It must be tempting for writers, producers, and actors of a televised series to check the unfiltered and unrestricted reactions to their work online.

It’s easily attainable with dedicated Facebook pages, accessible Twitter hashtags, and of course the assorted community which is Reddit. This has led to a conversation in the r/LOTR_on_Prime Reddit community wondering, are the cast members of The Rings of Power watching? And if so, what do they think?

The discussion started with users guessing the true identity of Sauron in the series, a plot point that has been continuously teased by the showrunners over the entirety of the season, slyly adding numerous misdirects for several characters, and therefore creating much conversation over the meaning of some character actions and plot points. It was during this speculation that a thread titled ‘Confirmed: Eärien is Sauron’ led to a user considering if Ema Horvath, who portrays Eärien on the show, does in fact monitor Reddit, and if she was likely to see the post.

Interestingly, the comment was met with a knowledgeable response almost immediately. Moderator and Reddit user u/VarkingRunesong shared a snippet of an official interview with Horvath. Within the clip, she is seen discussing that she has indeed “spent a lot of time” on Reddit threads herself, to assess the responses from the LoTR fan base. To validate the response even further, he is even identified by Horvath herself as being personally close to the Redditor.

As well as name-dropping Horvath, the thread claims that there is at least one other confirmed cast member who monitors the Reddit channel. Refusing to give it away openly, users guessed at who this may be, including suggestions of Robert Aramayo (who portrays Elrond) and Maxim Baldry (who portrays Isildur). Unfortunately very little is given away. And the only clarification to whom it may be is revealed that she is an actress and it is not Cynthia Addai-Robinson (plays Mìriel, Queen Regent of Númenor).

Until we get any further confirmation from the cast members directly, we at least remain aware that those involved in The Rings of Power are just as interested in Reddit chatter about the show as we are. For all we know, the cast are sharing threads between themselves. Maybe it’s even feeding future ideas to show writers J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay. Maybe Eärien will become Sauron after all. We’ll have to wait and see for ourselves.