Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

What we’d like to see in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and speculation about what could happen in season 2.

So now we know who Sauron is and got a hint of how “the one ring that will rule them all” ended up being forged. Following a season finale that featured several major reveals, The Rings of Power will be off our TV screens for at least a year, leaving several plot threads dangling and some mysteries still yet to be revealed.

Now, fans of the show will have plenty of time to speculate about what could happen in the show’s second season. Will the newly revealed Sauron show his hand to the other characters? Will Durin give into temptation? Here’s a brief rundown of the things we’d like to see in the show’s next season.

Sauron confronts his foes

Season Finale Trailer | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | Prime Video

As we see at the end of season 1, Halbrand shows his hand and reveals himself to be Sauron. He then attempts to lure Galadriel to his cause, explaining that since Morgoth was defeated, all he’s really wanted is to heal the divides in Middle-earth. Galadriel doesn’t really buy it, though, and Sauron completely disappears.

At the end of the season, though, we see that he’s headed toward Mount Doom, where Adar and his army of orcs are waiting. If season 2 picks up right where the first season left off, then it’s likely we’ll see Sauron confront Adar head-on. By the time we meet the Fellowship, Sauron is in firm control of the orcs, so Sauron will have to defeat Adar at some point and gain control over his forces. We could also see Sauron claim Mordor for his own, and attempt to spread the darkness that has infested that land into the rest of Middle-earth.

What shape Sauron’s confrontation will take remains to be seen. He is an immensely powerful dark wizard, but he doesn’t have any sort of army at his disposal, so he would seem to be at a pretty major disadvantage.

More sentimental Harfoot stuff

The harfotts smile in The Rings of Power.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Nori is now headed off on her own adventure with the wizard, and she’s left the rest of the Harfoots behind. It’s unclear whether we’ll be checking in with the rest of the Harfoots next season, but we’re hoping there’s still plenty of action for them in the episodes ahead.

Halflings are an essential part of Tolkien’s world, and often serve as its heart and soul. Above all else, they remind us of the good in the world, and of the innocence that so many of our characters are working hard to defend.

Sauron helps construct some additional rings

Halbrand looks in the distance in The Rings of Power.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

In the finale, the elves come incredibly close to forging rings of power under Sauron’s influence. After Galadriel discovered Sauron, though, they decided to move ahead with forging the rings. Instead of forging two, though, they decide to forge three with the goal of maintaining balance. Those rings were forged outside of Sauron’s influence, but we already know that the rings given to the dwarves and men are very much part of Sauron’s larger plan.

While he may not actually forge all of these rings next season, we’re hoping that Sauron will ingratiate himself with either the dwarves or men and corrupt them. That corruption will ultimately give birth to the rings, and as we well know, Sauron will eventually forge one ring that rules over all of them.

Durin will delve too greedily and too deep

Durin looking concerned in The Rings of Power.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

We’ve already seen Durin discover mithril and offer some to Elrond and the elves, but when we last saw him, he had been forbidden from delving deeper into the mines of Khazad-dûm by his father the king, who rightly believed that digging like that could bring about ruin. What we also see, though, is that Durin is resolved to keep digging at any cost, and it seems likely that the mithril will be needed to forge the rest of the rings.

We’ve also seen what’s waiting for the dwarves as they continue to dig. A balrog is living in the depths of the mine, and it’s that balrog that will eventually transform Khazad-dûm into the tomb that we see when it appears in Fellowship of the Ring. There are thousands of years between the events we’re currently witnessing and the ones in Fellowship, but we already know the end of this story. What we understand now is that Durin’s determination to dig for mithril is based on more than just his own greed. He believes he needs the mithril to save the elves.

Númenor’s fall begins

Lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-numenor
Image used with permission by copyright holder

If it wasn’t already clear, Númenor is not around when Bilbo finds the one ring. What happens to it would be a bit of a spoiler, but by the end of the season, it’s clear that there’s trouble brewing in the realm of men. Queen Miriel has now lost her father, and will have to deal with questions about whether she’s the right person to take over as leader.

What’s more, we know that Pharazon has no real desire to help his fellow man, and is instead interested only in extending the power and influence of Númenor. If Sauron shows up in a conniving form, it’s easy to understand how the Númenorians could be deceived into making the kinds of mistakes that will ultimately have horrific consequences for them.

Keep Morfydd Clark at the center

Morfydd Clark in The Rings of Power.
Amazon Prime Video / Amazon Prime Video

Although there are certainly plenty of plot developments that we’d like to see in a second season. More important than any of that, though, is keeping Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel at the center of the story.

Clark’s performance has been a revelation thus far, and her version of the character feels both less fully formed and just as powerful as the one we saw in Peter Jackson’s films. Clark is the beating heart of the show, and she’s central to its overall mission.

Allow the story to unfold at its own pace

Galadriel walks in a fiery battle in The Rings of Power.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

In general, Rings of Power‘s first season was a tremendous success. The show generated a substantial audience, it took advantage of its expansive budget to create some thrilling set pieces. The biggest issue with the first season came when it felt like the show was pushing too hard to get its story to where it needed to go.

There were times when characters could have been allowed more space to  breathe, and we could have seen their development unfold more gradually. Here’s hoping we have some more space for subtlety in the season ahead.

Season one of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is currently streaming on Prime Video.

Editors' Recommendations

Joe Allen
Joe Allen is a freelance writer based in upstate New York focused on movies and TV.
The Lord of the Rings streaming guide: How to watch The Lord of the Rings online
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings

With fantasy stories in film and television, few projects compare to the overall scale and importance of The Lord of the Rings. Based on the fantasy series of books by J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings is an epic story of good versus evil as a hobbit undertakes a quest to destroy the One Ring and defeat the Dark Lord Sauron. This saga was famously depicted in Peter Jackson's award-winning The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

However, there are other depictions of Tolkien's stories about Middle-earth. These include Jackson's prequel trilogy, The Hobbit, which covers Tolkien's novel of the same name. Prime Video created The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, a television series set thousands of years before The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. Plus, there are animated specials in addition to live-action films.

Read more
Video games to play for fans of House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings
Demon's Souls key art featuring the protagonist facing the undead and the looming Boletaria gates.

It's arguably never been a better time to be a fantasy fan, with big-name series like Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, The Witcher, and more all in the limelight in some form or another. This year has been a massive one in particular with House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power airing at the same time, but thanks to the video game medium, there are plenty of other ways for genre enthusiasts to indulge themselves.

Several talented developer studios have crafted painstakingly detailed fantasy worlds worth getting invested in ranging a diverse catalog of franchises, with, unsurprisingly, the RPG genre lending itself best to this type of setting. And from the Middle-earth games to FromSoftware's recent collaboration with George R. R. Martin, there's an embarrassment of riches for fans of both The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and House of the Dragon.
Elden Ring

Read more
10 best moments from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings saga
Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

With a new chapter in the Lord of the Rings saga on the horizon, it's as good a time as any to remember just how impactful Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings output has been. The New Zealand director dedicated well more than a decade to bringing this world to the screen, and he did so with remarkable success in the original trilogy. Although The Hobbit trilogy is less universally beloved, and with good reason, it's important to acknowledge that there are still some moments of magic in that chapter of Jackson's saga as well.

The best moments from Jackson's work get at something elemental about what makes this story so powerful. There are speeches, battles, and everything in between, and while this list does tilt towards his original trilogy, The Hobbit gets a few nods as well.
10. Pippin sings a song
Pippin's Song: Edge of Night (LOTR) + Subs/Lyrics

Read more