With less than 2 months to go until the Amazon series debuts, another Rings of Power trailer has been released, and this latest exploration into the Second Age of Middle Earth finally gives audiences a glimpse of the character believed to be Sauron. This is the first time the dark lords name has been mentioned in any of the trailers, by a man (possibly a once golden knight of men, now banished) who has hold of a young boy bearing a strange mark or branding on his arm (possibly a slave child, or a child who has been marked by a brush with evil) somewhere in the far south, which confirms what viewers have suspected all along: the darkness growing and spreading across the lands is indeed the Sauron of the later Lord of the Rings trilogy.
But Sauron’s story in the First and Second Ages is very different to that of the War of the Ring, and the Rings of Power is set to be focusing on his narrative just after Morgoth has been captured and sealed away. The valar are in turmoil, Middle Earth is vulnerable, and there are many great battles in these ages that give Sauron just the opportunity he needs to take advantage of the carnage.
This is furthered in the latest Rings of Power trailer by a first look at the character who is believed to be Anatar, Sauron’s fair elven disguise. When Sauron does resurface in Middle Earth, after suffering the terrible defeat of his master and fleeing, he resurfaces under an illusion, a secret identity that he uses to remain hidden from those who would want to capture him. Whilst under the protection of this crafty camouflage, Sauron manipulates Celebrimbor into forging the dark rings, which, unbeknownst to him, Sauron imbues with malice and treachery. Sauron then takes these rings, and once again uses the disguise of Anatar to surreptitiously embed them into the seven dwarf lords and the 9 kings of men’s possession. As is well known in Middle Earth lore, the rings of power have devastating consequences, all of which stem from this new character in the latest Rings of Power trailer.
As far as the first glimpse goes, Anatar appears to be the white elf with the piercing blue eyes, shaved head, and white cloaked robes who is shown in several quick scenes of the latest teaser. If this character is in fact elven, he certainly stands out among the others of his race, who are usually depicted with long, flowing hair and intricately woven circlets upon their heads. The character is certainly a mystery, but does present himself to be the opposite of Sauron in almost every way possible: where Sauron is known for his black attire, his spiked obsidian helmet and armor, and his heavy, threatening weaponry, this character is robed in white, holding what looks to be a ceremonial elven staff shaped like the sun, and has no identifiable features from any of the portrayals of Sauron seen so far.
Galadriel’s words overlay the entire trailer, and she states “Evil does not sleep…” at which point a scene is shown of the mysterious cloaked figure in white peering over the edge of a hill with two companions. The voice-over dialogue then continues “...it wakes”, at which point there is a close-up of the figure's face, his eyes opening malevolently and looking in the direction of something out of the camera’s sight line. Both of these things are framed to make the audience believe that this mysterious figure in white is indeed the antagonist of the series, the ‘darkness’ that Galadriel talks about, and is therefore actually Sauron in disguise as Anatar. This is also furthered later in the trailer by Galadriel’s ominous warning “he has no one name, but many” which confirms that Sauron’s multiple duplicitous entities will play a part within the series.
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These several appearances of the mystery figure cloaked in white all culminate in him blowing an autumn leaf through the dark caves, which falls to the ground and bursts into flames, before petering out in the dark. The voice-over at this moment states in an eerie voice “you have been told many lies about Middle Earth”, which sounds exactly like something that Sauron might say when trying to manipulate people and gain their trust so that he can bend them to his will. The symbol of the leaf catching fire is an obvious hint that this white elf is not who he says he is, and as fire is Sauron’s element, this strengthens the identity as Anatar. It is also possible that the leaf burning in the dark is a signal to someone, or some creature, that something nefarious is about to take place. This could perhaps be linked to the Balrog that is seen at the end of the trailer, or could be a different evil concoction of Sauron’s, but whatever it means, this slippery, cunning and all too convincing form of Anatar doesn’t bode well for anyone.