The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power faced controversy for its portrayal of its titular character, Sauron, and it looks like The Rings of Power season 2 will be strengthening its position further. The Rings of Power emerged in 2022 as the first on-screen adaptation of legendary fantasy pioneer J.R.R. Tolkien’s seminal The Lord of the Rings legendarium since Peter Jackson’s famous movies. The show has the rights to adapt The Lord of the Rings and its appendices and The Hobbit, which focus on the Third Age, and its portrayal of Sauron was contradictory of source material for some Tolkien fans.

The Rings of Power season 1 ending explained that the original character introduced throughout season 1, Halbrand, was in fact Sauron in disguise over the course of all eight episodes. This mystery box writing revealed an invention on the show’s part – Tolkien never described Sauron taking a human form called Halbrand. However, Sauron did have a body at the time. The mystery box writing also deceived the audience as to Halbrand’s true identity along with Galadriel, necessitating a controversial ennoblement of Sauron so that he could appear as a sympathetic main character of the show. Season 2 is gearing up to expand this thread.

Expect Sauron To Continue Justifying His Actions In The Rings Of Power Season 2

The Rings Of Power Is Sauron’s Origin Story

The Rings of Power season 1 showed Sauron sympathetically and explained his actions, and it looks like season 2 is doubling down on this divisive strategy. Audiences learned a lot about Sauron, and many came to like him in his undercover Halbrand form. However, the season 1 finale also intriguingly showed Sauron openly trying to sell in his agenda for world domination to Galadriel, after she discovered his identity. It was interesting to see what events looked like to Sauron, and audiences can expect more of this in season 2, with it being “an origin story for Sauron” (via The Hollywood Reporter).

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 will come out on August 29, 2024.

Sauron was a remote force of evil in Tolkien’s work, with little insight given to his thoughts or feelings, which is why some Tolkien fans liked Peter Jackson’s portrayal of Sauron as a faceless, fiery eye, casting its controlling scrutiny over all of Middle-earth. Literally humanizing Sauron in The Rings of Power, and showing him explaining his actions, could make him a less scary villain. But while Jackson’s Eye was unfounded canonically, Sauron’s fair form is, so the show won’t be backing down from its physical incarnation of Sauron, or his voice, any time soon.

The Rings Of Power Season 2’s Trailer Shows How Sauron Will Justify Being Evil

The Rings Of Power Season 2 Dropped Its Full Trailer

Despite a teaser trailer, a behind-the-scenes trailer, and an SDCC trailer, The Rings of Power season 2 dropped a final and tantalizing full trailer showing more of Sauron’s villainous grandstanding. The Rings of Power season 2 trailer mentions Sauron’s Eye and shows Sauron’s interactions with Celebrimbor, among other thought-provoking developments of Lord of the Rings lore. Sauron’s first physical form, Halbrand, appears in the trailer, as well as his new “fair form” of Silmarillion fame, so clearly both will say their piece in The Rings of Power season 2.

Celebrimbor has been deceived in the trailer by Sauron’s illusions, thinking himself clean and well-kept when he suddenly realizes he is a mess, looking in the mirror. He implores Sauron for answers, asking “what have you done to me” and “who are you, truly?” After this, Sauron says to Celebrimbor “I am the one keeping the storm at bay.” This marks a development from his response to Galadriel in the season 1 final, when she asked the same question (“I have been awake since before the breaking of the first silence“). Sauron’s rings prevent the Elves’ fading, so perhaps his narcissism and self-importance have grown.

Did Sauron Justify His Actions In Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings Books?

Tolkien Explained Sauron More Than Sauron

Sauron had little dialogue in Tolkien’s legendarium, discounting The Lay of Leithian where he sang a whole epic poem, of course. Evidently, Tolkien’s work crossed formats in a delicious complication of genre and character expectations, but there is not much evidence to suggest how Sauron would go about justifying his horrific actions to his opponents. Sauron is an important villain in literature, so the show’s depiction of him matters, showing this story to a new generation of Tolkien fans and sharing an important message about the need to oppose tyranny. As such, creating original dialogue for Sauron has inevitable risk.

Sauron justifying his actions in season 1 will evidently develop in season 2, with an eventual reveal of Sauron’s full plan. Gone is the amoral, mysterious Sauron of Lord of the Rings, and here is the personified evil of The Silmarillion and, perhaps, even earlier work like The Lay of Leithian. Despite the lack of dialogue the show has to build on, it can riff off Sauron “bearing [Galadriel’s] scorn with outward patience and courtesy” in Eregion in Unfinished Tales and Sauron’s song of “piercing, opening, of treachery” in The Lay of Leithian, and off Tolkien’s own descriptions of Sauron.

Sauron’s support of Morgoth’s mindless destruction of Middle-earth, his torture of Galadriel’s brother and his companions and sadistic cruelty toward Gorlim all point toward a man already well on his way to self-delusion.

Tolkien said that Sauron had “fair motives” at least at the start of the Second Age, seeking “the reorganising and rehabilitation of the ruin of Middle-earth, ‘neglected by the gods’.” Sauron’s support of Morgoth’s mindless destruction of Middle-earth, his torture of Galadriel’s brother and his companions and sadistic cruelty toward Gorlim all point toward a man already well on his way to self-delusion about his superiority and his end justifying his means. It will be hard for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power to capture the complexity of Sauron’s psychology, but its attempt may just make for some very entertaining TV.