The new, second Sauron from “The Rings of Power” solves a great villain mystery

This article contains possible spoilers for The Rings of Power Season 2.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has a new Sauron cast member for Season 2, finally answering one of the biggest questions from Season 1. When the series debuted in 2022 and featured a Dark Lord silhouetted against the sky in Episode 1, no one realized how deep the series would delve into Sauron’s story. Season 1 used mystery box writing to hint at Sauron’s true identity before it was finally revealed, setting the stage for Season 2 to show audiences Sauron’s side of the story. In season 2, viewers will see “Start watching Sauron’s journey – in the same way that (the audience) saw Galadriel’s origins” in Season 1 (via GQ).

The Rings of Power The season 1 finale confirmed that Halbrand, one of the main characters of the season, was actually Sauron, so season 2 tells Sauron’s story with no holds barred. As the trailers for season 2 showed, Sauron will continue to use his Halbrand form in season 2, and will also take on a blond, elven form when dealing with Celebrimbor. Both forms are played by Charlie Vickers, so the audience can easily understand Sauron’s devious maneuvers. But a new Clip released by Amazon Prime shows Jack Lowden in the role of a third form of Sauronand finally answers some unanswered questions about season 1.

Jack Lowden plays Sauron and explains why Adar did not recognize Halbrand

Sauron is played by Jack Lowden and Charlie Vickers

Adar met Sauron (Halfrim) in The Rings of Power Season 1, but didn’t recognize him despite their long-term relationship, and the new clip from Jack Lowden explains why. Halbrand, the Stranger, and Adar have all been hinted at as Sauron at various points. Adar threw a curveball into the mystery box when he declared that he was not Sauron, but had killed him. Eventually Galadriel discovered that Sauron was alive and was in fact Halfrand. Thus the Sauron mystery was solved, but another mystery arose – Adar’s relationship to Sauron and his inability to recognize him.

Adar must have known Sauron, otherwise he couldn’t have been an Orc commander, and he obviously hated Sauron, as the previous episode showed. The new clip features an interview with Lowden, as well as Lowden’s debut as Sauron in the first scene of the second season, the “about 1000 years before the first season,“, says Lowden. In this scene “Adar… stabs (Sauron) in the back” (above GamesRadar). This confirms that Adar hated and killed Sauronas he said, but no one knew that his immortal spirit could form another body, nor recognized the new one he had created and called Halbrand.

Adar wasn’t lying when he said in Season 1 that he had split Sauron

Adar really killed Sauron

The Rings of Power Season 2 will explain Sauron’s bloody murder by Adar. The new clip released by Amazon Prime, featuring Jack Lowden, confirms beyond doubt that Adar was not lying when he said:I have split him… I have killed Sauron” in season 1. Adar is obviously a real enemy of Sauron’swhich makes sense considering that in Season 2, he can be seen in various Amazon promotional materials along with Galadriel to defeat Sauron. This morally ambivalent Uruk is unique in The Lord of the Rings franchise without breaking the canon and presents an intriguing premise.

Showrunners Patrick McKay and JD Payne went into detail about the scene teased in Amazon’s featurette when they spoke with GamesRadar. They described the scene, filled in the gaps of what is shown in the featurette, and confirmed that Sauron “is about to be crowned and presents his vision of Middle Earth. Just before they place the crown on his head, his right-hand man, Adar, turns them around and stabs him from behind. It is the murder of Sauron.” The showrunners compared this to the Ides of March – the assassination of Julius Caesar, which illustrates the depth of Adar’s betrayal (via TV Insider).

Season 2 of “The Rings of Power” shows Sauron’s rebirth

Sauron’s shapeshifting could take place on screen

It looks like The Rings of Power Season 2 may show Sauron changing his shape, in an unprecedented confrontation with the canonical power attributed to Sauron in JRR Tolkien’s work. Adar kills Sauron in the first scene of The Rings of PowerSeason 2 will of course require Sauron to form a new body. This is not the only physical change he will undergo in Season 2 – Sauron must also change from his half-rim form to his Annatar form. Amazon has released another featurette that may show one of these transformations.

The featurette shows the black mud that came from a previous Rings of Power The season two trailer slowly takes on a humanoid form. It is superimposed over a voiceover describing Sauron’s return in a new form – a voiceover from Sauron himself, in his half-rim form, hinting at even more tricks of the master of deception. The implication is that this black slime is Sauron taking on form. In Tolkien’s work Sauron could create a new body from scratchas a spirit being after his old body was killed.

In The Song of Leithianwhich was an early draft of Tolkien’s published work, Sauron fluidly transformed his form “from wolf to worm, from monster to his own demon form.” Tolkien never went into detail about how Sauron changed his form. or what it looked like, he just said that Sauron could do it. This leaves the physical process itself open to interpretation, and it looks like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 may be the first adaptation to use this interpretation.

Sources: GQ, GamesRadar, TV Insider