Sauron: who plays Dark Lord in The Lord of the Rings prequel - and will he be in The Rings of Power Season 2?

“In some ways,” The Rings of Power showrunner Patrick McKay explained to The Hollywood Reporter, “we wanted to do an origin story for Sauron.”

The dark lord of Mordor – an all-encompassing evil, the iconic eye in the tower from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy – has been hiding in plain sight all the way through The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) has been hunting for him since the series began, one of the few elves who believed Sauron hadn’t been entirely and completely defeated. It’s something that is, in the end, proven correct, with the villain eventually exposed in the series finale.

There’s been debate amongst viewers as to who Sauron might be. Is it the Stranger, fallen from the sky and landing amongst the Harfoots? Could it be the Dweller, the Nomad, or the Ascetic, mysterious and powerful witches from Rhûn? Or is it Halbrand, Galadriel’s travelling companion with a mysterious past?

Who is Sauron in The Rings of Power?

In The Rings of Power’s first season finale, it was revealed that Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) was in fact Sauron himself. It was a popular theory amongst dedicated fans – Halbrand at one stage introduces himself as Heir to the Southlands; the Southlands eventually become known as Mordor, which is Sauron’s domain – though showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay were relaxed about audiences anticipating their twist.

“If you had a sneaking suspicion over the course of an entire season, and then that suspicion is ultimately confirmed, that’s an emotional engagement,” argued Payne to The Hollywood Reporter. “Tragedy is one of the highest art forms […] a surprise only rewards you on one viewing.”

Despite their journey together, Galadriel has started to grow suspicious of Halbrand, particularly as he’s grown close to Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards). With Halbrand getting more and more involved in Celebrimbor’s mithral mining process – suggesting he might want to forge the powerful metal into some kind of ring, perhaps – Galadriel begins to research her travelling companion. Learning that his identity was fabricated, Galadriel confronts Halbrand – who reveals he is, in fact, Sauron. He floods her mind with visions of death and destruction, asking her to join him and rule Middle-earth as his Queen, but she refuses – and Sauron disappears.

What do Tolkien’s novels say about Sauron in the Second Age?

Sauron, chief lieutenant to the first Dark Lord, was in hiding at the beginning of the Second Age (the period of Middle Earth history in which The Rings of Power is set). A deceptive individual, he appeared in ‘fair form’ to fool Celebrimbor and the Elves into assisting him with making the Rings – the point of introducing Sauron to the audience first as Halbrand, then, is to similarly deceive them and to try and create a connection between the viewer and the character much like that between Sauron and Celebrimbor.

In the Silmarillion, Tolkien describes Sauron as “repentant” at the beginning of the Second Age. It’s something that The Rings of Power is going to explore across its second series, with actor Charlie Vickers explaining that “if his repentance is genuine, then he is seeking a new life and trying to really run away from evil. But if his repentance is not genuine, if he’s faking it, then perhaps it’s a tactic where he can buy some time and make himself look busy in Numenor while he waits for things to unfold.”

“You can look at it both ways,” Vickers continued. “I have an answer for myself which I used while I was playing the character. But I think it’s interesting to leave it ambiguous and let people interpret it how they will.”

So, if Halbrand is Sauron, who is the Stranger?

The first episode of The Rings of Power ended with a man falling from the sky, landing amongst the Harfoots. The Stranger (Daniel Weyman), as he quickly came to be known, is confused and disoriented, not quite remembering who he is or why he fell from the sky. In the finale, three witches from Rhûn – the Dweller, the Nomad, and the Ascetic – capture the Stranger. They believe he is Sauron, and attempt to restore his memories – though they give him greater command of his Elemental powers, it becomes clear he’s not Sauron at all. The Stranger is, in fact, one of the Istari – a very powerful wizard.

It’s not immediately obvious which of the Istari the Stranger is (or which of them he could be in a way that aligns with Tolkien canon, or more importantly which of them the Amazon series is legally allowed to use by the Tolkien estate). The popular assumption amongst fans is that the Stranger is, somehow, Gandalf, given his fondness of Harfoots and his general grey-and-bearded appearance.

Could he be Gandalf? Well, maybe. In terms of the basic language of television, you’re clearly meant to consider that – Nori shares a Harfoot saying with the Stranger, “not all who wonder are lost”, which is in fact a famous Gandalf quote – and most of the arguments that it isn’t Gandalf are rooted in legal/canonical assumptions. It’s already bending the established Tolkien (as it’s commonly understood) to have an Istari around in the Second Age – perhaps Payne and McKay have found a way to include a young Gandalf in their series after all?

What will Sauron’s role be in Series 2?

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series 2 – which, though it’s already started filming, isn’t expecting to air until 2024 at the earliest – will be a particularly Sauron focused series. Payne explained that where the first series was all about Galadriel, their aim with the second is to give that same level of attention to Sauron, hoping to “fill in all the missing pieces”.

Charlie Vickers, who plays Halbrand/Sauron, explained that when The Rings of Power returns, audiences will see “this period of watching his plans unfold. You’re with him as he moves the pieces on the chessboard.”

Patrick McKay compared Sauron to “Tony Soprano or Walter White. He’s evil, but complexly evil,” suggesting that Series 2 will see “Sauron manouevring out in the open” as part of a “canonical story” some viewers may have been expecting to see in Series 1.