Inside ‘The Rings of Power’: Showrunners Reveal How Sauron and Celebrimbor’s Relationship Deteriorated

Despite some negative reviews and criticism from self-proclaimed “fans,” The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon has emerged as a popular series.

The second season premiered on August 29, 2024, and concluded on October 3, 2024, with the final episode titled “Shadow and Flame.”

Amazon has deemed the second season a success, with both fans and critics noting it as an improvement over the first season. As a result, viewers are still buzzing about the revelations from the last episode while awaiting official news on the possibility of a third season.

But it’s not just the fans who are talking! Showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss several intriguing details about the final episode. In this report, we’ll highlight their insights related to the fascinating relationship between Celebrimbor and Sauron!

We anticipated that the second season would focus on Sauron’s ascent, which made sense given the context of the forging of the Rings of Power and Sauron’s initial schemes.

A significant part of this narrative was his relationship with Celebrimbor, the one who created the rings, making it one of the most intriguing elements of the season.

During the interview, Payne and McKay were asked how they mapped out the final stages of this deteriorating relationship, and here’s what we discovered:

So let’s talk about the Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) and Sauron/Annatar (Charlie Vickers) stuff, because that was great. How did you plot the final lap of their deteriorating relationship?

PAYNE: This is something that’s been building from the beginning. You’re able to see it in so many aspects of the production. You see it in even the costuming of Sauron. When he first shows up as Annatar, he’s in this biblical angelic prophetic costume, these humble robes.

But as it goes on, you see these black feathers on his costume and you see him embracing the role of a dark tormentor more and more. And then, Charlie Edwards gives such a heart-wrenching performance.

I think we all can relate to having a lofty ambition, something you’re trying to accomplish, and then something going wrong. And we can related to relationships that didn’t turn out to be what you thought they were going to be — whether romantically or professionally or friendship or family.

So I think people will be able to relate to the Sauron Celebrimbor and Annatar relationship, and it’ll be harrowing because of it.

MCKAY I think it’s a boxing match, emotionally. In the middle of the season, in the fifth and sixth episodes, you feel Celebrimbor pushing back against the feeling that he’s being pulled into a noose, and Sauron has to go to ever greater lengths to manipulate him.

By the end of the sixth episode, he has put him in what Celebrimbor calls a prison of the mind, where Celebrimbor appears to be living in a beautiful idyllic version of the city, even as Rome is burning. Sauron eventually kills Celebrimbor, but in doing so, it’s almost like Celebrimbor has won. He can no longer be his puppet.

PAYNE: And there’s his dying prophecy — I’m going to go to elf heaven and you’re going to be stuck with yourself in the hell of your own creation. “I perceive that one ring alone will lead to your utter ruin.”

He’s given Sauron exactly what he wants, which is to be master over this creation, but with bitter dripping irony — yes, that is your title, “the lord of the rings,” but you’re actually enslaved to these rings that will ultimately destroy you.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

They also discussed the real-life and possible romantic implications of this relationship:

You mentioned their relationship might remind people of their own relationships, including romantic. There were times watching Celebrimbor and Annatar that I wondered if there was some romantic, or even sexual, underpinning to what was going on there?

MCKAY I would say the nature of this relationship and its closeness, and the even the sexual tension in it, has been a source of speculation by may fans of the source material for many years.

Anytime you’re dealing with such powerful emotions as seduction and deception, I think it’s easy for your imagination to go there.

PAYNE I think you can see it from the beginning of their interactions together in the second episode. Sauron is pulling Celebrimbor in by saying, “There are things I can only tell to you,” and, “You always saw me the way no one else could” and “You’re safe with me.”

You’re seeing this intimate dance that Sauron is doing. So certainly we could see how people could take that a step further and ship them.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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