Rings of PowerHis return has set the tone for the second season of Sauron, especially now that he has introduced himself to Middle-Earth after abandoning it as Halbrand in the first season. But in doing so, it gave the show a chance to show us what it really means for the Dark Lord to transform himself into a new form… in both expected and unexpected ways.
Rings of Power season two opens with a bit of a side step. Or rather, a step backto the climax of the First Age and the defeat of Morgoth, as we see Adar and Sauron trying to rally the remnants of Morgoth’s dark forces to welcome a new leader. Except, Sauron isn’t played in this flashback by Charlie Vickers, but Jack Lowden… because we have to watch him get ripped open by orcs, slaughtered, and undergo a shocking, physical transformation as he seeks new flesh to survive.
“We saw it to help you understand how he sees himself and what he endured, and maybe make you look at the first season through a different prism and see it through his eyes,” showrunner Patrick McKay told IO9 at a recent press conference, speaking. about the decision to open the second season with First Age. “You can see what he wanted in a new way. It seemed like a good place to start.”
Part of that, as we said, was starting to see an evil form that we’ve never seen Sauron before: after being attacked by Adar and the orcs, Sauron’s body changes into black, stringy flesh, devouring anything and everything. able to move forward as he climbs out of the depths of darkness and back to Middle-Earth, where a passerby’s feast allows him to finally transform into the man we knew as Halbrand.
“The time and pleasure we had in devising a wretched creature, as we called its worst, purest form which it must remove from murder and betrayal… I won’t kill,” McKay continued. “Decomposing flesh, paintings by Francis Bacon. It was one of the real joys of the season.”
Although Vickers didn’t play the amorphous black globe he came from, opening the season with Sauron’s biography was a huge boon for the actor. “Revisiting Halbrand at the beginning, from the beginning of the [First] Age, and seeing his journey in the presentation, that was really rewarding. Because to be honest, it’s one of the things about working on something like this… it answered a lot of questions for me.” Vickers thought about the opening. “And it was really fun to do that process and get that out of my system and be like, ‘Now we’re doing it, now we’re doing Annatar.’ And we were very lucky that that was chronological, with all our scenes [between Vickers and Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor] they also followed each other through events.”
But as Vickers notes, the black-goop-into-Halbrand flash isn’t the only Sauron transformation we see in the season’s opening episodes. After slowly managing his way back to the path of Eregion and Celebrimbor, despite Galadriel’s orders that no Elf be with “Halbrand” again, Sauron makes his big play and reveals to the Elven forge smith that he is not who he says he is. he is. In an instant, Halbrand’s lovable human nature is twisted, and he drifts away again from consciousness… before coming into the crossfire of Celebrimbor’s machinations and emerging reborn as Annatar, Lord of Gifts, a beautiful, elven form that leaves Celebrimbor bewildered.
“It all happened in one day,” Vickers said of shooting the scene revealed by Annatar. “We had the Halbrand bit [of the scene]then I went and got changed, I also made a Forge bit. It was very nice to hear that. But I remember the title, which felt really special, like the meeting and these two characters and that question—’did the rings, work?’—felt very real.”
Edward, who plays an increasingly celebratory role as Celebrimbor, had a tattoo at the time similar to an Elf artist. “It was an amazing day, shooting the tricks … the flame and everything. You read it on the page, but you don’t know how it’s going to be shot, you know? They had this big the camera that went on the roof of the whole set in the line, but the quality of it, the size of it, was extraordinary.” “
He continued. “I remember watching from the stage, we were watching Charles do this sequence—because everything takes one, the fire burns, he finishes this thing—and it’s amazing. All that comes together, the quality of the art,” added Vickers. “I think I asked Patrick [McKay] at the end of the day, I was like ‘So, what do you think?’, and he was just like ‘It’s amazing.’ I think it’s a miracle that it all worked, and the Annatar thing worked, and everyone was really happy.”
Well, everyone except the denziens of Middle-Earth, it seems, because the activation of Sauron’s Annatar means that tough times are going to get tougher. Rings of Power season two is now streaming on Prime Video.
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