Last year, Amazon Prime’s massive Lord of the Rings series, The Rings of Power, debuted on the streaming service. The central mystery of the first season was which character was secretly Sauron—the necromancer and second in command to the dark Lord Morgoth in the First Age. The series tried to throw several red herrings at the audience as a possible Sauron, including an unknown wizard with amnesia, a sorceress from the East, and the leader of the Orcs, Adar.
Ultimately, the smooth-talking human companion to Galadriel, Halbrand (played by Charlie Vickers), was revealed to be Sauron. The series had Halbrand give his influence (but not evil influence) to Celebrimbor in creating the first three Elven rings before escaping capture by Galadriel for his betrayal. So fans have wondered how Halbrand would return to finish creating the Nine Rings of Men and Seven Rings of the Dwarves with his evil influence now that everyone knows his secret.
According to our friends at Fellowship of Fans, Sauron’s original form will be played by a completely different actor. According to their report, south Asian actor Gavi Singh Chera is set to play the original Sauron before he becomes Halbrand. As Tolkien’s books have long described Sauron as a master at shapeshifting, it would make sense that he would be another version of the same character. Sauron still needs to infiltrate the elves to impose his influence on the remaining Rings yet to be created. The report also states he has black and gold armor with long hair in past scenes during his original battle with Adar. He will have shorter hair during his future scenes with Celebrimbor. It should be noted that Charlie Vickers was not “recast,” as many might assume, but his Halbrand form is just Sauron shapeshifted to look like a man. It’s unknown if this original form of Sauron will be named Annatar like in the original novels or not. Production concluded earlier this summer before the WGA & SAG strikes commenced.
Update: Fellowship of Fans have revealed on 4/2/2024 that this report was inaccurate and they were given false information during production.
The Rings of Power returns to Amazin Prime sometime in late 2024
