When The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power returns to Prime Video for its second season in August, it can advance its storytelling in ways that felt impossible in season one as long as a certain big secret—that “Halbrand,” the character played by Charlie Vickers, is actually Middle-earth’s big bad, Sauron—was being kept safe. Along with the audience, the show’s creators feel a sense of relief about this.
Speaking to Empire Magazine, Rings of Power co-showrunner Patrick McKay called Sauron’s rise “the great untold [J.R.R. Tolkein] story on the screen,” and likened the character to other great “villain-hero” protagonists, including Breaking Bad’s Walter White and The Sopranos’ Tony Soprano. In season two, Sauron will be acting in the guise of an Elf named Annatar, and this time around, “the audience is in on the con,” McKay said. “We know who he is … The fun is watching other people get ensnared in the web.” That web of evil will unfurl throughout the season and bring various plot threads together, ultimately weaving a story about “the way the re-emergence of Sauron touches everybody and threatens the whole world.”
Actor Vickers is also excited to have his character’s true identity out there on the table. “Everything Sauron does is to serve other people, to appeal to someone else. In the same way the whole Halbrand thing was for Galadriel [in season one], this new look [as Annatar] is for Celebrimbor. This is the best way to get him to do what he wants him to do: make a bunch of rings that’ll dominate everyone else.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power returns to Prime Video August 29.
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