The Rings of Power cast reveal ‘dirty secret’ about co-stars, and the truth about season three’s most divisive move

Exclusive: The cast of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power have been keeping a dirty little secret about several of their co-stars, including Australian actor Charlie Vickers, who plays the dark lord Sauron in Prime Video’s billion-dollar series.

The show’s highly anticipated third season will see Sauron fully descend into evil and come up against some powerful enemies as a result, possibly even including Numenor’s new leader Pharazôn.

Played by Welsh actor Trystan Gravelle, Pharazôn is almost as cunning and deceptive as Sauron himself, so the truth about him and Vickers may shock fans.

“The villains on our show happen to be just the nicest people. That’s the dirty secret,” actress Cynthia Addai-Robinson told nine.com.au.

And that’s not all she let slip while discussing the show’s upcoming season alongside actor Daniel Weyman, who plays Gandalf, and showrunner JD Payne.

Addai-Robinson plays Míriel, who was queen of Numenor until her scheming cousin Pharazôn stole her throne at the end of season two.

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It was a cruel twist that many female viewers could relate to, having been sabotaged by men in their own lives, and some called for Míriel to indulge in a little bit of female rage (a growing film and TV trend celebrating women’s anger).

Addai-Robinson hinted those fans may be disappointed by her arc in season three.

“As a woman, sure, I’ve got that rage. But you have to be calculated about when to display it, when to act upon it,” the Ghanian-American actress said.

“With Míriel, there is so much that is withheld out of necessity.

“People are looking to her as a figurehead, and I think there has to be a certain amount of restraint [...] the rage is swirling within, but I think it’s also withheld.”

She envisions a much more complicated path forward for Míriel and Pharazôn, who are essentially two sides of the same coin.

“[They] were on a parallel track once upon a time. He was her right hand, they’re cousins, they have this history together,” she said.

“So this turn that has taken, it’s much more complicated than ‘she hates him’ or has hate toward him.

“I think she understands him, and I think they both have deep convictions about their beliefs and what they feel is best for Numenor.”

Míriel has certainly had time to come to terms with Pharazôn’s betrayal, given the divisive five-year time jump between Rings of Power’s second and third seasons.

Millions were shocked when showrunners Payne and Patrick McKay announced their plans to skip half a decade and start season three in the middle of the War of the Elves and Sauron.

Some Tolkien diehards were furious, but Payne wasn’t worried about pissing people off.

“There’s been a bunch of shows that Patrick and I really like [...] and we love it when they pull a gear shift like that,” he told nine.com.au.

“All the pieces are in different places on the chessboard [...] for a second you’re a little off-balance, and we find that to be a really effective storytelling tool.”

He and McKay relished being able to throw characters into new locations, dynamics, and dangers without having to write every scene that got them there.

They also trimmed some of the show’s fat; they cut the unpopular Harfoot plot from the main storyline, and kicked off season three with a big battle instead of spending four episodes building up to one.

The result is a shakeup that’s sure to be effective and divisive in equal measure.

Fans will also be introduced to an older, wiser version of Gandalf, played by English actor Weyman.

After two seasons of being credited as The Stranger, a character largely invented for the show, he was eager to finally take on the mantle of Gandalf the Grey.

Portraying one of Tolkien’s most iconic characters would be a daunting task for any actor, even more so when their performance is sure to be compared to Sir Ian McKellen’s in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but Weyman wasn’t intimidated.

“The Stranger started with nothing, so I was able to, scene by scene, layer his character,” Weyman told nine.com.au.

“And by the end of season two, when he realises that people are going to call him Gandalf, he’s 95 per cent there.

“So at the point at which I realised I was going to play Gandalf, there wasn’t a lot missing. I was really comfortable with him.”

His Gandalf in season three feels true to Tolkien’s writings without being totally derivative of McKellen’s performance (though fans will certainly spot similarities).

Though Weyman’s performance as The Stranger served as the foundation for his version of Gandalf, he hinted that the grey wizard has undergone quite the transformation between seasons two and three.

“I think The Stranger just wanted to make everything better straight away in one fell swoop, and Gandalf realises that that’s not possible,” Weyman said.

“Now he is confident enough – sort of with a small C, he’s not rash confident – but he’s got enough inner confidence to be exposed to the danger that is there, and feel that all the big feelings that are going around … and still show up.”

The first four episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premiere globally on Prime Video on Wednesday, November 11.

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