The promotional campaign for The Rings of Power Season 2 is leaning into the Galadriel and Sauron dynamic, a series highlight from Season 1.
Galadriel and Sauron’s unexpected and complex relationship strengthens the story and their character arcs.

Season 2 will explore Sauron’s psychology, potentially enriching his enemies-to-lovers tension with Galadriel even more.

One of the master strokes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1 is the dynamic between Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), or, as we now know him, Sauron. Those names have become pop culture staples in the almost quarter-century since director Peter Jackson‘s adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien‘s epic The Lord of the Rings trilogy debuted. Galadriel, played there by the radiant Cate Blanchett, represents serene wisdom. Sauron, eerily voiced by Alan Howard, conjures images of greed, molten lava, and feral rage. Setting these characters against one another feels like a mission statement from Rings of Power showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay: existing fans know which character embodies good and which personifies evil. What happens when the two meet as equal and oppositional forces? To start, their interactions strengthen the tale Payne and McKay are weaving out of Tolkien’s extensive mythology. The dynamic grounds both characters’ arcs: Galadriel’s vengeance quest against Sauron, and Sauron’s knack for emotional coercion.

And, intentionally or coincidentally, it builds some of the most delicious enemies-to-lovers tension we’ve seen in a hot minute. Rings of Power‘s first season deploys the tropes expected of a high fantasy world and of two enemies building an unexpected connection, with the bonus of our distraught heroine discovering she’s been bamboozled by her sworn nemesis — who then offers to make her his dark queen. It’s a cliché banquet executed with immersive flair, sold through Clark and Vickers’ chemistry, and a feast to which fans responded, if Season 2’s marketing is anything to go by. Granted, a legitimate Galadriel and Sauron romance is highly unlikely. But one glance at Season 2’s promotional photoshoots, trailers, and social media posts shows that Prime Video is leaning into the appeal of Galadriel and Sauron, not Galadriel versus Sauron. I say let them cook.