The Rings Of Power Season 2 Leak Suggests A Lot Of Violence (Including A Berserker Orc)

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

"The Rings of Power" Season 1 was a family-friendly affair ... for the most part. Despite the speculation beforehand that the show would take a "Game of Thrones"-type turn toward adult content, showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay took a clean approach to their storytelling. They respected J.R.R. Tolkien's signature ethically sound high fantasy appeal. There isn't any swearing or sex in the first season (as is the case with the bulk of Tolkien's own writing, too).

If there's one thing that is rampant throughout Middle-earth, though, it's the fighting. War and violence are trademark features of most Middle-earth stories. Whether it's Gollum biting off Frodo's finger at the Cracks of Doom or hordes of Orcs being mown down by the Riders of Rohan, one way or another, every Tolkien tale is laced with blood, guts, and gore.

Season 1 of "The Rings of Power" raised the bar in this area, too, cinematically speaking. While Peter Jackson's pair of Middle-earth trilogies are filled with fighting, they aren't particularly gruesome. In comparison, "Rings of Power" featured multiple battle sequences and blood-soaked scenes, all of which upped the ante. The visual of an eyeless Orc giant dripping bloody ocular sludge on Arondir was particularly unappealing.

There's no doubt that there was a higher degree of on-screen violence in Season 1 than Middle-earth audiences are used to — and a new rumor implies that we're going to get more of the same in Season 2, as well. Fan site Fellowship of Fans has reported a scoop in which it claims there will be multiple warlike face-offs in the next season of the show. Two segments of the four-part scoop outlined battle set pieces and even a "Berserker Orc" that stands over 6 and a half feet tall.

The scoop from Fellowship of Fans contains multiple details regarding the type of violent encounters we can expect in Season 2. One part references a fight between Robert Aramayo's Elrond (that's right, we should be getting warrior Elrond this season) and two Orc leaders. The leak reads, "There will be a cool battle set piece moment between Adar (Sam Hazeldine) Elrond (Robert Aramayo), Laz (Orc) and a working trebuchet." How a trebuchet will factor into the mix remains to be seen. Regardless, it will be fun to see Elrond go toe-to-toe with Adar. (Hazeldine replaces the recently-departed Joseph Mawle in the role for Season 2.) Laz is also described as Adar's "right hand man," which should keep that fight interesting. The question is, will the young, outnumbered Elvish herald be at a disadvantage, or does he already have some secret skills that we're unaware of?

The other part of the leak, which is more gruesome, claims, "Galadriel will face off against a 'Berserker Orc' which is said to be massive and almost 2 metres tall." For those of you who measure in feet, that's a mad Orc that towers over six and a half feet above the ground. It's reminiscent of the half-mad Uruk-hai with the torch that Legolas fails to shoot down in "The Two Towers." However, in this case, we may be in for a more disturbing experience. The report adds more details about this terrifying-sounding antagonist by adding, "A similar comparison was made to the Giant Infected creature (Bloater) in episode 5 of 'The Last of Us.'" If we're going to get a bloater-like Orcish assailant in Season 2, you can bet your bottom dollar this thing is going to get ugly fast.

J.R.R. Tolkien may have a reputation for wholesome writing. His most famous books, "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings," are enjoyed by people of all ages. "The Hobbit" is particularly family-friendly, too.

Even in that short novel, though, there is a hefty amount of violence. Goblins use whips on Thorin and Company. The three Trolls threaten to kill the Dwarves in horrible ways. Gollum wants to eat Bilbo on the spot. Smaug mercilessly lays waste to a city. Practically the entire northern region comes together to fight a knock-down, drag-out battle. Do we need to keep going?

"The Lord of the Rings" has even more fighting — and more serious violence, too — and don't even get us started on "The Silmarillion" and Tolkien's other writings. They have world-breaking wars and hyper-violent episodes strewn throughout. In that sense, "The Rings of Power" is doing a bang-up job following the source material. In fact, there's a particularly violent part in "Unfinished Tales" that pertains to the show directly ...and it's not pretty.

Without giving too much away, let's just say a certain fake King of the Southlands ends up sacking an Elvish kingdom, capturing its leader, Celebrimbor, and torturing him for information about the whereabouts of some famous jewelry ... all before unceremoniously killing him. That isn't even the gruesome bit. After this unnamed Elvish leader is dead, Saur— er, the fake King of the Southlands fills his body with arrows, sticks it on a pole, and uses it as a banner as he attacks the immortal's friends. Whether the show will follow this specific trajectory or not remains to be seen. But one thing is pretty clear. We're in for some violence, horror, and gore up ahead.