The Rings of Power Showrunners Teases Sauron’s Arrival in The Lord of the Rings Series

Amazon Prime has been knocking it out of the park episode after episode with their The Lord of the Rings prequel series The Rings of Power and the final two episodes of the season are set to be bigger than ever. During the last episode we saw what looked like the creation of Mordor and it wasn’t arguably the best episode yet. Fans have been looking forward to seeing where’s the series is leading to and who could possibly be the big bad Sauron. The latter of which is assumed to be one of numerous characters that have already appeared throughout the first six episodes. The Rings of Power has already been renewed for season two and filming began a few days ago. With the final two episodes premiering in the next two weeks, co-showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne have teased the villains arrival in the series.

“It would be very tempting to make the first season of this show The Sauron Show, very villain-centric,” McKay told The Hollywood Reporter. “But we wanted that level of evil and complexity of evil to emerge out of a world that you’re invested in — not because evil is threatening it immediately. We wanted you to fall in love again with Middle-earth. We wanted you to understand and relate to the struggles that each of these characters are having before we test them in a way they’ve never been tested before.”

“It’s another Tolkien thing where when a shadow spreads — which is part of what is happening in our show — it affects everyone’s relationships. Even Frodo and Sam. They’re the best friends in all of Middle-earth, yet they started to mistrust each other because that’s a manifestation of that shadow. So having an audience suspect this person or that person could be Sauron is drawing them into that thing where the shadow is overcoming all of us and making us suspicious of each other.” Payne added.

The Rings of Power is ahead of its epic fantasy rival House of the Dragon in Nielsen’s ratings. The most recent episode of The Rings of Power left fans in shock after revealing the origin of an iconic Middle-earth location. The series co-showrunner reflected on the series’ direction ahead of the first season finale.

“A huge theme in Tolkien is the environmentalism and the way machines and industrializations destroys the land,” McKay told The Hollywood Reporter. “We wanted that to be central and core all the time. It’s a thing that comes up again and again throughout the show. So in the writers room, we asked: What if Mordor was beautiful? All bucolic like Switzerland. And then what could happen that could transform it? We talked about the poisoning of the land — which starts in the first episode with the cow. Then you find out about the tunnels being dug and sulfur is going up into the air. It all builds toward this geologically realistic way of igniting the mountain, which now blacks out the sky for a very practical reason — Adar, our villain, sees the Orcs as his people and they deserve a home where the sun doesn’t torment them. We’re hoping it will take people by surprise.”

Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne developed The Rings of Power for Prime Video, inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and set in the Second Age of the world of Middle-earth. The show’s cast includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, 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 Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuts new episodes on Fridays on Prime Video. Only two episodes remain in the first season.

Who ado you think Sauron is? Let us know in the comments below or by hitting up our writer @NateBrail on Twitter!