Prime Video has revealed a first look at Sauron taking on the Balrog in Season 3 of The Rings of Power, and in doing so confirmed that the Dark Lord uses a legendary item from The Lord of the Rings lore in the fight.
At San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend, Amazon confirmed that Season 3 of the adaptation not only features the Balrog from The Lord of the Rings, but it speaks for the first time. Voiced by Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz star Simon Pegg, The Rings of Power’s Balrog is confronted by Sauron, who seeks the power to forge the One Ring from the ancient monster.
Tolkien’s terrifying creature born of fire, darkness, and shadow, who famously battles Gandalf on the bridge of Khazad-dĂ»m, is in Season 3 an “intelligent, dangerous adversary” for Sauron. The brief look at this encounter, revealed towards the end of the video below, shows the Balrog attempting to hit Sauron with his sword of flame. This would normally signal the end for pretty much every being on Middle-earth, but we’re talking about Sauron here. And the Dark Lord has a trick up his sleeve.
We can see Sauron block the Balrog’s attack — pretty effortlessly it must be said — with the Iron Crown of Morgoth. In Tolkien’s text, the Crown of Morgoth was forged by Morgoth in Angband, after his return to Middle-earth, to hold the Silmarils and generally help him look like an imposing villain as he stomped around the place. Morgoth, for the uninitiated, was originally Melkor, the most powerful of the godlike Valar, before he turned to the darkness. Morgoth is the original evil of the overall Middle-earth story, so powerful that Sauron reported into him before he became his successor. Talk about a bad boss.
What we’re seeing here in The Rings of Power is a dramatic departure from the source material, although it makes for a cool-looking shot. The Balrog does not speak at any point in any of Tolkien’s texts, nor is there an indication in any of his texts that Balrogs generally are able to speak. Neither does Sauron seek the Balrog’s counsel at any point. Sauron doesn’t even have Morgoth’s crown in his possession in the source material. Rather, the Valar beat Morgoth’s Iron Crown into a collar that is used to bind him during his final defeat.
We’re not even sure if this is the Balrog we see in The Lord of the Rings. You might remember that in The Rings of Power Season 2, the Balrog was awakened prematurely from its slumber beneath the Misty Mountains by the greedy Dwarves’ mining for mithril. King Durin III sacrifices himself in Khazad-dĂ»m to stop the ancient monster after removing his corrupting ring. Is this the same Balrog or a different one? If it is the same Balrog, where does this encounter with Sauron take place? There are a lot of unanswered questions, and it will be interesting to see how the showrunners have handled it all.
The video does not include the Balrog speaking, but we do get a hint at a line of its dialogue via a prompter that Pegg uses to provide voice over. “Crawl back to your world above,” the Balrog will say. I doubt Sauron will listen.
Read Full Article At Source
