​​Sauron as a deceiver who could hopefully fool some of the audience. “

Payne intervened, adding:

“There is something Milton does lost paradise we talked about a lot. Where makes Satan a truly compelling character. In a way, he’s the first anti-hero where he’s addicting and you can’t take your eyes off him. Milton did it on purpose because he wants you to fall with Adam and Eve. He wants Satan to be persuasive enough to seduce him too [the reader] and you are unconsciously conquered, so much so that you perceive your own fall and your need for redemption ”.

“In Tolkien, Sauron is a deceiver and we know that in the Second Age he appears in ‘good shape’. What if he sneaks up on you and is able to make you sympathize with him and make you agree with him so that once you really realize who he is, that he already has his hooks in you? So it’s not as easy as, ‘This person is evil, I’m going to back off’, because you’ve already formed some level of attachment to him. What if we could convince the public to take a similar trip? “

When asked what season 2 will be like, Payne said:

“Season 1 opens with: Who is Galadriel? Where is he from? What did he suffer? Why is she being driven? We are doing the same thing with Sauron in the second season. We will fill in all the missing pieces. ”

McKay added:

“Sauron can only be Sauron now. Like Tony Soprano or Walter White. He is evil, but altogether evil. We felt like we did it in season one, he would overshadow everything else. So the first season is like Batman beginsand the The dark Knight is the next film, with Sauron maneuvering outdoors. We are really excited. The second season has a canonical history. There may be viewers saying “This is the story we hoped to achieve in Season 1!” In the second season, we give it to him. ”

Season 2 of The rings of power has started filming and is currently expected to decline in 2024. Are you looking forward to continuing this story?