Actor Lloyd Owen, who plays Elendil in Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, shared that the second season of the show will see everyone faced with a moral dilemma.
Speaking with Variety about the show’s second season, Owen confirmed that Sauron will make his presence felt throughout the season.
He said, “We all know that Sauron has been revealed at the end [of Season 1], and therefore what happens when that amount of evil is finally realized? Each person throughout the universe, throughout Tolkien’s world, is going to be affected by that.”
Owen then questioned, “There’s always going to be a human choice as to what happens when you’re introduced to evil, and is there an inherent badness or darkness in you that will be revealed? Or will you move to the good side?”
He then asserted, “So, everyone is going to be faced with a dilemma, a moral dilemma, and there are going to be some really difficult choices for each human to take.”
He then shared that his relationship with his son, Isildur, will be affected, “every personal relationship is affected by obviously the political and the evil and how it changes and warps the mind.”
In The Silmarillion, Isildur learns from his grandfather Amandil that Sauron planned to chop down the White Tree, Nimloth the Fair. Upon hearing this he stole into Armenelos and plucked a fruit from the tree. While he was able to sneak in undiscovered, the guard would discover him as he attempted to escape with the fruit. He ended up fighting his way out, but eventually returned to Rómenna and gave the fruit to Amandil.
However, he succumbed to the wounds he suffered while fleeing Armenelos and fell into a coma. The fruit from the tree would eventually bear a new shoot and upon the arrival of the first leaf Isildur would awaken from his coma and would no longer be troubled by his wounds.
Isildur and Elendil’s story would not end there. With Sauron’s power and influence spreading across Númenor, Amandil eventually decided to traverse West despite being banned from doing so in order to seek the aid of the Valar.
Before he left he instructed Elendil to stockpile a number of ships and have them ready to set sail with the rest of the Faithful that had not succumbed to Sauron’s rising power as an aide to Ar-Pharazôn. When Ar-Pharazôn decided to challenge the ban in the hopes of gaining immortality, Elendil refused his call to join his fleet. Not only did he refuse the call, but he also evaded Sauron’s forces that attempted to burn him alive.
When the great tidal wave crashed on Númenor in response to their wickedness. Elendil and his sons were spared and founded a number of kingdoms in Middle-earth.
Owen is not the only one to promise that the second season will be focused on Sauron. Showrunner J.D. Payne previously told The Hollywood Reporter, ““Season one opens with: Who is Galadriel? Where did she come from? What did she suffer? Why is she driven? We’re doing the same thing with Sauron in season two. We’ll fill in all the missing pieces.”
His fellow showrunner Patrick McKay added, “Sauron can now just be Sauron. 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.”
“So the first season is like Batman Begins, and the The Dark Knight is the next movie, with Sauron maneuvering out in the open,” McKay said.
More recently Sophia Nomvete, who plays Princess Disa said, “Season 1 was a time of relative peace, an introductory time meeting everybody. Season 2 is the unravelling of it all. It’s when the force of evil really starts to put pressure on Middle Earth and we watch how everyone that we know and hopefully love handles that situation.”
She added, “The stakes are higher. We see what that force of evil does to each race and to each relationship. There’s so much more action.”
“We weathered the storms, and there’s a real sense of confidence in who and what we are. I’m really excited about it,” she concluded.
What do you make of Lloyd’s comments about the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power?