There’s a new Rings of Power Season 2 preview from EW and it contains a fair few SPOILERS for even non-book reader fans. Ergo, if you had planned to go into Season 2 cold, I would suggest not reading this, or the source article from EW. There are of course levels to spoilers. Anyone who is a fan of The Silmarillion already knows all the major beats this show will cover. With a book series as popular as Tolkien’s are, I kinda feel like book spoilers are not really relevant to most of the audience.
However, we also get some non-lore spoilers in this preview, for events that were invented for the show alone.
So, beware going any further to avoid Season 2 SPOILERS. Bear in mind, this is all official news and approved for release by Amazon. However, there are still spoilers here.
**Season 2 SPOILERS Below**
Let’s start with, let’s face it, the lead character of The Rings of Power, Sauron. Actor Charlie Vickers says this season we get to per behind the façade with his character.
“From a storytelling perspective, instead of trying to guess who Sauron is, we’re now inside his mind,” Vickers says. “In the past, the camera would cut away from him when he had his private thoughts. Now the camera follows him through those thoughts. The audience is in on it, which I think is quite fun.”
Actually, one of my issues in Season 1 with the Sauron reveal was the opposite of this. I felt they included too many shots of Halbrand ‘off-screen’ privately musing. Which had me throughout Season 1 knowing Halbrand as Sauron was coming, but hoping it was not the case, or it somehow made more sense.
“In Sauron’s mind, he’s the hero of his own story,” co-showrunner JD Payne says. “His idea of himself is that he wants to heal and rehabilitate Middle-earth. He’s got a very clear vision for how it should be done, and the only problem is other people keep on getting in the way.”
As it should be, Sauron is not Morgoth, though perhaps was heading in the same direction ultimately. Sauron isn’t cruel for cruelty sake. He genuinely believes as a Maiar (Angel) he has authority over the corporeal beings of Middle-earth. He also thinks he’s the wisest being and the only solution for the ongoing development of Middle-earth.
Sauron and Celebrimbor In Season 2
Charles Edwards talks about where Brimby is at in Season 2. He’s desperate to live up to the legacy of his grandfather Feanor. I’m not sure that’s a legacy worth living up to overall to be honest. However, for Brimby it’s only the good/craftsmen/creative side of Feanpor he wishes to match. Sadly, I bet you know, or guess, it’s more Feanor’s dark legacy he’ll live up to.
“The way I see it, his ambition has been eating away at him,” Edwards says. “He wants to produce something that will help the world, but also will ensure that his name is on a plaque somewhere forever. So it’s a double-edged sword with him. He’s vain, he’s ambitious, and he wants to achieve something that will overshadow his grandfather’s work. Now he thinks he’s found the key.”
Vickers then talks about how Sauron’s look as Annatar is designed specifically to influence Celebrimbor, who he needs.
“In terms of his physicality and appearance, we designed everything from the perspective of: What would best sway Celebrimbor?” Vickers says of his Annatar look. ‘The character had to have a weight and power about him, so that someone like Celebrimbor, who is the great smith, would be persuaded.”
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The look (in header) works for me.
“Celebrimbor has the ability, and Sauron has the vision,” Edwards says. “It’s an interesting give-and-take, which often happens in these kinds of relationships where they both need each other badly. As you’ll see, it plays out in a very interesting way. It’s something so personal and psychological that is playing out against the backdrop of Middle-earth and the epic scale that you would expect from The Lord of the Rings.”
“Other villains might try to find your weakness and poke at it. Sauron does something different where he tries to find what your strength is,” showrunner Payne says. “The image of the eye is really appropriate, because Sauron sees you. He sees the best version of who you want to be, and then he’s able to take your own desires for good and twist them to bring about his own evil ends.”
Khazad-dûm In Season 2
There are some significant SPOILERS here for the Dwarves story in Season 2 folks.
“We lose light in Khazad-dûm and therefore we can’t grow crops, so the kingdom is dying,” Durin actor Owain Arthur says. “So rings are made by Celebrimbor and are introduced to Khazad-dûm. What we see from these rings is a quick fix, if you like, but the knock-on effects of having those rings in Khazad-dûm seeps its way into everything and everyone, primarily with King Durin III. Prince Durin sees a change in his father — a darkness in his father — which has a massive effect on him.”
We knew this was coming, but now we know this happens early enough to see the effects the Rings have on Khazad-dûm.
The showrunners also saw this as an opportunity to expand the lore of the Seven. They are the Rings we know least about from the lore. We also know that the Rings did not actually have the same effect on the Dwarves as they did Mortals, much to Sauron’s disappointment.
“There are tantalizing hints in the source text that the dwarven rings didn’t really control the dwarves the way Sauron might’ve liked, but it did stoke their greed,” co-showrunner Patrick McKay says. “That sent us down this rabbit hole of ‘What about Peter Mullan going mad as a villain in Khazad-dum in season 2?’ The whole idea of doing a show in the Second Age was that it’s not a fixed target, there’s an enormous amount of room for creation and improv within a loose framework. The dwarven rings are a great example where it’s like, ‘What exactly did they do? How might that play on a father-son relationship?'”
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Disa actress Sophia Nomvete then talks about this conflict and her desire to see her husband sit the throne.
“It’s ambition meets fear meets love meets pain and worry,” Nomvete says. “She’s trying to figure out which of those emotions are useful or need to be listened to. So she’s quite up and down in her views. One minute she’s like, ‘Yes, we need the rings!’ Then she’s like, ‘Oh no, but the ring!’ She’s really working it out in real time. But her mission is: ‘By any means necessary, your bottom needs to be on that chair.'”
Numenor
Events on Numenor book readers know need to take a dark turn quickly. At the same time we need to develop Elendil into the character he is described as in the text. Season 2 will see Miriel in a difficult situation and she will need Elendil to help her.
“My view of her blindness was that it is definitely something that turns you inward,” Addai-Robinson says. “You’re almost existing within your own mind. It’s a very isolated state, I would say. And yet my goal was always to make sure that she never appeared diminished, because she still has to project strength and leadership. But she knows that she is on very shaky ground.”
“Once she becomes blind, Elendil has to be her eyes,” Owen says. “So he sees and informs, she interprets what he sees, and thus Elendil learns. This is a leader in training for where we ultimately have to get him.”
“In order for everyone to not just feel overwhelmed by the darkness, there still has to be that kernel of light that people are moving toward and fighting for,” Addai-Robinson says. “If you know the tale of Númenor, it doesn’t end well. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that, but certainly we’re going to do it justice by making sure that you still have a sense of what people are ultimately fighting to preserve within that world.”
Since this article is spoiler tagged, we know this is in reference to the Fall of Numenor, which I can’t believe we may actually see in live-action on day.
Mordor
Meanwhile Isildur actor Maxim Baldry confirms what we saw in the BTS footage. He has to confront Shelob the spider in Season 2.
“I’m awoken in a cave and I have to fight my way through Shelob to get to safety, which is an obscene way to start a season,” Baldry says, referring to the iconic spider that dwells in the Black Land. “It’s a story of survival and it’s a story about ‘be careful what you wish for.’ He grows from a boy into a man and has to learn who to trust and who not to trust.”
East
The preview also confirms that Ciarán Hinds character is playing a Dark Wizard in the East, where Norri and The Stranger are headed.
“Even if Sauron is not in every single area, every single story has very strong feelings about Sauron as an antagonist, which is motivating a lot of the action,” McKay says. “The Dark Wizard has a point of view on Sauron. Ar-Pharazôn out in Númenor has a point of view about Sauron. The elves obviously have a point of view about Sauron, as do Adar and his army of orcs. Some of the storylines are directly set in motion by what Sauron is doing, but some of them are people shadowboxing their own fears — which is also set in motion by Sauron. Those are some of the ways that our different worlds are connecting, all centered around our main villain.”
We are also getting more proto-Hobbits in Season 2. In Season 1 we met the Harfoots who are ancestors of Hobbits. In Season 2 we will meet the Stoors, who are predecessors of The Riverland Hobbits that Gollum/Smeagol came from.
What do you think of this rather spoiler filled The Rings of Power Season 2 preview? Have they given away too much, or will this approach attract more casual fans? The Rings of Power Season 2 premieres August 29th on Amazon Prime.
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