LOTR: Rings Of Power S2 Rumor Dives Into New Character's Villainous Chemistry

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

Middle-earth has a lot of villains, from fiery Balrogs to evil wizards and the Dark Lord Sauron himself. Some of these are present in Amazon Studios' "The Rings of Power." However, the fact that the show rewinds the clock by several thousand years means the antagonistic landscape is a bit different. Sauron is still there, but others are lying low or simply not in existence yet.

To plug these gaps, the show has created multiple new enemies. The three mystics were a major threat in Season 1, as was the twisted Elf Adar (Joseph Mawle). Galadriel actress Morfydd Clark recently teased that there will be plenty of new villains heading into Season 2, too. Some of these could be canon characters. For instance, the demon-spider Shelob is technically around at this point and is rumored to be making an appearance. The Númenórean chancellor Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) is already a slimy politician and could take a very dark turn quickly.

Along with these Tolkienian originals, the writers could also introduce their own characters. (They've shown no hesitation in making up original personalities for the show thus far.) In mid-June, fan site Fellowship of Fans reinforced this possibility by releasing a scoop claiming we would see a new Orc commander called "Laz." It added that we might also see a "Berserker Orc" along the way. 

Now, Fellowship of Fans has stirred the evil up once again by reporting that actress Amelia Kenworthy's new character will be hobnobbing with some of the show's biggest baddies. It even claimed, "Amelia Kenworthy did chemistry tests before filming with Charlie Vickers (Halbrand) and Sam Hazeldine (Adar) separately." It's an interesting detail that begs the question, who is Kenworthy playing in the first place?

The short and simple answer to the question of who Kenworthy is playing is that we don't know yet. To be honest, we know very little about the actress herself. She has had a prolific career on stage and has acted in a pair of short films, but her appearance in "The Rings of Power" marks her debut in television — or movies, or cinema, or whatever you call these pre-planned, big-budget, serialized streaming productions these days.

As far as Season 2 of "The Rings of Power," Kenworthy was included in a hefty casting announcement back in late 2022. She was listed alongside six other actors who would be joining the show — but that was it. Nothing was said about who Kenworthy would play or how important her character's presence would be in the story.

The new leak from Fellowship of Fans sheds some potential light on the situation. The multi-part scoop starts by stating that Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) will give multiple speeches to crowds of humans in Season 2. One will be in a forest, the other in a village. The scoop adds, "Actors also at this village during the speeches are Adar (Sam Hazeldine), Amelia Kenworthy and Zates." The thread goes on to clarify, "However Amelia Kenworthy and Zates Yatour are said to NOT necessarily be human characters."

This pair of details brings things into a little more focus. If Kenworthy is on non-battle sets with both Adar and Halbrand, chances are she's a baddie. But the clarification that she's on human sets but isn't necessarily human leaves the door wide open regarding her identity. Oh yeah, there was one more head-scratching piece of info, too — she did chemistry tests with multiple actors.

After explaining that Amelia Kenworthy's character will be on the premises while Halbrand (Sauron) is presumably busy drumming up human support for his first run at Middle-earth domination, Fellowship of Fans added the bombshell detail, "Amelia Kenworthy did chemistry tests before filming with Charlie Vickers (Halbrand) and Sam Hazeldine (Adar) separately."

Hold the phone. Chemistry tests? For the record, this doesn't imply romantic overtones or anything like that. These are simply checks to make sure that actors work together and play off of each other well. In a word, they ensure that they have "chemistry" before getting on camera together.

If the rumor is true, it implies that Kenworthy has a more intimate and important role in the story than might have been thought at first. She's vital enough to the narrative that the casting crew felt they needed to see how she interacted with two of the show's primary antagonists — separately.

This leaves us with the lingering, still-unanswered question, who on earth is she going to play? When guessing Kenworthy's character, one thing needs to be made clear from the get-go. There isn't an obvious canon equivalent to link her to. Tolkien's world is light on female characters as it is, and there isn't anyone from the author's writings who obviously aligns with her presence alongside the Dark Lord himself. If we had to make a long-shot guess, she could be a human form of Shelob. (The monster is technically a demon in spider form, but Tolkien only ever depicted her in her arachnid body.) Based on the current info, though, it seems like a safer bet is that Kenworthy is a newly minted character for the show.

One major way Amelia Kenworthy could factor into the narrative as an important character is by making her an antagonist in the same spirit as Joseph Mawle's evil Elf leader, Adar (now recast as Sam Hazeldine). Adar was a convincing new addition to the story, even though he was completely made up for the show. He was a twisted Elf, or "Uruk" as he called it in Season 1, and Kenworthy's character could follow the same vein. She could be another fallen immortal working with Adar. This would also set her up as a counterweight to Galadriel's positive female presence.

Then again, if we're being technical, the scoop claims Kenworthy and fellow actor Zates Yatour are "said to NOT necessarily be human characters." So, yeah, they still could be. If that's the case, she could be a Southlander who survived the unleashing of Mount Doom. She could also be from further south or from the East. She could even be one of the Númenóreans who follows Pharazôn into evil, colonizing and enslaving chunks of the coastlands of Middle-earth in the process.

It's also worth pointing out that eventually, Sauron/Halbrand is going to get his hands on more Rings of Power. He gives nine of these to "Mortal Men doomed to die." Could Kenworthy be a human who is warped and possessed by a Ring of Power? (That could explain the non-committal "not necessarily" wording in the leak.)

Whatever the case may be, the fact that Kenworthy is doing chemistry tests is noteworthy. After she's spent months in quiet anonymity as just another name on a list of new cast members, perhaps we're seeing the first glimpse of how important her arrival on the show will be. Perhaps.