Until the end of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1, Sauron (Charlie Vickers) was able to hide in plain sight while passing as a man named Halbrand. Not even Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) realized that she had been alongside the dark lord all along until it was too late. In Season 2, Sauron is taking on a new identity as an elf called Annatar, and this time, viewers get to watch as his deception unfolds.
“The opportunity now with Season 2 is… the audience is in on the con,” explained The Rings of Power’s Patrick McKay, as he and his fellow co-showrunner J. D. Payne were interviewed by Empire. “We know who he is. We have a pretty good sense of what he wants. The fun is watching other people get ensnared in the web. As the season unfolds, the plan starts. One hammer after another starts to fall until, by the last couple of episodes, you realize the level and extent of how evil he is and how deeply he’s strategized this whole thing out.”
McKay also noted that Sauron’s scheming will bring the show’s various characters together, including some that have yet to share scenes with each other.
“All our stories start to become one story,” said McKay. “And the one story is the way the re-emergence of Sauron touches everybody and threatens the whole world.”
“I was so excited to get to this point of the story, because this is the canon of this time period,” added Vickers. “You have Sauron and Celebrimbor working together, making rings. Everything Sauron does is to serve other people, to appeal to someone else. In the same way the whole Halbrand thing was for Galadriel, this new look 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 Season 2 will premiere on Prime Video on August 29.