Editors Note: This article contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of PowerAmazon Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has closed out its first season. The big-budget series answered the lingering question on the lips of many fans: Who is Sauron? The answer to that question was as emphatic as ever with the big reveal showing that Charlie Vickers’ Halbrand was indeed the Dark Lord in disguise and in a “repentance stage.” In the aftermath of the season finale, Alloyed, Vickers spoke to ScreenRant about what future seasons hold for the chief villain of the series.
Many fans had come to like the character of Halbrand with the roguish, anti-hero charm. Just as he fooled many of us, he also deceived the elf, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) so there’s no shame in that. While exact details have not been revealed to him by the showrunners, Vickers has mused that the second season of the Rings of Power will see Sauron seemingly trying to turn a new leaf – good luck believing that. Vickers teases all the hot spots we know Sauron is going to hit throughout the Second Age while suggesting he might do so while taking on various forms.
In elaborating on the plans for the next season, Vickers said:
We know Sauron takes on different shapes in this era. All I can say is maybe to that. Maybe we're going to do those things. I'm incredibly excited to explore him doing these things that we know he does. He has a sh-tload of rings to make, and he gets to go to Númenor, and he orchestrates the downfall of Númenor. Then he has to take another form and go and fight in the Battle of the Last Alliance. The battle at the end of the Second Age. [But] the showrunners have a really specific plan, and I don't know their plans as to how it'll unfold, but I loved playing him in this repentance stage. Whether the repentance is genuine or not is open to interpretation. But I think it's going to be really cool now that he's kind of out there. And it's like, I'm back. I've been lingering. I've been coming back very slowly. And now, thanks to Galadriel, I'm back. And I'm excited to play that."
When last we saw Sauron, he was walking towards Mount Doom in the land of Mordor. It would be interesting to see how his contest with the Moriandur, Adar (Joseph Mawle) will turn out as the rulership of Mordor will be contested. Sauron is not short of enemies, however, his most formidable foe could be in the shape of one he had long deceived since they met adrift on the Sundering Seas. Galadriel will sure have a score to settle with the Lord of Barad-dûr for his deceit, however, the actress who plays the elven queen did know Vickers was Sauron well in advance. “So, I found out, Charlie found out that he was playing Sauron, and I was told as when we were kind of filming our Numenor bits,” Clark said. “But we weren't given episode eight till really late on.”
The first season of Rings of Power is available to stream on Prime Video.