The Rings of Power: Charlie Vickers and Producers Discuss Sauron’s Repentance

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1 featured Charlie Vickers as Halbrand, who turned out to be the latest guise of Sauron. At first, Sauron’s time as Halbrand seemed to be one of relative humility and regret following the fall of his master, Morgoth. However, Sauron seemed to be firmly on the path to becoming Middle-earth’s second dark lord by season’s end, walking into the new land of Mordor. But was Sauron ever really repentant? That’s a question that J.R.R. Tolkien never definitively answered in his published works, stating in The Similrilion only that Sauron at first showed obedience to the heralds of the Valar and that “some hold that this was not at first falsely done, but that Sauron in truth repented, if only out of fear” before pridefully refusing to accept judgment from the gods and escaping into the shadows of Middle-earth.

Outside of Tolkien, who would know Sauron’s true heart better than the man who plays the character in The Rings of Power? ComicBook asked Vickers about the authenticity of Sauron’s seeming desire for redemption

“That’s a question I grappled with a lot in the first season in particular, but then I had to revisit it in the prologue of the second season,” Vickers says. “Because you have that moment with the character played by Nicholas Woodson on the ship, and I kind of made a decision but I’ve been quite specific in leaving it ambiguous because I think Tolkien left it ambiguous and I don’t want to, I guess, put my own judgment on that in the public sphere.”

Vickers continues, “I think that the thing that makes it really interesting is the ambiguity. You can read the whole first season with Galadriel as genuine. But then you can watch it another way, from another perspective and he’s manipulating her the whole way. I know I have an idea of what I was doing and I think that the answer, actually, that I can give is that I had to fully commit to the idea of repentance internally because that is what Sauron would have done in order to deceive the best way possible, whether or not he committed to the idea of repentance.”

ComicBook also put the question of Sauron’s repentance to The Rings of Power showrunner Patrick McKay and executive producer Lindsey Weber. “I’m speaking as a viewer right now — as a viewer, as a reader, as a member of the audience and a fan of Middle-earth” McKay stated. “I think he believes he’s genuinely repentant. However, McKay also says, “I think he’s always on the hustle.”

Weber agreed, adding “I think he has moments of real regret, moments, and then there is an overriding narrative that exists for him that wins. But that’s my own theory.”

The Rings of Power Season 2 stars Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani. The Rings of Power Season 2 releases its first three episodes on Amazon Prime Video on August 29th.