Diksha Sundriyal
Prime Video’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ prequel series, ‘The Rings of Power’ takes the audience on a journey exploring the origins of the rings and Sauron’s quest to get a hold of them to control the world. The first season plays a game with the audience, and the identity of the villains remains in the dark until the finale, where it is revealed that Halbrand, whom Galadriel misidentified as the lost King of Southlands, is actually Sauron. At the end of the season, he found to make his way to Mordor, but when the second season opens, a completely different actor is seen playing the role. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Recast Highlights on Sauron’s Shape-Shifting Abilities
In Season 1, Charlie Vickers plays Halbrand, aka Sauron, but in the opening scene of Season 2, Jack Lowden (known for ‘Slow Horses’ and ‘Dunkirk’) plays a character that calls himself Sauron. In the context of the show, both actors play the same role but are separated by thousands of years. Lowden’s version appears at the end of the First Age, in the immediate aftermath of Morgoth’s defeat, where he is killed by Adar and turned into a black goo that slowly gains form by eating up any and all life form that appears in his path. When we eventually catch up with the timeline of Season 1, Charlie Vickers is back, which confirms that the actor has not been recast. Lowden’s presence is more of a cameo, and the actor will probably not appear again unless there is a flashback to the First Age. However, it raises the question: Why did the show bring in a new actor to play the role we are already familiar with from Season 1?
Lowden’s casting works because of Sauron’s well-known ability to shape-shift. According to the already-established LOTR lore, Sauron is not a common wing. His origins as a Maia, though a corrupt one, give him a lot of perks, and being able to change his appearance and form is one of those things. With that in mind, Lowden’s version represents the form that Sauron took during the First Age, but it still cannot be confirmed to be his true or original form. He has been known to change forms over the years, most notably in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ movies. At that point in the story, he has been so weakened that he cannot take a physical form anymore and manifests only as shadows or, more prominently, as the eye at the top of Barad-dûr.
Apart from this, the books also mention Sauron taking different forms, most notably of Annatar, to fool the elves and take control of the rings. With Season 2, the show builds upon this established lore and gives us a glimpse into the process of his transformation, especially the manner in which he comes out of the mouth of death and reforms himself bit by bit over thousands of years until he is powerful enough to put his nefarious plans into motion.
Why Does Sauron Appear as Halbrand to Celebrimbor?
Considering that Sauron can take any form, one may wonder why he doesn’t change form after Galadriel discerns the truth about his identity. If he is so good at changing forms, why didn’t he just become someone else and come back to befriend Galadriel? The most logical explanation of this is that he doesn’t think that Galadriel’s discovery of his identity poses that much of a danger to him. He might not be at his full capacity, but he is strong enough by now, and the main purpose of his befriending Galadriel is already done. The first three rings have been made, which means that the rest of the plan will fall into place as well.
It also suits Sauron to keep Halbrand’s form because while it might tip off Galadriel and the elves who now know about him, it is still familiar to other people who don’t yet know who he really is. He could use that familiarity in his favor, as it would make it easy for others to trust him, making them more vulnerable to his manipulations. This is one of the reasons why he appears as Halbrand to Celebrimbor. It’s a mistake on Galadriel’s part that she didn’t immediately tell Celebrimbor the truth and just warned him about staying away from Halbrand. To save face, she keeps it a secret, so later, when Gil-galad sends a messenger to Celebrimbor, Sauron intercepts it and realizes that Celebrimbor doesn’t know anything of worth. This means that he doesn’t need to bother transforming himself into someone else and starting from scratch.
If anything, appearing in front of the smith as Halbrand works in Sauron’s favor. Because Celebrimbor doesn’t know why he was told not to work with Halbrand anymore, Sauron can use the gaps in his knowledge to manipulate him into thinking that he and Galadriel had briefly fallen out but are back on good terms again. He also uses the lack of a messenger from Gil-galad as a tool to manipulate Celebrimbor and make him feel more isolated. He does change his form, when he appears in front of the smith as Annatar, but he just changes from human to elf in appearance, his face remains the same.
This saves him the trouble of reacclimatizing Celebrimbor with his new face and keeps the show from recasting the role with each of Sauron’s new forms, which works in the longer run because he is expected to shapeshift a lot through the coming seasons. Vickers, too, said that he is not worried about getting recast anytime soon, which reveals that Lowden’s casting was a one-off and not a permanent thing.
