Charlie Vickers Is Able to Be the Lord of the Rings

A lot of The Rings of Power season 2 was about how a lot of Center-earth was not having a good time, except you had been named Halbrand, Annatar, or Sauron. The excellent news for actor Charlie Vickers, was that he was in fact all three, because the Darkish Lord made his largest strikes but in manipulating the creation of the titular rings. However now season 2 is over–and our heroes are bruised, however defiant within the face of an ascendant Sauron acquired virtually every little thing he wished. So what’s subsequent?

“Shadow and Flame”, the season 2 finale of Rings of Energy, sees Sauron, livid at Celebrimbor’s defiance of his affords, slay the forge smith he’d spent all season manipulating and making his largest strikes on the present up to now. With Eregion besieged, Sauron turns Adar’s orcs in opposition to him, practically kills Galadriel if not for one inconvenient cliff face, and, in fact, ends the season with full management of the 9 Rings solid for mortal humankind. And with Ar-Pharazôn over in Númenor seeing visions of Halbrand within the palantir, anybody conversant in how Tolkien’s pre-Lord of the Rings worldbuilding goes is aware of that Morgoth’s former protégé is barely simply getting began.

“I couldn’t decide one, there’s an excessive amount of,” Vickers lately advised io9 over Zoom of what he’s most wanting ahead to as Sauron actually comes into his personal going ahead. “I genuinely don’t know what’s to come back, however there are issues that we all know on this time interval need to occur. The story that the present goes to inform, the downfall of Númenor, the creation of the One Ring, the battle of the Final Alliance, all of these issues. It’s just like the demise of Celebrimbor and the crafting of the rings–the thrilling factor is that the crafting of the rings is simply the primary of many issues that I’ve in my thoughts from studying the books… I’m so excited to be part of how these remaining tales come to life.”

In a becoming climax at this level of Rings of Energy‘s story, Vickers’ Sauron–the mask of Annatar really fallen at this level–spends a lot of his time within the season 2 finale battling, with barbs and blades alike, his two largest scene companions on the sequence up to now: Charles Edwards, bowing out in defiance as Celebrimbor, and Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, as she finds herself face-to-face with the Deceiver as soon as extra. Locking swords with Galadriel for management of the 9 required Vickers to assume, and act, in a means he’s not likely needed to as Sauron up thus far within the sequence.

“For me it was all about financial system. It was like, he has to combat in a cheap means the place it required, significantly early on within the combat, essentially the most effectivity” Vickers mentioned of growing Sauron’s combat fashion for duelling with Galadriel. “That was a part of my improvement of his motion: there was nothing extraneous. And with preventing, it was like… he’s most likely, in hand-to-hand fight, essentially the most highly effective individual in Center-earth. So what can present that? For me that’s like there’s nothing fancy, it’s how can I get my intention achieved over and over, and the way actual folks combat. You see all through that combat scene he underestimates [Galdriel], and she or he’s stronger, so he’s beginning to have to make use of increasingly more effort to complete her off.”

However for Vickers, it was one final episode with Edwards carried a particular resonance greater than anything within the finale: lots of his scenes in Eregion with the actor this season had been filmed in chronological order, so attending to the second the place Sauron is brutally torturing the smith to death carried an additional weight. “I feel it was advanced, as a result of we had been mentioned that w had been coming to the tip of this actually cool, wonderful alternative that we’d had as performers,” Vickers mentioned of filming Celebrimbor’s ultimate moments. “However then I used to be additionally actually excited, as a result of these had been the scenes that we had been actually wanting ahead to.”

“It’s form of every little thing that result in these scenes, you already know? [Celebrimbor] realizes that Eregion is falling, and Sauron revealed the blood trick to him, after which in fact, Celebrimbor’s demise. That was a scene that has imagery that’s actually drawn from Tolkien’s works, and we had been so excited once we acquired to see that was taking place,” Vickers continued. “That was an enormous day, and it was actually… a very beautiful solution to finish. It makes me sound very sadistic after I say that,” the actor joked. “However you already know, from a efficiency perspective!”

Celebrimbor may come to his finish a pincushion of arrows and raised up on a spear by Sauron, however he will get one ultimate act of defiance in opposition to his manipulator, cursing him that the rings he’d manipulated Celebrimbor into crafting will finally be his doom–the remark that sends Sauron into the petty rage that finally strikes Celebrimbor down, moments after he was nonetheless attempting to show him to his aspect. “I feel there’s most likely a little bit of self-reflection [coming out of season 2],” Vickers mentioned of simply how a lot Celebrimbor’s ultimate phrases actually acquired to Sauron. “Celebrimbor fairly clearly says to him, ‘You are the Lord of the Rings, they usually’re controlling you,’ however Sauron, as a result of he’s all about management, and I feel he really believes that these rings are going to do good for Center-earth, I feel Celebrimbor makes him understand that he’s descended into insanity, and darkness, and that this need for management has turn into one thing much more horrific.

“And that causes Sauron quite a lot of disappointment, and anger, and rage, actually. When [the episode] leaves on him with Fëanor’s hammer, he’s serious about every little thing that had come earlier than and everuthing that’s to come back. That’s why their relationship was so good, as a result of it’s not similar to puppet and puppet grasp. It really works each methods.”

Rings of Energy season 2 is now streaming on Prime Video.

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