After two years off the air, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set to return to Amazon Prime Video at the end of August. Ahead of its return, showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne sat down with Total Film to talk through the new season and what it has in store. The interview also includes a new image of Morfyyd Clark’s Galadriel on her horse at night, but many were drawn to what the showrunners said about how the new season will start.
“Do you want to hear the opening? We open in the darkness, an orc walks in, and we see there are thousands of orcs gathered,” McKay said. “He’s about to be crowned, pitching his vision of Middle-earth, and right before they lay the crown on his head, his right-hand man, Adar, turns it upside down, and stabs him in the back. It’s the assassination of Sauron.”
In other words, the new season will begin with a flashback to the end of the First Age, when Sauron was betrayed by his allies. It was at the end of season 1 that we learned that Charlie Vickers’ character Halbrand was actually Sauron, so this flashback is likely an attempt to fill in some of his backstory.
McKay and Payne also said that season 2 will be much more focused on the show’s villains that the first season was. “Right from the beginning, Sauron is the center of gravity. It’s an ensemble show, but the focus is starting to get pulled towards him. He’s driving everything,” McKay explained.
Amazon likely has high hopes for this show’s second season, which follows on from a fairly lackluster response to the first, and data showing that while many people started the show, fewer finished it.
