By There’s been a lot of buzz and confusion in the Lord of the Rings and Rings of Power fandom over the last year with different sources reporting different things. Then it was revealed that Amazon set up a ploy to leak different information to different leakers to catch the culprits. The key point in all of this was the casting of a new form of Sauron besides Charlie Vickers. Here’s what we were told about all of that.
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS THE BIGGEST SPOILERS FOR THE RINGS OF POWER SEASON 2. IF YOU WISH TO GO IN UNSPOILED, DO NOT READ.
Here we start with what we’ve been told recently by a member of production. We’ll warn the readers to take this with a grain of salt as it’s known that members of production have been involved with trying to spread confusing information.
Who plays Sauron in The Rings of Power Season 2?
We’ve been told that Sauron in essence will be played by two actors in The Rings of Power Season 2: Charlie Vickers and Calam Lynch. Charlie Vickers was known as his Halbrand form from Season 1 and here’s where it gets confusing with Calam Lynch.
Like Fellowship of Fans revealed long ago, Calam Lynch does indeed play Celeborn, Galadriel’s husband. Or more precisely, he plays Sauron, disguising himself as Celeborn to fool the elves. In Season 3 of The Rings of Power, Calam Lynch is set play the real Celeborn.
There is no third form of Sauron, we’ve been told. Only Charlie Vickers and Calam Lynch.
Does Calam Lynch appear as real Celeborn in Season 2? Yes and no. We’ve been told that Amazon filmed multiple endings of the season with Morfydd Clark and Calam Lynch. They are interchangeable because it’s the literal final 5-10 minutes of Season 2 and they can do whatever edits they want with it.
So what are these endings? We heard about three of them.
Ending #1: Celeborn/Sauron appears before Galadriel
At the end of the season, at the end of the Battle of Eregion, one that was reported to be a 2-episode battle, there’s the big twist of the season. Celeborn was Sauron all along. How does that make Galadriel feel?
Galadriel is conflicted to see this Celeborn-appearing person physically in front of her. She is under immense pressure to make a very quick choice: to hurt him or not. Is it Sauron or is he the real Celeborn?
Turns out, he’s the real Celeborn. Galadriel trusts her gut, makes the right choice and they reunite. We heard they also filmed a kiss between Morfydd Clark and Calam Lynch, although it caused a controversy among the editors and it may have been edited out.
Ending #2: Celeborn is injured
At the end of the season, at the end of a battle, the real Celeborn appears. He is very visibly injured and wounded. It’s made to be unclear if he survives, but he and Galadriel reunite.
Since he’s in such a bad shape, Galadriel knows he’s the real Celeborn and has no hesitations like in the ending above. We understand whether he survives is supposed to be a cliffhanger.
Ending #3: No Celeborn, only Sauron
In another version, we heard, the real Celeborn doesn’t appear at all in the entire season. Instead, Sauron, still disguised as Celeborn, tells Galadriel that her husband is alive.
This is similar to the ending of Season 1, where Sauron speaks to Galadriel in her head, but this time both are physically present.
We were told there is a possibility that there are more versions of the Season 2 ending, but we know of these three. The last one is the only one where we never see Calam Lynch as the real Celeborn.
How do we know which version is the real one?
That’s the neat part, we don’t. And the producers don’t. We were told they are still undecided which ending they want to include in the final edit of The Rings of Power Season 2.
So they are still debating that and this way there’s no chance for us to know until the season is actually out. We don’t know the reasons behind all of this. It’s possible that they are undecided whether they want to make Celeborn’s fate a big cliffhanger and a setup for Season 3 or show him alive and well in Season 2.
In one version, the audience doesn’t know if Celeborn will survive his wounds. In another version, Celeborn doesn’t even appear and that makes the audience want to see the real one. The other version seems like more or less a happy reunion between Galadriel and Celeborn.
So who Gavi Singh Chera plays then?
As we knew already, Gavi Singh Chera isn’t playing Sauron. But he is playing a character called Merimac, who is a stoor. Stoors are another branch of hobbits like harfoots, which we haven’t seen yet in the show.
Chera will be in The Stranger and Nori’s arc as they will meet some stoors on their journey. Their arc is a bit of a road movie this season. That’s what we heard.
To sum it up, we were told by a production member that Calam Lynch plays Celeborn’s body and face worn by Sauron for the vast majority of his scenes. Only in some endings he appears as the real Celeborn and is set to continue as the real Celeborn in Season 3 of The Rings of Power.
