This article was originally published on SFFGazette.com - be sure to keep checking that site for the latest on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power!
Heading into The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, it's fair to say we anticipated an origin story for the villainous Sauron. Instead, the Prime Video series appears to be heading down a very different route, kicking off with a prologue that reveals his master, Morgoth, was defeated aeons before the events of this story begin.
At that time, Sauron was already a fully-formed threat, decked out in the familiar armour we're sure you'll remember from The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Following Morgoth's defeat, Sauron fled with some of his master's orcs and has not been seen or heard from in centuries. Galadriel believes him to be alive, though, as her brother's body was found with his sigil burned on his body. No one else believes he lives, though she finds evidence that Sauron is still out there in one of Morgoth's old strongholds in the northern wastelands.
Meanwhile, a young boy named Theo has found a broken sword hilt that boasts the same sigil and appears to also have sinister powers. It's now clear the villain will somehow factor into The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power as the story progresses as his absence is the mystery at the heart of this story (as is Galadriel's determination to find and destroy him).
J.R.R. Tolkien was always rather ambiguous about where Sauron hid during the early Second Age, giving this series the opportunity to tell a new story that fills in some big gaps.
Does that sigil represent his eye, perhaps? Or will it somehow factor into his quest to make the Rings of Power a tool he could use to rule over all of Middle-earth? We hope to get answers to those questions in the weeks to come, but this story is clearly a slow burn and one that's likely going to play out over multiple seasons. We do know he's not the Meteor Man, though!
The first two episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are now streaming!
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