According to actress Morfydd Clark, Galadriel thinks Celeborn dead in The Rings of Power. Plus, Clark teases new villains for Season 2 in a recent interview with Screen Rant. Finally, we have some Barside Buzz around young Shelob, so let’s get to it.
Clark has been on the promotional trail lately and doing a lot of press. I’ll guess that’s likely because the Season 2 shoot is delayed due to the WGA strike. One of our related articles below says it’s still going though, so maybe not?
As much as Clark has done recently, she has also rarely said anything particularly news worthy. Luckily, that’s not the case this time. Feel free to watch the video, or scroll past for the highlights and my thoughts.
Celeborn
Let’s start with Celeborn who was the husband of Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings, set many thousands of years after The Rings of Power. Celeborn’s absence from Season 1 was rather strange to book fans as the pair had already met. Though, as we shall see below, Tolkien did change the circumstances of this union and how it began a few times without ever truly settling.
The question then was will Galadriel only meet Celebron in The Rings of Power or is he already around? Well, Clark now answers at least part of the questions we have. As far as Galadriel is concerned in Season 1, and perhaps some of Season 2, Celeborn is dead.
“She definitely thinks he’s dead at this point. That’s what’s so crazy about elves you know, they could not see someone for literally millenias and then suddenly they see them again. And I think that’s a deep deep sadness and a big part of like why she’s so rogue at the moment. Because you know… like I love thinking of where Galadriel ends up. She finds a semblance of peace and she’s with those she loves. And I’m now rambling because I can’t say anything on that but it’s very exciting to think about.”
Just so you know, there are a few rumors Celeborn will show up in Season 2. My guess is that he will also show up with Galadriel’s daughter Celebrian, the eventual wife of Elrond, who has also not been referenced in the show so far. I mean, why not have an Elven love story between Elrond and Celebrian?
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When asked about the playing a character with so much written about them, Clark mentions the fact (as said above) that Tolkien had multiple stories for Galadriel and Celeborn.
“It’s kind of interesting with Galadriel because there’s a lot written about her but also he was quite… he changed his mind about her quite a lot. And particularly with kind of Celeborn and Galadriel, it was… there’s lots of different ideas of kind of where he comes from and how they actually met. So there was kind of… I felt really lucky that I had lots of stuff that also still granted quite a lot of freedom.”
New Villains
Clark also says there will be some new villains in Season 2. We know that the main villain will remain a certain Dark Lord called Sauron (Charlie Vickers) however, as Clark says, there are loads of sketchy types around middle-Earth.
“There’s quite a lot of new villains which is really fun. […] Like Sauron is the big bad, but there’s loads of sketchy people in Middle Earth with bad intentions.”
There are a few characters that I could think of from the mythology who could show up, or at least candidates, or locations where there could be some bad things happening. Then again, as with Season 1 and the weird shapeshifters that showed up from nowhere, we’re kinda off-piste here.
There definitely needs to be some threat to create drama in the Eastern storyline. That’s where the Stranger/Gandalf/Blue Wizard dude and Norri are off to. That’s not, for now, the direction Sauron will be targeting, as he already kinda has things under control over that way.
One known villain I would not expect to show up is Shelob. Yet, that’s the Barside Buzz, and it’s from a good source.
Young Shelob
Yes, there is a rumor now that began through Fellowship of Fans that a young Shelob will appear in The Rings of Power Season 2. I’ll just let you gander at the social media post below before I get into this. Also, these guys are pretty much always very accurate with their scoops, so this is very likely true.
#TROPspoilers
🚨EXCLUSIVE: ‘YOUNG SHELOB ’ is a character featured in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ season 2 with a small role. pic.twitter.com/GNu6fezR4z— Fellowship of Fans (@FellowshipFans) May 7, 2023
Hmm! I’m not overly keen on this idea, outside of something small which I’ll get into below. If anyone ever played the video games, the Shadow of Mordor ones, then you’ll know they made Shelob into a shapeshifter who was once a female….spirit, something, I dunno? The point is, it was a bloody stupid idea and should never be replicated. My worry, is that given the female shapshifters we’ve already gotten in Season 1, that they could go down this route.
It’s that worry more than Shelob herself being there that concerns me. If for example Sauron while exploring his land of Mordor stumbles upon young Shelob and tells her she can remain, if she protects that pass for him, then I’m all good. There could even be someone who gets gobbled up in later seasons. Or, we could see Sauron send Orcs in to her for sport.
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As far as the mythology goes, Shelob probably was not even alive at this point in time. I may be slightly fuzzy, but I’m sure Shelob was not in the pass to Cirith Ungol during the time of Sauron’s defeat. During the watchful peace when Gondor built Minas Ithil, which later became Minas Morgul, I’m sure they’d have known. I thought she crept in there after the watch had fallen away. Mordor was once again left unwatched, and around this time the Ringwraiths slunk back to prepare for Sauron’s return. Sauron found her for sure, and allowed her to stay, of that Tolkien was very clear. I just think it was sometime in the Third Age.
Then again, the scene like I describe above would actually be rather fun. The oversight would only be noticed by nerds like me. Therefore, these are the sort of changes, for a bit of drama, which I don’t mind too much. However, if they go the other way and we get a human actor playing young Shelob? Well, I’m throwing my toys right out the pram.
So, according to actress Morfydd Clark, Galadriel thinks Celeborn dead in The Rings of Power. Clark also teases new villains for Season 2 and we have some Barside Buzz around young Shelob. What do you think of the latest news/rumors around The Rings of Power Season 2? As always, share them below
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