‘Huge, epic’ scene coming in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2

Details of the eye-wateringly expensive Lord of the Rings series’ second season have been tightly contained for months – until now.

IN SAN DIEGO

If there’s one guarantee fans have been given about the highly-anticipated season two of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, it’s to expect action on a massive scale.

Speaking during a press conference at San Diego Comic-Con, showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne offered up the biggest insight yet about what’s to come, warning that when the brutal violence kicks off, it will be “10 times” more dramatic than what unfolded during season one’s skirmishes.

“The back half of the season, there are multiple episodes of a siege of a medieval city, which takes place over months, with massive armies from at least three different contingents,” McKay revealed.

“Season two is like times 10 [of season one’s action sequences], where there’s thousands of orcs attacking the city, then there’s hundreds of horses charge on the orcs, horses and orcs battle.”

Fans can expect “night-fighting in the mud”, “catapults planting boulders”, “an aerial bombardment portion” … and “a huge, very epic fight with a gigantic, 18-foot troll,” according to McKay.

Adar (played in season 2 by Sam Hazeldine) featured in a battle scene in the season 2 trailer. Picture: Prime Video

“So you’ve got set piece after set piece after set piece, which are hopefully pulling you in all these different directions – it’s like a rollercoaster ride,” he explained, before adding candidly:

“That peaks, dare I say, in episode seven, but keeps on going into episode eight.”

The Rings of Power once again returns fans to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Second Age, thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books.

Season one was a massive success for Prime Video, but there were some complaints that the action and pacing was, at times, a bit slow.

Clearly, season two is heading in a different direction, but the team behind it insist they’ve stayed on exactly the course they’d first mapped out during the series’ conception.

“I recently went back and reread [Payne and McKay’s] original outline of The Rings of Power, which they wrote during a gap in filming season one, and the document was dated October 2020,” executive producer Lindsay Weber recalled.

“It is the same story. It’s amazing.”

“From the moment we started this project, we knew that we were really in it for the long haul and it was going to be 50 hours of storytelling,” Payne added.

“We didn’t want to fall into that trap that you see franchises get into, where every single season has to top the last season. By the end … [they’re just] hurling galaxies at each other because it has to keep growing.”

“So, by design, we started somewhat modestly.”

The scale of the upcoming battle is set to be enormous. Picture: Prime Video

Across The Rings of Power’s showing at this year’s Comic-Con – which included the release of a brand-new, full-length trailer and a panel discussion with the entire cast – one other major theme became abundantly clear: season two is all about Sauron (played by Australian actor, Charlie Vickers).

In season one, he appeared as Galadriel’s mysterious (and charming) companion, Halbrand, but was unmasked as Tolkien’s infamous villain in the final episode, much to the elven warrior’s disappointment.

And such was the pair’s sizzling on-screen chemistry in season one, that after the evil Halbrand/Sauron’s plea for Galadriel to be “his Queen” and rule alongside him was turned down – plenty of fans still didn’t quite give up hope they might get together later on.

However, Vickers was quick to water down the romantic notion.

“I think he saw in her something that maybe he didn’t possess, which is quite rare for Sauron – he’s a pretty self-obsessed guy, and thinks he’s got everything covered,” he explained.

“He did say [they’d rule together], but it was never going to be that … In practical terms, he was in charge and she was going to maybe offer her some qualities to whatever this kingdom was going to be, but he could use her. It was all for his own personal gain.”

Sauron (played by Vickers) has been unmasked. Picture: Prime Video

Despite the very obvious fact that Tolkien’s Sauron is one of the most infamous villains of all time, Vickers refused to let himself view the character that way.

“I don’t think it’s helpful for me to,” he said.

“He’s the epitome of evil in this show but it’s not helpful for me to view him as a villain … I just had to find something that he connects to and something that he seeks, and I think in this season it is unifying and healing and bringing Middle-earth together as one.”

The more significant (and non-romantic) relationship Sauron develops during season two is with Celebrimbor, with the former embarking upon psychological warfare as he manipulates the elven master smith into making the rings of power.

“[Celebrimbor] gets drawn into this very destructive pairing,” Charles Edwards, who plays the elf, said.

“He goes to a place of desperation towards the end of the series… it goes to a very dark place.”

Vickers agreed: “It’s darker, it’s grittier, and I think that there’s a lot going on all the time. It constantly is put on the accelerator.”

Elsewhere during their press rounds, Morfydd Clark – who plays the lead female role – shed some light on how fans can expect to find the emotionally bruised Galadriel when season two picks up.

Best not to put that on, Galadriel. Picture: Prime Video

Burned by Halbrand/Sauron’s betrayal, and questioning her own intuition after going rogue and ignoring her elven leader’ directions, she is devastated that her hope that the “stars had aligned in a way that they hadn’t for many centuries” has been dashed.

“She kind of got drunk on that hope, and she was an elf loner – she was quite far away from her elf-ness, and she was approaching a cynicism, and [Sauron] really got in there,” the Welsh actress said.

“That's what’s so scary about Sauron, he’s such an effective evil guy – he’s called the great deceiver, but he exploits people’s strength, not their weaknesses.”

Clark added: “She’s affected everything, and so she’s got to be accepted back into her realm … [She has] this desire to be part of Middle-earth again and not this lone soldier.”

The Rings of Power has been a major success for Prime Video, maintaining the position of its most-watched premiere ever since it launched in 2022. Season one was viewed by more than 100 million people worldwide, across 32 billion streaming minutes.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will premiere on Prime Video on August 29.