In Season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, fans waited eagerly for an important moment. Galadriel (played by Morfydd Clark) and Sauron (played by Charlie Vickers) finally faced each other in an exciting duel on a cliff.
This fight was featured in the Season 2 trailer and made fans of Haladriel very excited. The fight included great choreography and intense moments for both characters, making viewers look forward to Season 3.
In a recent interview, Vickers spoke with Collider’s Carly Lane about this final fight. He discussed Sauron’s changing feelings towards Galadriel. Sauron now realizes that Galadriel will always find a way to survive. He explained, “Even though he stabbed her with the Crown of Morgoth, he’s underestimated her too many times.
He knows that she’ll survive in some capacity, that she’ll find a way. And again, it is unfinished business. They’re the forces of good and evil, and it’ll endure as long as the show does, that they’ll have this kind of connection. It’s no longer, ‘I can get you to join me.’
I feel like that door is now shut, because he says the door is still open and then she says it’s shut and then roundhouse kicks him to the face. [Laughs] But I think it’s now, ‘How am I going to defeat you guys?’ That’s the new mission. He hates the Elves and it’s like, ‘How can I exterminate, get rid of all of them, so then I can just really control and order Middle-earth?'”
The Many Faces of Sauron
One exciting part of the duel is when Sauron changes his appearance. He appears as Halbrand, Celebrimbor (played by Charles Edwards), and even as Galadriel. Vickers enjoyed returning to his Season 1 character. He said it was “really cool” and added that it showed how Sauron could have had power over Galadriel.
He explained, “It was Halbrand with slightly less stubble because I had to switch between Annatar and Halbrand in a day — although I think maybe I had a weekend to try and grow some stubble, which I pathetically attempted to do, and then we jumped back to Annatar on the same day.
But it was nice. It was nice to try and push [Galadriel’s] buttons in that way and almost show to her, ‘This is what could have happened had you joined me, and now look at the power that I have over you, and I will always have this power.’ It was a really long scene that Morfydd [Clark] and I worked on together. It was really fun to develop the physicality of it, and the action had to be grounded in the emotion.”
After appearing as Halbrand, Sauron quickly takes Galadriel’s form to confuse her. Clark did an excellent job of capturing Vickers’ energy, but he did not coach her. He stated, “I think I left it up to her because she’s such an amazing actor, so I just let her do her thing, but it was really because I hadn’t seen it.
I watched it for the first time last night, and I was like, ‘Okay, nice. That’s your imitation of me.’ It was really cool. I think she had a lot of fun doing it, but I left her up to her own devices. It was great to see.”
Filming the long sequence presented challenges for director Charlotte Brändström. She mentioned that it took several days to shoot. It was not only about the fight choreography but also about getting both Vickers and Clark ready for their roles.
She said, “It was five, six days or something that, I think. Also, it took a long time because of makeup, and the prosthetics, and stuff like that. Or when I had to get Morfydd clean and to be the other Galadriel, you couldn’t be done on the same day because she would need to go and get made up, and changed, and everything, and we would’ve lost hours in the day.
So we had to schedule it. I also wanted to shoot that scene as chronologically, as much as possible. I almost did, except for these problems. And also, obviously, changing Charlie, because he had to have a beard when he was Halbrand. But he was very shaved when he was Sauron, so that was something else.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 is available for streaming on Prime Video now. Keep an eye on Otakukart for Lane’s full interviews with Vickers and Brändström.
