'The Rings Of Power' Showrunners Discuss How Sauron's Storyline Will Look In Season 2

TV & Film

Oct 23

Filming for season two of The Rings of Power is hot on the heels of the big reveal of the first season.

With Halbrand revealed to be the big bad of the series, showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay talked to The Hollywood Reporter about what Sauron will be up to in the second season.

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“Like Tony Soprano or Walter White. He’s evil but complexly evil. We felt like if we did that in season one, he’d overshadow everything else,” McKay said to THR. Payne also talked of John Milton’s Paradise Lost and the treatment of Satan in that work, comparing it to how they want to approach Sauron. “…he makes Satan a really compelling character. In some ways, he’s the first antihero where he’s compelling and you can’t take your eyes off of him.” (The Hollywood Reporter, 2022) Payne and McKay talked of how they want to play on the idea of Sauron as a deceiver, where he kind of charms you in the beginning, and then by the time you realize what he really is, it’s too late.

It’s an interesting experiment and could pay off big in season two. Payne and McKay also mentioned how in Tolkien’s writings, Sauron isn’t talked of in a nuanced manner. He’s written in broad strokes as such a pervasive and menacing evil that his name is enough to strike fear. Tolkien doesn’t zoom in on him as he did Frodo and Bilbo. McKay and Payne want to give Sauron the same treatment. They want to focus on Sauron in the second season like they did Galadriel in the first, a seemingly similar approach they seemed to take in the episode Udun, where Adar tried to add some dimension to the once one-dimensionally-evil Orcs.

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