Prime Video Is Officially Rewriting the Most Important Moment in Lord of the Rings Canon

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Published Nov 4, 2026, 11:00 AM EST

Before he can truly become the Dark Lord, Sauron must overcome his greatest adversary yet

Imagine being one of the most powerful beings in Middle-earth, commanding vast armies and conquering entire kingdoms, only to discover that your greatest enemy isn’t a wizard, a king, or some other conquering hero. It’s yourself. Even the Dark Lord Sauron suffers from a crisis of confidence, apparently. And in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3, that insecurity may be the biggest obstacle standing between Sauron and his ultimate ambition of forging the One Ring to rule them all.

The Rings of Power season 3 picks up five years after the fall of the Elven realm of Eregion, and Sauron (Charlie Vickers) has made tremendous progress toward conquering Middle-earth. But there's one crucial thing he hasn't accomplished: forging the One Ring. His ultimate goal remains frustratingly beyond his grasp, despite his experience working alongside the elven smith Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) to forge many of the other rings of power.

According to Vickers, Sauron's problem is surprisingly personal — and eerily relatable.

"I think what he's actually missing is — and this sounds weird saying it about Sauron — but genuine self-belief," Vickers tells Polygon. "It's so funny when you join him, because we think of him as an all-conquering villain, which he is in a way, but he also fails a lot."

Sauron's long history of failure is something The Rings of Power has already explored in great detail. The opening scene of season 2 depicted perhaps his most humiliating defeat, one unique to the show. After Morgoth's downfall, Sauron attempted to crown himself the new Dark Lord, only for Adar (Sam Hazeldine) and the orcs to violently reject him. At a sort of dark coronation, they stabbed him repeatedly, destroying his physical body and reducing him to a writhing mass of black slime.

For a being who considers himself destined to rule the world, there can be no greater slight. It's also revealing. Sauron wanted the orcs to recognize his authority without offering them much reason to follow him. Adar, by contrast, understood their desire for freedom, security, and a homeland. Sauron regarded them as inhuman soldiers. When they refused to accept his leadership, he was powerless to stop them.

According to series co-creator Patrick McKay, those early failures may help explain why he struggles early on in The Rings of Power season 3.

"There's nothing worse than a supervillain with an insecurity," McKay says. "Sauron wants to be the dark lord, but until he's made that ring, he actually isn't yet. That speaks to a splinter of insecurity in his mind."

That insecurity has only become more pronounced as Sauron attempts to step out of the shadow of Morgoth, his former master. As McKay sees it, Sauron is still performing the role of the Dark Lord rather than fully inhabiting it.

"He's trying to embody the dark lord, but he hasn't become the dark lord yet,” McKay says. “That insecurity is driving him crazy.”

Sauron wants to control a world that refuses to love him

There's something particularly interesting about Sauron's obsession with authority, especially when compared to Aragorn, the reluctant king who will eventually lead the free people of Middle-earth against the Dark Lord.

In Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films, Aragorn initially resists his royal destiny, fearing the weakness that led his ancestor Isildur to succumb to the One Ring's temptation. Yet his courage, compassion, and willingness to sacrifice himself inspire extraordinary loyalty in others. Even Boromir, who initially doubts Aragorn's claim to the throne, ultimately recognizes him as king. Aragorn earns what Sauron believes he is owed.

Of course, Tolkien's Sauron was never particularly interested in earning anyone's affection. Unlike Morgoth, whose rebellion against Eru Ilúvatar became a campaign to corrupt and destroy all creation, Sauron seeks to impose his own vision of order upon Middle-earth. His ambition is not simply to annihilate but to dominate, reorganizing the world according to his will.

That distinction makes sense given Sauron's origins. Before he joined Morgoth and was corrupted, Sauron was essentially a lesser god associated with craftsmanship and creation who had a natural affinity for order and efficiency. Whereas Morgoth sought to ruin the world, Sauron continues to believe he can perfect it through absolute control.

The Lord of The Rings The Rings of Power Season 3 Teaser

Sauron cannot convince the peoples of Middle-earth to follow him willingly, so as a craftsman, his solution is to literally manufacture a magical network of artifacts that will compel them to obey. That makes the One Ring a mechanical solution to a fundamentally spiritual problem, but that solution has an inherent contradiction.

In The Silmarillion, Tolkien explains that Sauron had to pour so much of his own strength and will into the One Ring so that it could govern the lesser rings. In Letter 121, Tolkien elaborates on the underlying philosophy: To exercise power in the world, one must externalize that power, placing it into something that can subsequently be captured or destroyed. In other words, Sauron can only achieve the absolute control he desires by surrendering a measure of control over himself. That also establishes a key vulnerability The Rings of Power appears particularly interested in exploring.

McKay and his co-showrunner J.D. Payne always intended season 3 to revolve around the creation of the One Ring, but they didn't want it to function merely as a fantastical superweapon.

"We really wanted the One Ring to mean something to Sauron's character," McKay says. "We wanted it to be something he had to earn. Something that would change him and that could hopefully then change the world."

Vickers similarly describes Sauron's struggle as both psychological and practical. Sauron believes Celebrimbor died possessing crucial knowledge he needs to complete his greatest creation. And because Sauron killed the elven smith himself, in a moment when he lost control, he has only himself to blame.

"He thinks Celebrimbor died with a secret," Vickers says, "and that is true, in a way."

Sauron's difficulties reflect a broader pattern in Tolkien's mythology. For all his terrifying power, Sauron has a long history of suffering defeats, often because of his own arrogance.

Perhaps that's what makes his season 3 characterization so compelling. Sauron is an immortal being with great power, but his fear of inadequacy feels distinctly human. He desperately wants to become the ruler he believes himself destined to be, yet he cannot understand why the world continually resists him. His solution is to use his craft to eliminate the possibility of resistance altogether.

Sauron doesn't want to earn anyone's loyalty anymore. He wants to forge a Ring that makes loyalty irrelevant. To do that, he first has to conquer his own insecurities and transform himself from just another dark lord sitting on a throne in Mordor to the Dark Lord capable of ruling an entire world. We all know how this story ends, but the way The Rings of Power recontextualizes Sauron’s journey of self-actualization feels uncannily relatable — and that much more frightening.

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