(Image credit: Prime Video)

By the end of The Rings of Power season 1, Halbrand’s secret is out: he is Sauron. But don’t be expecting the ultimate trickster to be hiding in plain sight when Prime Video’s epic fantasy returns.

The Rings of Power season 2 actually introduces a new, iconic version of the character: Annatar. Known as the Lord of Gifts, this is Sauron’s “fair form” and from what we know from canon, and what we’ve seen in the trailers, he’ll have a new target of manipulation: Celebrimbor. Heading to Eregion, it seems Annatar will wield his power in a bid to craft more rings of power.

Speaking at San Diego Comic-Con, Sauron star Charlie Vickers tells GamesRadar+ it was an exciting challenge to bring a new version of the character to the screen. “I think everything had to come from a psychological throughline,” he explains. “The whole thing was based off the psychology that I developed for the character from the beginning so everything that existed within Halbrand, has to exist within Annatar.

“I started off being like, ‘Well he has to move completely differently, talk completely differently,’ but the further we got through the process of developing it I realized they share a lot of things. The main thing is you know wanting to make rings, right? This idea that’s planted at the end of the first season – to heal Middle-earth.”

We meet Sauron at an interesting point again in The Rings of Power season 2, having been cast out by Galadriel after she found his true identity. It’s a move that Vickers says “pissed” his character off. “I think they’re connected, if not by proximity then by their psyche,” he explains of his and Morfydd Clark’s character’s dynamic in season 2.

“They’re higher beings so I’m sure it runs deeper than being in the same place together. I think the fact that when she turns him down at the end of season one, it pisses him off quite a bit. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a part of him that thinks, ‘I can get her, I can get to join me.'”

The Rings of Power season 2 begins on August 29. For more, check out our guide to the best shows on Amazon Prime Video to stream right now.