The Rings Of Power Season 2 Rumor Casts An Angelic Sauron
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" will grow its cast (and, by extension, its story) by leaps and bounds in Season 2. Multiple additional casting announcements have already made the news cycle, with the most recent one, which came early in 2023, including Ciarán Hinds from "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2."
While Amazon Studios has stayed mum regarding the show since that time, fan site Fellowship of Fans recently added to the beefy Season 2 actor list with a rumored casting of its own. On Christmas Eve, the site, which is known as a source of relatively accurate scoops for all things Middle-earth, shared, "EXCLUSIVE: Gavi Singh Chera will play 'SAURON' in THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER Season 2."
Technically speaking, the fact that Chera is in the show is old news, as his casting was announced at the end of 2022. However, the suggestion that he is playing the titular villain is news indeed. The scoop also said, "He will play the original form version of the character, which is meant to be 'angelic' and 'ethereal' per sources."
Fellowship of Fans has floated the concept of the show splitting its Sauron persona into two characters in Season 2 more than once now, played by two different actors (It was solely played by Charlie Vickers in Season 1.) While these earlier instances were vague, the latest rumor directly links Chera to the show's angelic iteration of Sauron.
Casting another Sauron for Rings of Power is a good idea
"The Rings of Power" spent Season 1 chasing the mystery box of Sauron's identity. By the end, it was pretty clear that Charlie Vickers' Halbrand was the rising villain in disguise — which was fun, but after masquerading for eight hours of screen time as the mortal human "Halbrand of the Southlands," it was hard to imagine Vickers' character making a hard pivot to suddenly play a convincing, overpowered spiritual warlord.
The saving grace here is that Sauron shapeshifts. In fact, in Tolkien's source material, he takes on many different forms. He spends time as the shadowy Necromancer in the lead-up to "The Lord of the Rings" and is variously seen as a terrifying figure or a beautiful one, depending on where you are in the story. There's even a duel in "The Silmarillion," where he dons the appearance of a wolf, serpent, monster, and bat-shaped vampire along with his normal humanoid form. By the time of Frodo's quest, Sauron is generally hidden, and his primary attribute is his all-consuming eye. But even then, at one point, Gollum describes seeing his hand, so the guy still has a body of some kind.
Sauron clearly isn't meant to be portrayed as one visual image in Tolkien's writings, so the option not to recast but to add a cast member to help portray the villain is a perfect solution. It allows Vickers to continue acting out the Halbrand moments, while any more book-accurate "angelic Sauron" personifications can come from Chera (if the rumor is true).
The Middle-earth hair conversation will likely continue
One of the funniest things about "The Rings of Power" has been the conversations about hair. When the show's first promotional images came out, the obvious point of contention came from the Dwarven Princess Disa's lack of facial hair — even though she did sport some rather long sideburns. Many of the Elvish characters also deviated from the long-haired Elven concept that Peter Jackson's adaptations embedded so firmly in the minds of Middle-earth fans.
The source material itself is famously light on character descriptions. Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn, for example, is depicted with a beard. However, in the book "The Nature of Middle-earth," Tolkien is quoted as saying, "I myself imagined Aragorn, Denethor, Imrahil, Boromir, Faramir as beardless," attributing this to their lingering Elvish heritage.
Some of the hair-related details of Amazon Studios' series have been a flash point for debate already, and the last part of Fellowship of Fans' latest Sauron casting leak adds fuel to the fire by saying, "Excl: In flashback scenes 'Original Form Sauron' (Gavi Singh Chera) will have long hair, in present-day scenes in Eregion he apparently has shorter hair." In the group's June leak, they also referenced this long-locked element, stating, "This character has been described as 'Angelic' and 'beautiful' in his design with a black and gold costume color palette and long black hair." If the holiday rumors are true, it looks like Season 2 is going to have a lot to say about Sauron's character evolution as the showrunners build up a villain worthy of Mordor.