FULL SPOILERS FOR THE RINGS OF POWER SEASON 1 FINALE.
To much speculation as to their identitythe eighth and final episode of the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power revealed which actor had been the evil Sauron all along. After an initial misdirection stating Sauron was The Stranger (David Weyman), it was revealed later in the episode that the Dark Lord was actually Halbrand (Charlie Vickers).
Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) began to suspect Halbrand was more than he seemed when he expressed keen interest in helping Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) forge the first three Rings of Power. But when she discovered that the last king of the Southlands had died without an heir centuries earlier, Halbrand admitted that he was in fact Sauron – and that Galadriel had helped bring her nemesis home.
In conversation with Weekly entertainmentCharlie Vickers said he didn’t initially know he was actually playing Sauron, but the materials he received for his audition suggested he might be:
“I had maybe six or seven auditions, and when I got to the end of the audition, they gave me two monologues. They ended up giving me a monologue from Richard III when he’s standing over a corpse and he’s basically really evil. Then the other one was from Paradise Lost, the poem by Milton, and it was literally Satan. So when I gave these speeches, I had an inkling that the character had a dark arc.”
It wasn’t until they were filming the third episode of the first season that the producers informed Vickers that he was actually playing Sauron. This secret was kept from most of the cast and crew – apart from Vickers’ co-star Morfydd Clark – as late as possible in the production.
Vickers told EW that in preparation for the role he absorbed as much of JRR Tolkien’s source material as possible and read all of the books and supplemental materials including the author’s notes, including one in which the author revealed that Sauron, despite being the embodiment of the Evil felt remorse for his actions in the First Age.
“Whether or not you take that regret as genuine completely colors his actions of the season. You can look back on his deeds and they can be real regrets and it all makes sense. But if you look at him like he’s manipulating everything and using Galadriel to bring him back,” Vickers said. “Of course there are some coincidences along the way that play into his hands. But he is able to manipulate people. I have a clear answer as to what has worked best for me, but I like to leave it ambiguous for the audience because it creates an interesting discussion. It makes it cool to look back and leave it up to interpretation I think.”
Vickers is the first actor to play Sauron as a human, and he compared Sauron’s ability to change and fully immerse himself in humanity to fulfill his agenda as if he were like an actor, jokingly remarking, “He’s like that of the World’s Greatest Method Actor. He’s like Daniel Day-Lewis.”
The first season ends with Sauron reaching Mordor. Vickers told Variety in a separate interview that Sauron “has a plan. Returning to Mordor is the first stage of this plan. I won’t spoil it, but it doesn’t take long to find out in season two. We’ll find out pretty quickly. He definitely has a plan, and that’s where he starts taking the first few steps back down. I started filming; We’re well on our way in season two. I’ve read a few scripts and now I’m very immersed in that world.”
While Halbrand’s journey may now be over, Sauron’s journey has only just begun…
What do you think of the Sauron reveal at the end of season one? Let us know in the comments.
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