The synopsis continues, “Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.” Interestingly, the ambiguous phrasing of “greatest villain” and “long-feared re-emergence of evil” has yielded a speculative debate over the identity of said character. Yet, there are only two candidates who feasibly fill that spot: Morgoth and Sauron. The former may not have had a presence in Tolkien’s main stories, but he is an integral figure in the elaborate, quasi-Biblical backstory mythology that the author crafted, as depicted in the 1977 posthumously-published chronicle, The Silmarillion. The text reveals that Morgoth—who began life as Melkor, an archangel-esque Valar and one of the earliest creations of deity Eru Ilúvatar—would eventually fall from grace into evil to become the mythology’s equivalent of Lucifer. While Sauron’s own trickery in Middle Earth spans multiple millennia, his most infamous act was, of course, the ruse that inveigled the leaders of Middle Earth’s races to forge and utilize the Rings of Power, which he secretly controlled with the One Ring; a story that was famously told onscreen with powerfully pithy dialogue from Cate Blanchett’s narrating Galadriel in The Fellowship of the Rings’ prologue. However, said prologue doesn’t reveal that Sauron’s initial entreaty with the Rings came about by way of an insidious, slow-burn plot to befriend the high Elves of Middle Earth while disguised in a fair Elven-like form under the identity of “Annatar” the “Lord of Gifts.” Promising to teach forms of magic that would save the world—perhaps in case Morgoth would ever return—Sauron manipulated master Elven craftsman Celebrimbor into forging the secretly-tainted Rings of Power: three to the Elves, seven to the Dwarf lords and nine to the race of Men. You all know how that ended. This seems likely to be the initial storyline for the series, especially since the show’s official Twitter account started early hype for the series by teasing Tolkien’s lines about the Rings of Power. Adding fuel to that notion is the fact that Peter Jackson originally had designs to utilize Sauron in his “Annatar” form for Return of the King’s climactic Battle at the Black Gate. Indeed, as you can see in the image immediately above (from a behind-the-scenes documentary), the original context of the scene—set after Aragorn appears entranced after seeing the Eye of Sauron—was that Sauron had become powerful enough to physically manifest onto the battlefield, first in his old fair form, after which he transforms into the armored figure we saw in the prologue, and starts directly attacking. However, Jackson eventually had to digitally replace Argorn’s opponent with a towering armored troll. The other viable Sauron story would be the fall of the island kingdom of Númenor, which occurred a few hundred years after the Elves, joined by the Númenoreans, waged a first war against Sauron. After the initial defeat of his armies, Sauron was taken as a hostage to the island kingdom, which was inhabited by a race of long-lived men (of which Aragorn is a descendant). There, Sauron, again under the disguise of a fair form, insidiously ingratiated himself to the corruptible King Ar-Pharazôn, eventually leading to the rise of Morgoth worshippers promised eternal life. This culminated in an attempted invasion of the Undying Lands that angered the Valar, resulting in the island being swallowed by the sea—and Sauron retreating back to Mordor, eventually setting up the culminating War of the Last Alliance, as depicted in the movie prologue. Subscribe to Den of Geek magazine for FREE right here!
