Sauron is finally getting down to business in The Rings of Power, with co-showrunner Patrick McKay confirming that the One Ring will get forged this season in a sequence so long, it took two weeks to film — and one that left actor Charlie Vickers teary-eyed in awe.
Speaking to Empire, both McKay and his fellow showrunner J.D. Payne elaborated on what fans of Middle Earth can expect from one of Tolkien’s most formidable villains when Season 3 drops this November.
“This is the season where Sauron makes the One Ring in the volcano,” McKay told the outlet, saying Sauron’s out-of-disguise debut “changes the tone of the show.”
“This third season is darker, more dangerous. No one is safe,” McKay continued. “The first two seasons were all about building out this world. But throughout that time, we’re lighting all these fuses and setting all these stories in motion. The third season is when all those bombs are starting to explode.”
McKay also revealed that shooting the forging of the One Ring took two weeks to film, calling it “the single most ambitious, technically challenging sequence we’ve ever done on the show.”
One of the more interesting tidbits from Empire’s interview was Charlie Vickers’ reaction to stepping on set as Sauron in his ‘true’ fleshly form, having cast off his previous disguises. For Vickers, the chance to portray one of Middle Earth’s greatest evils was so monumental that he wept after walking onto set for the first time to forge the One Ring.
“The first day I walked onto that set, I cried,” he told Empire. “What an amazing privilege and honor to be able to tell that story.”
McKay assured fans that Vickers’ performance this season is “absolutely staggering,” saying the crew “never could have prepared for it.”
Amazon is already hard at work filming Season 4, with pre-production set to start before Season 3 even airs. Shooting is expected to start in early 2027, with The Hollywood Reporter suggesting that the streamer hopes to shorten the wait time between seasons this go-round.
Season 3 is a timeskip, jumping ahead “several years” from the events of Season 2 at “the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron.” We’ve already gotten oodles of sneak-peeks before November arrives, including the return of Narsil, the sword that famously shattered when Isildur cut the One Ring from Sauron’s hand — one with which fans of the original trilogy should be quite familiar.
(Amazon MGM)
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