‘LOTR: The Rings of Power’ interview: Charlie Vickers, Charles Edwards and creator JD Payne on the return of Sauron

The sophomore season of ‘The Rings of Power’ brings on Sauron — not the skull-helmeted demi-god of the film trilogy, but a complex schemer and manipulator

What would J R R Tolkien have made of modern Singapore? The island city-state, with its feats of urban greenification, would have certainly struck the dreamer of Middle-earth. He would have also paused, one imagines, below those tall, scraggly ‘supertrees’ that loom in the bayfront area — but do not of course walk, unlike the Ents of Tolkien’s imaginings. Such thoughts flickered through my mind on a recent trip to the garden city, while covering the premiere of the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, streaming episodically on Prime Video from August 29.

Between frequent detours to Chinatown and other food-and-culture hubs across the city, we catch up with the show’s cast and crew. The first season, released in 2022 and culled from Tolkien’s appendices in his epic novel, confidently stacked up multiple dramatic pieces. But now the Jenga tower sways precariously, and all eyes are on Sauron (Charlie Vickers). Initially introduced as a castaway named Halbrand, the supposed king of the Southlands, his revelation as the uber-villain of epic high fantasy left observers reeling. It lurches the show into a darker, twistier terrain.

“In the new season, we see Sauron going to Eregion to meet Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), who is the Leonardo da Vinci of the elves,” says showrunner JD Payne, who has created the series with Patrick McKay.

“We get to watch him seduce, manipulate and ultimately gaslight Celebrimbor. That process of driving someone to insanity in order to get them to do what you want…that’s where a good thriller really lives.”

There were hints, in the first season, of a complex dynamic brewing between Sauron and the elven-smith Celebrimbor. It’s a relationship built on flattery, egoism, and toxic co-dependency. As with Halbrand, the guise he donned to manipulate the elven warrior Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), the dark lord assumes a new form before Celebrimbor; that of Annatar (‘The Lord of the Gifts’), an angelic emissary, or so he says, of the divine Valar. He’s the Steve Jobs of the Second Age, stopping at nothing before the ultimate ring — the One Ring — is forged.

Payne expands on rooting the new season in character psychology. “We have all known, whether in romantic relationships or friendships or work relationships, someone who has that tendency where they can use you without any remorse,” he says. “As we watch Sauron pick apart Celebrimbor’s sanity, it’s a harrowing thing to experience.”

None of which, of course, has rubbed off on the actors playing these two characters. Off-screen, Vickers and Edward share an easy bonhomie, going off on tangents and even completing each other’s sentences. Despite their age difference — Charlie is 31, Charles is 54 — they sound like old chums. “From the beginning, there was a genuine understanding between us,” says Charlie. “We have been doing this for five years now,” adds Charles. “Our scenes in the new season are restricted to one set. We both approach our scenes in a low-key way… not low-key as in lazy, we are both quite detailed and perfectionist in our ways. But there’s a real ease that we share.”