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A time of war and strife is approaching for Middle-earth, because in season 3 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the evil dark lord Sauron (Charlie Vickers) will finally craft the One Ring. After two seasons of donning various disguises to push his agenda from the shadows, Sauron is ready to assume his place as the ruler of Mordor and lay yet more schemes to bind the realms of Men, Dwarves, and Elves to his will.
Despite how bad things are looking in J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy world, they're looking pretty great for fans! Sauron's forging of the One Ring is one of the iconic parts of Middle-earth's history, and all the mayhem that surrounds it should make for a solid season of television if The Rings of Power can pull it off.
The day we find out just how the show handles it all is drawing ever closer. This weekend is San Diego Comic Con, and The Rings of Power will have a presence there. The series is confirmed to unveil its first teaser on Friday, July 24, and a new spate of press coverage is accompanying the big week. This is coming with new images and teases for the season, such as this ominous poster of Sauron wearing his crown and armor while he holds the One Ring before him:
While I've had my share of qualms about The Rings of Power's first two seasons, I can't deny the chills I get finally seeing Charlie Vickers don Sauron's most recognizable costume. Obviously, it's borrowing quite a bit of its aesthetic sensibilities from Peter Jackson's beloved films, which has always been something of an interesting gray area for the Prime Video series; the two projects are not technically connected in any way, but it's pretty much impossible to adapt The Lord of the Rings in today's day and age without any visual ties whatsoever to Jackson's legendary works.
The poster's cool, but below we have an even better look at Vickers in his new Sauron get up, courtesy of Empire:
It took two weeks to film Sauron forging the One Ring
Vickers himself also felt quite a bit of emotion as he donned Sauron's outfit and showed up to work in the ominous fortress of Barad-dûr. “The first day I walked onto that set, I cried,” he said. “What an amazing privilege and honour to be able to tell that story.”
“This is the season...where Sauron makes the One Ring in the volcano," co-showrunner Patrick McKay confirmed, adding that, “This third season is darker, more dangerous. No-one is safe.”
McKay's showrunning partner, J.D. Payne, highlighted just how much having Sauron on the board in a more present way changes the storytelling for the series. “We have a full-on villain this season, in a way that was quite different before,” he said.
All of that comes down to Vickers. The Rings of Power has always been an ensemble show, but there's never really been a question that Sauron is the most prominent figure that fans have been dying to see in the series. Now that he's finally reigning as a Dark Lord from Mordor and forging the Ring, we're going to see The Rings of Power move more toward the sort of intensity and drama we got from the original Lord of the Rings books and films.
That won't all be confined to battlefields, either. It sounds like the forging of the Ring itself will be pretty spectacular. Vickers revealed that the sequence where Sauron creates the One Ring was filmed across two weeks, which is a pretty significant amount of time for what is essentially a bit of jewelry crafting. We can only assume it's going to be a huge step up from the already-excellent ring forging Sauron did last season while in disguise with the Elven smith Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards).
McKay also hyped up the forging of the One Ring, promising that it's “the single most ambitious, technically challenging sequence we’ve ever done on the show," and that "Charlie’s performance is absolutely staggering. We never could have prepared for it.”
Whatever they cooked up there in Mount Doom, it sounds like it could become the next iconic moment in The Lord of the Rings film history.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will premiere a new teaser for its third season this Friday. Season 3 premieres November 11, 2026 on Prime Video.
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This article was originally published on winteriscoming.net as Sauron forging the One Ring in The Rings of Power is the 'single most ambitious' sequence the show has filmed.
