Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards have commented on what to expect from Sauron and Celebrimbor’s mentally exhausting relationship in The Rings of Power Season 2.
Speaking to TechRadar ahead of the popular Prime Video show’s return today (August 29), the pair revealed that the dynamic between the Dark Lord and the master elf-smith won’t play out the way many viewers expect. In fact, Vickers and Edwards stressed that their relationship won’t be defined by Sauron, who is now disguised as Annatar and simply manipulating Celebrimbor to forge more of the titular rings. Instead, their power dynamic will unfold with a greater degree of unpredictability.
“It’s not just about puppet and puppeteer,” Edwards told me of the respective roles Celebrimbor and Sauron play in their relationship. “They’re both brilliant minds who initially pursue this (creating the other rings) with honorable intent. But they’re also vying for control, so there’s creative and familial friction, and over the course of the second season, he (Sauron) makes me (Celebrimbor) question my very existence.”
“I come with a proposal to ‘heal’ Middle Earth,” Vickers added. “And with that, I tell Celebrimbor that he can be better than his grandfather (Fëanor). So it starts with these grand intentions, but then slowly becomes more of a power struggle, especially when I propose the idea of making rings for myself, which Celebrimbor rejects because men are so prone to corruption. Then the conflict starts to emerge and as a result of the growing disunity, I have to enforce the law.”
That doesn’t sound good! Understandably, working with The Lord of the Rings‘ legendary villain is not what Celebrimbor consciously signed up for, but it is clear that he will be tricked into creating more of the magical artifacts in The Rings of Power from episode 4. In fact, Edwards previously told me that he took a crash course in ring-making before filming the second season of the hit series, so I expect the other 17 rings – seven for the dwarven lords, nine for the human kings, and even the One Ring itself – to appear in the series’ latest chapter.
Unfortunately for Celebrimbor (and Middle Earth as a whole), the rings are made before anyone in Eregion realizes that Annatar has been playing them like a fiddle. When his true identity is revealed in the Amazon high fantasy show, it’s safe to assume that a melodramatic powder keg will be blown up – something Vickers and Edwards are hard-pressed to show audiences, especially when Celebrimbor realizes the enormity of the situation and how he was tricked into playing such a large part in it.
“It gets so rich and dark towards the end,” Edwards teases. “With each scene there’s a new challenge and a new method of mental torture. It grows and grows and finally boils over in the most dramatic and shocking way possible.”
“There are two battles going on at this point (in the season),” Vickers said. “There’s the siege of Eregion going on outside, but there’s also a siege of the mind as these two brilliant individuals clash. That’s why these sequences were so much fun to film. One day you’re walking along the walls of Eregion while everything is exploding around you, and the next day you’re locked in a room while you’re engaged in this battle of wills. Having these things happen simultaneously is what makes the end of this season so special.”
So it sounds like one of the best Prime Video shows is going all out to establish itself as the one Amazon TV original to rule them all. And that’s exactly what I said The Rings of Power the three-part season two premiere that you’ll want to read first before returning to Middle-earth on one of the world’s best streaming services.
The first three episodes of the second season of “The Rings of Power” are now available on Prime Video. New episodes will be released weekly until October 3.
