The Rings Of Power Season 2: New Rumor Sets Up A New But Weirdly Familiar Villain

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

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" doesn't have a shortage of characters. Quite the opposite. Showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay's Middle-earth iteration is replete with both canon and newly minted characters. Everywhere you look, there are Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Harfoots. One thing that Season 1 is a bit short on, though, is villains.

There are a few one-dimensional baddies, like the ice troll, the sea monster, and the wolfish creatures that harry the Harfoots. By and large, though, there are very few outright antagonists. Chancellor Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) has a future as a villain, Adar (Joseph Mawle) was a threat for a minute there, and, of course, Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) was eventually revealed as Sauron. But there wasn't really a bad guy genuinely threatening the peace of Middle-earth — at least, not yet. 

Season 2 definitely looks like it will be upping the ante, though. Sauron is out in the open, at least as much as the shapeshifting villain can be. Galadriel actress Morfydd Clark also recently hinted at "quite a lot of new villains" in Season 2. Now, a new rumor from the fan site Fellowship of Fans indicates that one of these villains will be a named Orcish lieutenant. 

The scoop reads, "Adar will have a new Orc Commander called 'Laz' in #TheRingsOfPower Season 2 who is seen as Adar's 'right hand man'." The presence of another important Orc doesn't count for much in J. R. R. Tolkien's world, where Orcish captains are a dime a dozen. But there's one factor about "Laz" that has us sitting up and paying attention: he's eerily similar to another non-canon character created for Peter Jackson's Middle-earth movies over two decades ago.

Fans of Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy can easily remember the primary villain in the final stages of "The Fellowship of the Ring." Throughout that film, Saruman (Christopher Lee) and Sauron (Sala Baker) lurk on the borders of the story. Saruman gets a bit more involved early on, but his biggest impact comes indirectly — through the work of his lieutenant, Lurtz (Lawrence Makoare).

The Uruk-hai captain leads a large contingent of Orcish soldiery in pursuit of the Fellowship of the Ring. The group catches the heroes after they leave Lothlórien. They attack, capture Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd), and kill Boromir (Sean Bean). Then, Lurtz is killed in a kick-ass duel with Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen). It's a close call for the exiled king ... even though it's completely made up for the movie. That's right, Lurtz isn't a canon character. Jackson and company threw him in, presumably to beef up the climactic moments of the first film.

Even before we've seen a second of Season 2 footage, Lurtz and Laz already have a lot in common. The similarity in their names is obvious right out of the gate. Both are lieutenants of primary villains who aren't the main enemy (Sauron). Both will fight our favorite heroes, too. In fact, the Fellowship of Fans scoop included a bit that claims Laz and Adar will fight Elrond (Robert Aramayo) in "a cool battle set piece moment."

Along with his similarities to Lurtz, Laz closely matches the description of Bolg (also Lawrence Makoare) from Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" trilogy. In J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, Bolg plays a minor role, and his leader and father, Azog (Manu Bennett), is already dead before the story begins. In the on-screen iteration, though, he's beefed up to play an important role as an Orcish second-in-command to the Pale Orc. The trope works, as it provides a character with more room for creative freedom.

The question is, will Laz be as important as Bolg and Lurtz were in their respective movies? Or will he just be another of Adar's lackeys that can't stand the sunlight and simply does what he's told? If he's important enough to get his own name, we're willing to bet that the answer is the former. This Orc officer looks like he's going to have some agency in Season 2, especially if you take into consideration his similarity to previous characters in Middle-earth adaptations. What he'll do with that instrumentality, though ... well, that remains to be seen.