The Rings of Power concluded its second season on Prime Video a month ago, and while fans were treated to a number of familiar creatures seen in J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings throughout the course of its run, there’s one famous beast that creators J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay say we might not ever see. First released in 2022, the fantasy series has been a huge hit thus far, with Amazon MGM Studios’ head Jennifer Salke recently touting the 150 million viewers that are watching and engaging with the show. Both seasons currently hold an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and while there’s a certain portion of the audience that have bemoaned the show for being “woke,” the majority of fans say that Season 2 was a noticeable improvement over Season 1.

Payne and McKay were on hand to answer questions from viewers during a recent Reddit Q&A session, and it was then that the subject of dragons came up. Smaug is perhaps the most famous of them all that we’ve seen thus far on the screen, but that was in The Hobbit trilogy that first hit theaters in 2012 with An Unexpected Journey, and concluded in 2014 with The Battle of the Five Armies. They’ve yet to make an appearance in The Rings of Power, and according to McKay, they won’t ever show up unless the moment calls for them.

“I would say dragons are special and unique in Tolkien. There are some legendary dragons with legendary names. Dragons talk in Tolkien. We’d have to have the right reason to do it and at the right moment. I think it’s pretty hard to top Benedict Cumberbatch’s Smaug. And there is another fantasy show with lots of dragons. I think the answer is maybe. And if we go there, it’ll be because there’s a great Tolkienian idea and reason to go there that we have to do.”

There’s More Than Just Smaug in Tolkien’s Writings

While Smaug – who was the last named dragon of Middle-earth – is undoubtedly the one fans know best thanks to the movies, there were a number of other dragons that appeared in Tolkien’s writings that those who haven’t delved into the books might not be familiar with. Both Glaurung, the Father of Dragons, and Ancalagon the Black appeared in The Silmarillion, while Scatha was mentioned in the appendices to The Lord of the Rings.

There were, of course, other nameless dragons featured in Tolkien’s work, including the mechanical war-dragons that were first featured in the story The Fall of Gondolin. That one was published in The Book of Lost Tales Vol. 2 in 1984, and then later published as its own novel in 2018.

With The Rings of Power set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, it’s doubtful that Glaurung or Ancalagon the Black would appear, as they were dragons from the First Age. Scatha could show up at some point, considering he wasn’t slain until the third age, and little is known of him before that time, so there’s room for Payne and McKay to work with like they did with a young Shelob in Season 2. Either way, it’s nice to know they’re treating dragons with the amount of reverence they deserve, which speaks to their commitment to getting Tolkien’s world just right. Here’s hoping they continue down that path into Season 3, which has yet to be officially greenlit, but we do expect word of its renewal any day now.