“In flashback scenes ‘Original Form Sauron’ (Gavi Singh Chera) will have long hair, in present day scenes in Eregion he apparently has shorter hair,” Fellowship of Fans reported at the time.

If Chera really is set to appear as Annatar in the new season, it wouldn’t actually come as much of a surprise. In Tolkien’s Middle-earth stories, it was Sauron, in the fair form of Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, who tricked the Elves of Eregion into forging the Rings of Power in the Second Age. He also used his fair form to bring about the destruction of Numenor. Both of these storylines were set up by the end of Rings of Power season 1, with Celebrimbor forging the first three rings and Ar-Pharazôn seemingly taking over the island kingdom of Men.

But what about Charlie Vickers’ Halbrand? The season ended with Halbrand revealing his true identity to Galadriel, helping Celebrimbor create the three Elven rings, and then heading off to the newly-formed land of Mordor. With his Halbrand form no longer a secret in season 2, it would make a bit of sense for Sauron to take on a new form, one closer to the one described in the books.

Of course, there’s the question of whether The Rings of Power can actually use the Annatar character by name. Annatar is from Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, which Amazon doesn’t actually have the rights to adapt. The streamer can only use material from The Lord of the Rings and the Appendices for its story of the Second Age, which could mean that the show will actually have to use a different name for this version of Sauron. Either way, it sounds like Chera’s character will at least be very heavily inspired by Annatar, which doesn’t bode well for any of the peoples of Middle-earth.



Danofgeek