When The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power first hit the screen in 2022, it was all about taking audiences back to Middle-earth – specifically conjuring the Second Age, long before Frodo and Bilbo’s respective adventures, and introducing swathes of Harfoots, Elves, Dwarves and Men. But as its first season unfolded, the show – spearheaded by showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay – proved to be more than just about the forging of those titular rings, featuring the early adventures of Galadriel and Elrond; it was, additionally, something of an origin story for Sauron – the Dark Lord whose terrifying dominance of Middle-earth was recapped in The Fellowship Of The Ring’s iconic prologue.

Now, in Season 2, the bigger picture is becoming clear – The Rings Of Power is also the story of Sauron’s ascendancy. “If you had to pick one reason to make this show and set it in this era of the mythology, that’s it,” McKay tells Empire, in our world-exclusive Rings Of Power Season 2 issue. “From minute one, we talked about Milton’s Paradise Lost, Walter White and Tony Soprano, and how Sauron has the potential to be like these great villain-heroes – hero meaning protagonist.” For McKay, it’s a Tolkienian tale that’s long begged for adaptation. “That’s the great untold story on the screen.”

Across much of Season 1, Sauron was sneaking around in the guise of Halbrand – pulling the strings right under Galadriel’s nose. But after being discovered, he’s got a new persona for Season 2: the elegant Elf, Annatar. His reinvention offers new storytelling scope this time around. “He was hiding amongst our story,” McKay says of Season 1. “The opportunity now with Season 2 is: the audience is in on the con. We know who he is. We have a pretty good sense of what he wants. The fun is watching other people get ensnared in the web. As the season unfolds, the plan starts. One hammer after another starts to fall until, by the last couple of episodes, you realise the level and extent of how evil he is and how deeply he’s strategised this whole thing out.” As a result, the show’s various threads – from Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel, to Markella Kavenagh’s Nori Brandyfoot, to Owain Arthur’s Durin – are pulling closer together. “All our stories start to become one story,” McKay explains, “and the one story is the way the re-emergence of Sauron touches everybody and threatens the whole world.”

It’s a whole new ballgame, then, for Charlie Vickers – the actor who can now finally talk about his true role in the show: Sauron. “I was so excited to get to this point of the story, because this is the canon of this time period,” he says. And as Annatar, he’s ready to cause plenty of mischief. “You have Sauron and Celebrimbor working together, making rings. Everything Sauron does is to serve other people, to appeal to someone else. In the same way the whole Halbrand thing was for Galadriel, this new look is for Celebrimbor. This is the best way to get him to do what he wants him to do: make a bunch of rings that’ll dominate everyone else.” Don your mithril, people: the Dark Lord is ready to rule.

Read Empire’s full The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season 2 feature – going on set, and speaking to showrunners J.D. Payne and and Patrick McKay; stars Charlie Vickers, Morfydd Clark, Sophia Nomvete, and Daniel Weyman; director Charlotte Brändström, and more – in the August 2024 issue, on sale Thursday 4 July. Pre-order a copy here – choose the Galadriel cover, or the Sauron cover. The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season 2 comes to Prime Video from 29 August.