Rory Kinnear to Play Tom Bombadil in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2

J.R.R. Tolkien’s ultimate villain is alive and in the flesh in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, premiering this summer on Prime Video. Sauron’s identity was revealed in the Season 1 finale in 2022, and he’s terrorizing Middle-earth in the first The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power teaser. [Warning: The following will reveal Sauron’s Season 1 disguise. One does not simply blame us for spoilers if you keep reading!]

A shapeshifting Sauron terrorizes Middle-earth in the first teaser for Season 2, released on May 14 by Prime Video. While he’s always had a looming evil presence, Sauron has never been a main character in a Lord of the Rings adaptation. Neither has the quirky Tolkien character Tom Bombadil, but that’s changed now! Rory Kinnear will play Tom Bombadil in The Rings of Power Season 2, the series announced May 29 via Vanity Fair. Kinnear was one of the previously announced cast members for the new season, but his character had not yet been revealed.

Prime Video announced at its inaugural upfront presentation on Tuesday, May 13 in New York City that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 will premiere globally on Thursday, August 29. The new season will see Sauron darken Middle-earth’s Second Age, and The Rings of Power teaser shows a markedly darker tone as the big bad villain takes control of the narrative.

The teaser trailer features the return of Charlie Vickers in the role of Sauron appearing in a new form — one that will aid him in deceiving the denizens of Middle-earth. Sauron takes the form of an Elf rather than a man as he did in Season 1. His face is still the same, which will make him instantly recognizable to Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), and Elrond (Robert Aramayo), assuming he can’t use his powers to conceal his face from those who know his Halbrand form. This new elven form could be one of Sauron’s well known forms from the books, Annatar. The Season 2 key art features Vickers in this form:

“An evil ancient and powerful has returned,” Prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur) says, opening the teaser. This followed by an eerie shot of Galadriel, Elrond, and more elves in a forest unsheathing their swords. “Prepare yourselves,” Galadriel commands. She dons new armor and her hair is pulled back in braids.

A terrified voice is heard warning of the terrible powers of this dark lord. Could it be Sam Hazeldine’s Adar delivering this chilling remark? “He worms his way inside your mind, as the rest of him slithers in,” he says.

A tearfully frightened woman is then heard saying, “I think he has been here. I think he’s been here among us all along.”

Complementing the eerie moments are action-packed moments of defense. Ismael Cruz Córdova‘s Arondir backflips into frame (with Maxim Baldry‘s Isildur behind him — he’s alive!), Galadriel shoots three fiery arrows at once, Celebrimbor witnesses the entrance of a being walking through a powerful light, Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) arrives on an eagle in Númenor, a behemoth sea creature is seen underwater, and the Elf city of Eregion is attacked. There’s also a shot depicting what looks like pitch-black roots that slither across the earth.

The most important parts of the teaser: Sauron decimates a piece of land with a small flick of his wrist, and viewers get the first look at the creation of more Rings. Here’s the official description for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2:

“In Season 2 of The Rings of Power, Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Building on Season 1’s epic scope and ambition, the new season plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.”

Here’s everything there is to know about Season 2.

The Rings of Power Season 2 Cast

The Rings of Power Season 2 cast will feature the same stars as before. Morfydd Clark returns as Galadriel, with Charlie Vickers, Robert Aramayo, Charles Edwards, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Nazanin Boniadi, Sophia Nomvete, Owain Arthur, Peter Mullan, Maxim Baldry, Trystan Gravelle, Markella Kavenagh, Ema Horvath, Tyroe Muhafidin, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Leon Wadham, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani. Sam Hazeldine replaces Joseph Mawle as the villain Adar.

Other new cast members for the Emmy-nominated series include Kinnear as Tom Bombadil, Ciarán Hinds, Tanya Moodie, and Ben Daniels, as well as Oliver Alvin-Wilson, Stuart Bowman, Gavi Singh Chera, William Chubb, Kevin Eldon, Will Keen, Selina Lo, Calam Lynch, Gabriel Akuwudike, Yasen “Zates” Atour, Amelia Kenworthy, Nia Towle, and Nicholas Woodeson. Character details for the new cast members have not yet been revealed. A supposed casting leak says that Lynch will play Celeborn, Galadriel’s husband whom she said was previously lost to her in Season 1. But only time will tell if that rumor is true.

There are characters we’re hoping to see introduced in the new episodes, such as Círdan, one of the three Elven ring bearers in Tolkien’s books. Galadriel and Elrond are the other two “Keepers of the Three Rings.” We’re also itching to find out if Weyman’s The Stranger is a younger Gandalf, like the Season 1 finale implied.

Tom Bombadil first appears in The Fellowship of the Ring when the Hobbits are early on in their journey across Middle-earth. He’s mysterious and a little mystical and has a penchant for songs. Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay told Vanity Fair about their interpretation of the book character, hinting at how he could appear in the fantasy series.

“He can be a force for good, but he is challenging to integrate dramatically in that he doesn’t have an agenda. He’s not driving forward and pushing people to arrive at any particular end,” Payne said.

“He has no clear dramatic function that would justify his inclusion in a really great movie adaptation. He’s whimsical and magical, and almost verging on silly,” said McKay. “But also has the wisdom of the ages and the music of the spheres and deep emotional wells of ancient history and myth, and his conception and function are tied to Norse myths and have deep roots in European fairy tale,” McKay says. “So weirdly, he’s kind of the most Lord of the Rings thing in Lord of the Rings, and also the first thing you would cut if you were adapting it as a film. But we have the advantage of a television show, and hence we are going to find a way to tap into that.”

In the Vanity Fair preview, Kinnear’s character is seen speaking with Weyman’s the Stranger.

The Rings of Power Season 2 Plot (Season 1 Spoilers Ahead)

The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. The drama is set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books and takes viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen, Sauron, threatened to cover all the world in darkness.

Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared reemergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains to the majestic forests of the Elf capital of Lindon, to the island kingdom of Númenor, to the farthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.

The Rings of Power finale showed the creation of the three Elven rings of power. The series is obviously about the forging of all of the rings of power, as indicated in the show’s name, and it won’t waste any time making more in the next season. Clark confirmed at a Rings of Power event on May 7, 2023, that Galadriel will wear one of the three Elven rings in Season 2 and that there will be more rings forged, and the May 14 teaser reveals a dwarf ring of power in addition to another look at the Elf rings:

The finale also revealed the identity of its ultimate villain. Vickers’ Halbrand was not the true King of the Southlands like he claimed to be, but rather Sauron in disguise. His powers of manipulation allowed him to take on the appearance of a random man, not that many in Middle-earth would recognize the ancient’s true form. Vickers told TV Insider after the Season 1 finale that he was “most looking forward to the season we’re currently filming, where Sauron is just wreaking havoc. He’s just being Sauron, you know? It’s a new phase for him.”

The season ended with Sauron walking into the newly formed land of Mordor, which Adar and the Orcs spent all of Season 1 attempting to create. They succeeded in Episode 6 when forcing the eruption of Mount Doom that destroyed the Southlands.

We know based on the books that Sauron commits his time to making sure the rings of power, and of course the One Ring to rule them all, are made. Expect to see that in Season 2. Galadriel will likely be terrified to reveal her connection to Sauron moving forward, as it will put her judgment and character into question among the Elves.

Clark told TV Insider after Season 1 that she “really liked that they melted down [Galadriel’s] brother’s dagger at the end, because now she really, truly has to try and protect Middle-earth.” Hunting down Sauron in Season 2 is no longer just “about chasing a foe because he has personally hurt her, even though he really has.”

We also saw a glimpse of the Balrog beneath the Dwarf kingdom of Khazad-dûm in Season 1, a seriously dark omen, and the blinded Miriel (Addai-Robinson) is now the Queen of Númenor following her father’s death. But what unrest did Pharazôn, her head counsel, stir up in her absence while she led the fight for the Southlands with Galadriel?

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Season 2, 2024, Prime Video