The first season of the new fantasy series Rings of Power, set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, re-introduced us to a lot of faces we’d seen before. Anyone’s who’s even vaguely familiar with their Lord of the Rings characters will have known that Galadriel and Elrond, for example, were characters who are important to the Third Age, and the War of the Ring.
However, with five seasons, and a huge budget, the magical drama series Rings of Power has an unrivalled opportunity to dive into the lore of Middle-earth, fleshing out characters and events who we haven’t been depicted onscreen before. We’re not talking about Legolas or Thranduil here, we’re talking about characters who deserve more, or any, screen time.
But Middle-earth is a very, very big place, filled with wonderful creatures. That means that there’s a lot of characters to choose from, and there are some characters who we already know are making their debut in Rings of Power season 2 like Círdan the Shipwright. So, let’s get into the five characters we want to see make their debut in Rings of Power season 2.
Sauron
‘Hold on’, I hear you cry, ‘we’ve already got Sauron in Rings of power!’ Yes, we do. Rings of Power’s final episode revealed that the mysterious king of the Southlands, Halbrand was in fact Sauron in disguise. But, like a Hobbit with his breakfasts, we want more.
Luckily, Sauron is a shape-shifter and so has many forms. One of these includes Annatar. In Tolkien’s lore, Annatar was the form that Sauron took when he tricked the Elven smiths into crafting the rings of power. Celebrimbor was suspicious of him, as were many other important Elven figures, but Annatar was patient, and his plan unfolded over centuries. He was able to convince the Elven smiths to forge the lesser rings before he crafted the One Ring in the cracks of doom.
Of course, this appears to be going down differently in the new TV series, but we hope that the show still manages to find the space to give us some much-needed Annatar content. Annatar is, after all, the most famous of Sauron’s forms. Seeing him on screen would be a great moment for fans of villainy everywhere. We’re just not sure how they’d do it.
Celeborn
Celeborn was the blonde, Elven elephant in the room for much of Rings of Power season 1. That’s because while Galadriel was busy hunting down Sauron, seeking vengeance for her dead brother Finrod, and establishing a crackling chemistry with Halbrand, there was no mention of her husband.
Where was he? Was he just not a part of Rings of Power? Had they maybe not been married yet, in a change to the lore? What was going on with Celeborn? Towards the end of the season, it was revealed that Galadriel actually believed Celeborn to be dead – killed in an earlier war.
As the audience, we know differently. We know that Galadriel’s husband isn’t dead because he’d destined to be the ruler of Lothlórien alongside his wife in the future of Middle-earth. So, Rings of Power season 2 needs to reveal where he is.
The most interesting, and likely, the route they could go down would be to show that Celeborn had been captured (maybe by Sauron himself) by the enemy and had been held for many many years. Then, we could see his escape and his reunion with Galadriel, explaining his absence at the same time. Either way, Celeborn needs to show up sooner rather than later.
Celebrían
Here’s a character you might not have heard of before unless you’re one of the most devoted Tolkien fans: Celebrían. Despite her lack of reputation, she’s one of the most important, influential Elves in the history of Middle-earth. Not only is she the daughter of the aforementioned power couple Galadriel and Celeborn, she is also the wife of Elrond and the mother of Arwen, who later marries Aragorn.
Unfortunately, by the time of the War of the Ring Celebrían has departed Middle-earth and sailed to the Undying Lands after being attacked, captured, and wounded by Orcs earlier in the Third Age. However, there’s still plenty of time to flesh out her story in the Second Age, and show her adventures and history as an influential and powerful Elven woman.
Entwives
The Entwives were teased in the very first episode of Rings of Power, during the moment when the Stranger fell to Middle-earth in a blaze of fire. There was a shot of the huge, tree-like creatures comforting each other as it looked like something awful was about to happen. I hope that’s not all we get.
The Entwives are shrouded in mystery, and it’s arguable that the best decision Rings of Power could make would be to keep it that way. But at the same time, there’s such a huge part of me that wants to see the Ents are they were meant to be, and happy, before Sauron’s destruction of their lands and before the Entwives left.
Showing the Entwives would lend more emotional weight to the scenes we get in the later Lord of the Rings movies, where Treebeard tells Merry and Pippin how his race have lost their partners. Moreover, with a new design it could be a lot of fun, and Rings of Power should embrace more fun.
Tom Bombadil and Goldberry
Speaking of fun… Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo! Tom Bombadil is a character who everyone knows, but who no one has seen depicted on screen. He and his wife, Goldberry, reside on the borders of the Shire, far far away from all other creatures. It’s generally considered that Tom Bombadil is the most powerful being in the whole of Middle-earth.
More than that, though, he’s an integral, ambiguous, and enthralling part of Tolkien’s lore, simultaneously part of Middle-earth and above it. I’m not asking for Tom Bombadil to become a main character. God, no. But, he would bring in the most fantastical elements of Middle-earth, enriching and deepening the lore, and adding the mystery of this most fantastical of fantastical worlds.
How could Tom Bombadil appear in Rings of Power season 2? Easy! We know that Gandalf has met Tom Bombadil, and that Elrond knows of him. Let’s expand on this, with a short meeting where Gandalf or Elrond visit the ancient being in the Old Forest seeking advice. That, and I want to hear him sing. While we’re at it, can we suggest that he should be played by Matt Berry?
Those were the characters we want to see in Rings of Power season 2. For more Middle-earth deep dives, check out our guide to Morgoth, the Valar and Valinor, or the Harfoots.