New TROP Rumor Claims Sauron Will Look Different Than Halbrand In Season 2

Contains potential spoilers for "The Rings of Power" Season 2

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" has made several deviations from the source material. It wakes a Balrog a few thousand years too early, for example. Mithril isn't connected to the Silmarils in the books, either. To be clear, these are straight-up changes to what J. R. R. Tolkien wrote. They aren't unique interpretations or even creative additions like the backstory of the Harfoots or the creation of characters like Adar (Joseph Mawle) and Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova). Those artistic expressions are inevitable, considering the sparse source material.

One hazy area that has walked the line between creative addition and deliberate alteration is the Season 1 character Halbrand (Charlie Vickers). In the finale, it was revealed that Halbrand is the shape-shifting Sauron in disguise. Sauron masquerading as an unknown character loosely fits with his unknown whereabouts early in the Second Age. However, helping forge Rings of Power as Halbrand is a specific change from the source material, which begs the question: How will the show handle the Halbrand/Sauron character moving forward? Will they ditch Halbrand and let Vickers own the Sauron schtick? Will the actor split time playing Halbrand and Sauron? Will Sauron take on another third form?

A rumor, fresh off the press from fan site Fellowship of Fans claims to have a clue to the answer. The scoop reads, "A new actor will play the 'Original Form Sauron' Character in the later episodes of The Rings of Power Season 2, not Charlie Vickers."

Boom. There you have it folks. If the rumor is true, we'll not just see multiple forms of Sauron in Season 2. We'll also see him played by multiple actors. One obvious follow-up here, though, is what is meant by "original form"?

We see Sauron in many guises over the course of J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. He shows up as the Necromancer in "The Hobbit," a werewolf in "The Silmarillion," and there's also Peter Jackson's classic eyeball form. This isn't surprising. Tolkien says that Sauron is a spirit known for shapeshifting. However, early on, it appears that the future villain (in "The Fellowship of the Ring" book, Elrond explicitly states, "For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so.") preferred a more attractive appearance.

When Sauron is described in "The Silmarillion," the text includes the detail, "for he could assume many forms, and for long if he willed he could still appear noble and beautiful, so as to deceive all but the most wary." In a letter written in 1963, Tolkien also describes Sauron's throwback appearance by saying, "In his earlier incarnation he was able to veil his power (as Gandalf did) and could appear as a commanding figure of great strength of body and supremely royal demeanour and countenance."

It's worth adding that the recent rumor from Fellowship of Fans also includes a clarification about this new version of Sauron, saying, "This character has been described as 'Angelic' and 'beautiful' in his design with a black and gold costume colour palette and long black hair." Could we be seeing a course correction from Charlie Vickers' Halbrand persona back to a more stately, Tolkien-accurate form of Sauron? Possibly. It would be a smart move, as it would allow the showrunners to shed the more relatable Halbrand character and ramp up Sauron's intensity and terror in the lead-up to the show's climax. Then again, we're talking about a rumor here. Maybe this is all just hot air.