‘The Rings of Power’ showrunners explain how and why they settled on their Sauron

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Rings of Power season one finale, “Alloyed”

Still confused about all the mind-bending twists in the Rings of Power finale? Well, you’re not the only one, but thankfully, showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay are here to shed some light on that big reveal, assuring fans that they’re not breaking the canon apart with this unlikely turn of events.

Spoilers to follow.

Depending on how you choose to view the events of the final episode, Galadriel is either made out to be the biggest fool in Middle-earth, or Sauron is the most cunning deceiver to ever live.

The titular big bad turned out to be none but Halbrand himself, who has been slowly worming his way into Galadriel’s trust ever since the second episode. The revelation is definitely casting a dubious light on Galadriel’s wisdom, which is supposed to bear no rival among the Eldar.

According to what the showrunners have told Deadline, though, they conceived of this idea thanks to Tolkien’s own writings about the Lady of Galadhrim. Now, hold on with your pitchforks, and let’s hear them out first.

“I think from the beginning we wanted to build a relationship between Sauron and Galadriel. There was a text that we found to be really, really fascinating from the Mirror of Galadriel, in which she says, I perceive the Dark Lord and know his mind, or at least all of his mind, the concerns, the Elves and ever does.

“So from the beginning seemed like something really appealing to us. Then the idea of a Tolkienian chance meeting, as he called them, an encounter on the raft felt like it could be a delicious way to start off that storyline. So, that was the story that we went up in the beginning. We thought of ways that there are other characters you might think of for Sauron; the Stranger was certainly always going to be someone who we knew people would be thinking about, given his powers.”

Whether we’d care for it or not, it seems that this younger Galadriel is quite different from the wise Elven leader we meet in The Lord of the Rings. Of course, we still have four more seasons of this to go through, and any character needs a compelling arc to grow, so don’t give up hope on her yet.

You can watch all eight episodes of The Rings of Power on Prime Video now.