Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1. If you haven’t seen Prime Video’s conclusion to the epic Tolkien adaptation yet, click away now.
Sauron’s reveal in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power finale was pretty dramatic. After weeks of speculation, we finally learned that Halbrand (played by Charlie Vickers) had been the Dark Lord all along.
However, it wasn’t just the viewers who were kept in the dark about his identity – the cast wasn’t told either. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Arondir star Ismael Cruz Cordova admitted they had a game going to work out who was playing the iconic Tolkien villain.
"It was kind of a game amongst the cast," he told the publication. "I had a feeling from the get-go based on what we were reading, so I would cross people out. 'This person is canon. This person is not canon. There’s something fishy here.' So a few of us narrowed it down to the possibility that it was either me or Halbrand. The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) was a possibility as well, and Adar (Joseph Mawle) was one of the more obvious ones."
Cordova said he ruled himself out pretty quickly as Arondir "is good to a fault", before setting his sights on Halbrand. "I don’t know if he remembers, but there was a moment where I gave Charlie Vickers a big wink," he continued. "I was like, 'What’s up, dude?' and I gave him a very knowing wink. But he was very good at not giving anything away, and as we went on, it just became so clear. I would be like, 'Hey, what’s up, Sauron?' just to try to get it out of him, but I knew for a while."
Sauron will likely play a big role in the upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2, which is currently in production. In the meantime, check out our thoughts on why The Rings of Power's Sauron twist worked so well and the big clue to The Stranger’s identity.
