By 
This Lord of the Rings article contains spoilers for The Rings of Power.
It’s safe to say that Sauron goes on quite the journey in the first three episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2. Now that Halbrand has been revealed to be a disguise for the future Dark Lord of Mordor, the show is free to fully lift the veil on what led to Sauron transforming into Halbrand in the first place. But when we reunite with the sorcerer in the opening sequence of the season 2 premiere, it’s not Charlie Vickers’s face we see in the flashback in Forodwaith but that of Jack Lowden (Slow Horses), Sauron’s form before Adar and his Orcs tried to assassinate him.
We follow Sauron’s path from black goo monster dragging himself down from the mountains and into the path of a cart, then gruesomely eating his way back to human form. Once he’s able to take shape again, it’s as Halbrand, who soon runs into a group of Southlanders escaping an Orc attack. It’s this encounter that will lead Halbrand to board a refugee ship to Numenor and meet Galadriel, setting off the major events of the first season.
Meanwhile, in the present, Sauron (as Halbrand) makes his way back to Eregion and to the doorstep of master Elven smith Celebrimbor. Although the Lord of Eregion initially declines Halbrand entry into the city after Galadriel warned him at the end of the first season that he should not treat with the so-called King of the Southlands ever again, Celebrimbor eventually relents and lets him into the forge. It’s then that Sauron begins the next phase of his plan.
In a stunning scene clearly meant to evoke Biblical tales of angels coming down to Earth, Sauron transforms before a mesmerized Celebrimbor’s very eyes, changing into a new, more Elven-like form: Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, an emissary sent down by the Valar (i.e. gods) to ask for the Elven smith’s help in healing Middle-earth. Longtime J.R.R. Tolkien readers of course know what’s meant to happen next, but we caught up with actors Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards as well as showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay to get their insights on how Annatar changes everything in season 2 and sets up the arrival of more Rings of Power…
Annatar Is a Very Different Side of Sauron
Although Vickers didn’t originally know he’d been cast as Sauron—until episode 3 of the first season he thought he was just playing some guy named Halbrand—once he knew he was actually the Lord of the Rings, the actor began planning for the day Sauron would transform into what Tolkien described as the sorcerer’s “fair form.”
“I knew this was coming at some point and I knew exactly what I wanted to do,” Vickers says. “While it was a challenge, I had a lot of ideas before we even began, which was quite different from Halbrand—I was kind of making that up as I went along. But there were a lot of things that I wanted to try with the Sauron of this season.”
Despite the fact that Tolkien established Sauron’s Annatar form as playing a major role in the forging of the Rings of Power, he didn’t write extensively about this part of Middle-earth history, as is the case with most of the events of the Second Age. But what we do know from The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales is that Annatar was the form Sauron took to trick Celebrimbor and the Elves of Eregion to create the seven rings for the Dwarves and the nine for Men. It should come as no surprise, then, that Sauron’s main focus in season 2 is to use Annatar to get inside the Elven smith’s head in order to make the rest of the rings he needs.
“Everything he does now—the way he looks, talks, walks—everything is now for Celebrimbor,” Vickers says of Annatar’s manipulations. “What would this great Elven smith respond to? What would make him trust him? He has to present as someone really knowledgeable and really wise to get this person to be like, ‘Okay, well, I’ll do this with you.’”
Annatar is, of course, meant to be quite different from Halbrand, not only physically but in the way the character acts—the way he carries himself, his mannerisms, how he reacts to things. Essentially, Vickers had to play a completely different character in season 2 while also remaining Sauron.
“Sauron’s the ultimate method actor is the way I try to approach it,” Vickers explains. “I love this juxtaposition in playing the character in the light versus the darkness. I would try to intentionally give him a light touch. Sauron, at least with Celebrimbor, is quite gentle and back footed. But within that, there’s a dark undertone.”
We see in the first three episodes just how easily Sauron, presenting as the wise and charitable Annatar, is able to use Celebrimbor’s own vanity and hunger for legacy against him. By the third episode Celebrimbor’s not only set out to make more Rings of Power against (he believes) High King Gil-galad’s wishes but also lied about closing the forge in order to continue his work—decisions Tolkien fans (and trailer watchers) know the Lord of Eregion will come to regret. But as the season’s opening prologue showed, season 2 isn’t just about pushing Sauron’s plan forward but also revealing more about his motivations and what he wants, and how they’re not necessarily so black and white.
“You certainly see a lot more of the darkness and a lot more of the pain that he carries,” Vickers teases. “His plans come from a place of darkness, obviously, but from [Sauron’s] perspective, it comes from a good place, right? He wants to try and heal Middle-earth, and rehabilitate Middle-earth, as Tolkien wrote. But from an audience’s perspective, the way that manifests is a dark energy.”
Designing Annatar
Tolkien hardly described what Annatar looked like in The Silmarillion, writing only that he had a “hue” that was both “wise and fair,” which is why his counsel was accepted by the Elves, especially those in Eregion. The Rings of Power season 2 is the first time the character has appeared in live action, which meant showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne and the rest of the creative team had to decide what “wise and fair” Annatar would look like for a new medium. Most importantly, the first appearance of the character had to make an impact.
“From the lore, we know that Sauron comes to you in the form that he’s most likely to succeed in manipulating you. He comes to Celebrimbor in a form that will appeal to him: ‘I’m a messenger of the gods and you’ve been selected for this great work,’” McKay says.
The heavens open around Annatar in his first scene and Celebrimbor’s forge is covered in light. A great cosmic power has graced Eregion and its lord quickly bows before the wise emissary in white robes. Tolkien’s Catholic faith was a huge influence on his work so it’s a suitable way to introduce a being who claims to be a messenger of the gods.
“We worked with Luca Mosca, our incredible costume designer, to design something that would almost have an Old Testament humility,” McKay says of Annatar’s look.
“We also worked with Flora Moody, our hair and makeup artist, to figure out exactly how he looked,” Payne adds. “We did a deep dive looking at art that’s been done of Annatar, even fan art, over the decades. So we found something with this Elven kind of beauty with the long hair and pointy ears. Sauron reinvented himself but it’s the collaboration of many people coming together to make it happen.”
But, as the showrunners put it, it’s not just costuming and makeup you have to nail when introducing a classic Tolkien character to the screen for the first time. It’s also all about the performance itself, down to the difference in the way Vickers speaks as Annatar versus Halbrand.
“Between Halbrand and Annatar, there’s a huge change in dialect. We worked with our dialect coach Leith McPherson in terms of honing that,” McKay says. “But also, if you watch as the season progresses and more of the true Sauron comes out, his bearing and gait, his voice, the way he moves, all of that begins to change as well. The costume gets darker.”
In the trailers, we see Annatar will eventually don black robes during a battle scene, presumably in Eregion. But is this actually Annatar we’re seeing or Sauron revealed to the Elves he’s tricked? The sinister look on his face suggests the latter, which means, among other things, trouble for poor Celebrimbor…
Annatar, Celebrimbor, and the Forging of the Rings of Power
Despite Galadriel’s warnings, Celebrimbor is (frustratingly) quick to trust Halbrand/Annatar when he returns to Eregion. It doesn’t help that the messengers Gil-galad sent with warnings of Sauron have been killed en route to the city. According to Celebrimbor actor Charles Edwards, the Dark Lord also finds the Elven smith in a moment of doubt about his own accomplishments at the start of the second season.
“The Elven rings have been dispatched to Lindon and he has heard nothing since, so he feels sort of left out in the shadows a little bit by this when we meet him at the start of season 2,” Edwards says.
Sauron arrives to stoke those doubts and bend them to his will. By the end of episode 3, the seven rings for the Dwarves are well on their way. In other words, Sauron makes pretty quick work of Celebrimbor’s mind. According to Edwards, this is because Sauron’s been playing the long game with the Lord of Eregion since the beginning.
“It’s my belief that when they’re met in season 1, the seduction of Celebrimbor has already begun, because there was something about Halbrand that has already drawn Celebrimbor in. So when Halbrand reappears, it’s a nice sight for Celebrimbor to see him there, and then Halbrand reinvents himself as Annatar, who promises Celebrimbor that he will help him achieve his dearest desires and become the smith that he has always wanted to be.”
From there, Sauron is able to easily hone in on the Elven smith’s weaknesses, promising not only the knowledge necessary to complete his masterwork but to also secure a legacy that Celebrimbor hopes will rival the legendary Feanor’s, the creator of the Silmarils, the Palantiri, among other great artifacts in Middle-earth. With Annatar now in his ear, Celebrimbor will do anything to fulfill his destiny, becoming “the ball of wool with which the cat plays” in the process, according to Edwards. The real tragedy of Celebrimbor, of course, is that he believes he is creating “something that will do good, that will benefit Middle-earth.”
But Edwards also teases that this battle of the minds between smith and villain won’t be as one-sided as it currently appears. Later episodes will show that there’s more of a power struggle within the walls of the forge.
“The power dynamic between the two—Celebrimbor needs Annatar and Annatar needs Celebrimbor—so there is a power play at stake. There’s all kinds of psychological tricks and gaslighting going on in the midst of this very destructive, unhealthy relationship, which continues until the end of the season.”
While it’s true that Sauron will be spending most of his time with Celebrimbor this season, we know from the trailers that he’s also due for a reunion with another Elf of Tolkien legend and this one’s hellbent on slaying him once and for all.
Sauron and the Battle to Come With Galadriel
It’s not a spoiler to say that Sauron will cross paths with Galadriel again this season. One of the trailers even shows the rivals crossing swords on a battlefield—well, one sword, which Sauron deflects with Morgoth’s crown. Galadriel is no doubt relishing this rematch, especially after the way the sorcerer manipulated her in the first season, but Sauron’s feelings towards her seemed to be a bit more complicated than simply wanting to use one of his greatest enemies to his advantage. In fact, at times, Galadriel and Halbrand’s dynamic seemed downright romantic, culminating with Sauron offering to make the Elf warrior his queen—it was a hell of a marriage proposal. Does Sauron actually have feelings for Galadriel? Of course we had to ask Vickers whether this was more Sauron method acting or if there is a part of him that actually does feel something more for Galadriel.
“I think there is sincerity. I think it makes him a bit more of a complex and interesting character if there is sincerity,” Vickers says. “He was being Halbrand to manipulate Galadriel, and the best way to do that is to be completely sincere in what he is doing. But Sauron beneath Halbrand, I do think he had a connection to Galadriel in the same way that only people of a certain life experience have with each other. Two people who have done so much in the world would have this level of connection that exceeds what so many other people who haven’t lived that experience have.
“The cosmic connection that Sauron and Galadriel have is what he felt towards her. It’s not romantic love because he doesn’t give a shit about that kind of stuff, to put it bluntly. But he did genuinely care for her.”
However things play out in Eregion, for Celebrimbor, and with Galadriel, there’s a clear sense in just the first three episodes that things are likely to go very wrong for our heroes in season 2. Sauron always seems one step ahead of the Elves, will soon have more Rings of Power at his disposal, and we know from Tolkien lore that Galadriel will not be the one to ultimately take him down. Shots in the trailers of a city in flames suggest that more chaos will spread across Middle-earth. But remember there are still heroes in the making, including two very important ones: the Stranger, who’s out East in the land of Rhun, where he hopes to learn more about himself and his purpose, and Elendil, who we know is destined for much greater things than being a sea captain.
McKay describes the tone of the season best: “Season 2 is a darker season than season 1. We’re watching Sauron engineer the creation of the Rings of Power and there’s a lot of darkness that accompanies that. [But] in Tolkien, even in the darkest moments, there’s always a shaft of light.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is streaming now on Prime Video.
The post The Rings of Power: What Sauron’s Annatar Change Means for the Rest of Season 2 appeared first on Den of Geek.
