Even before the first trailer dropped, fans have been coming up with all kinds of theories about Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The amount of these theories only increased when the show actually premiered. One of the most prevalent topics in the theories is the whereabouts and status of the big bad Sauron. Now, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the series showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne gave some insight into the mystery around the character.

Fans of Peter Jackson’s original film adaptations of J. R. R. Tolkien’s beloved fantasy novels may remember Sauron as the big flaming eye at the top of the Dark Tower, looming over Middle-Earth and our heroes. However, The Rings Of Power takes place thousands of years prior, before that fate ever came to Sauron. This has led many fans to speculate who among the cast of characters is secretly Sauron, just waiting to reveal his true villainy. According to Payne, this was the exact reaction they wanted from fans, saying:

“It’s another Tolkien thing where when a shadow spreads — which is part of what is happening in our show — it affects everyone’s relationships. Even Frodo and Sam. They’re the best friends in all of Middle-earth, yet they started to mistrust each other because that’s a manifestation of that shadow. So having an audience suspect this person or that person could be Sauron is drawing them into that thing where the shadow is overcoming all of us and making us suspicious of each other.”

Fans distrusting certain characters and believing them to be evil was entirely by design. With an evil like Sauron out in the world, it is hard for the characters to know who they can trust and where the danger might be. Giving this feeling to the audience as well helps get us in the same mindset as characters and relate to them more. It also adds a nice whodunit or murder mystery style energy to the show that you don’t often get to see in a fantasy setting.

Sauron from Lord of the Rings

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In the interview, McKay also spoke on resisting the temptation to include Sauron in the show from the very start, saying:

“It would be very tempting to make the first season of this show The Sauron Show, very villain-centric,” McKay says. “But we wanted that level of evil and complexity of evil to emerge out of a world that you’re invested in — not because evil is threatening it immediately. We wanted you to fall in love again with Middle-earth. We wanted you to understand and relate to the struggles that each of these characters are having before we test them in a way they’ve never been tested before.”

Many fans likely tuned into The Rings of Power ready to see Sauron at his full power terrorizing Middle-Earth, a fact clearly not lost on McKay and Payne. But, as McKay says above, it is much more impactful to hold off and wait. When the audience has time to grow attached to all the characters and this new interpretation of Middle-Earth, it becomes all the more horrifying when Sauron finally rises.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power stars a large cast that includes Morfydd Clark, Maxim Baldry, Robert Aramayo, Nazanin Boniadi, Ismael Cruz Córdova, and Markella Kavenagh among others. The series was developed by showrunners McKay and Payne and produced by Amazon Studios with HarperCollins and New Line Cinema. Additionally, the Tolkien Estate, specifically Tolkien’s grandson Simon Tolkien, served as consultants on the series.

New episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power stream exclusively on Prime Video every Friday. Check the series’ trailer below: