We're days away from the season 3 premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, but when Prime Video's epic fantasy series returns, it will come with some major differences. Five years have passed since the catastrophic events of the season 2 finale, where the beautiful Elven city of Eregion was destroyed and Sauron (Charlie Vickers) absconded with the Nine Rings that would subjugate the leaders of Men. The upcoming third season launches viewers into the thick of the Dark Lord's war against the peoples of Middle-earth, introducing a slew of new characters along the way.
The most important newcomer entering the fray this season is Celeborn, the long-lost husband of Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), played by Stranger Things star Jamie Campbell Bower. During a recent press junket, co-showrunner Patrick McKay told me that Celborn is a character he and his partner J.D. Payne have been discussing the introduction of for close to a decade.
"We didn't at the time know that we would meet a wonderful actor named Jamie Campbell Bower to play him and embody this part, but we always had this idea that around the middle of [Galadriel's] journey, the husband she thinks is dead will turn back up and T-bone the show. And everything will be different from that moment forward," McKay explained.
We had the chance to speak to Jamie Campbell Bower about his journey from playing the lead villain of Netflix's phenomenon sci-fi series, to the heroic new Elf that's about to shake things up for good in Middle-earth.
From Hawkins to Middle-earth: How Jamie Campbell Bower was cast in The Rings of Power
For Bower, Celeborn represented the breath of fresh air he was looking for in his career following his star-making turn as Henry Creel, a.k.a. One a.k.a. Vecna. The actor entered into talks for the role during his final weeks filming on Stranger Things, where he played the breakout villain of the show's final two seasons — essentially, that show's version of Sauron. "No crown, though," Bower joked when I pointed out the parallel.
It was a long road for the actor, who was still in the thick of playing Vecna when the opportunity to join The Rings of Power came up. "So [The Rings of Power] came to me in November of 2024, which is, which is when I was literally finishing season 5 of the last show," he recalled. "I had such an amazing time working on that show and building that character with Matt and Ross [Duffer] and everyone around me. Like, it was just a total gift."
Despite how fulfilling it was working on Stranger Things and developing the character of Vecna, it came with one danger. Bower's performance was so impressive as the show's twisted villain that it's not a stretch to imagine him getting type cast in similar roles. It was important to Bower to keep things new and interesting.
"I was artistically hoping and looking for something that felt like the antidote, the antithesis, the opposite of where I had been," he said.
Even before he began the process of auditioning for The Rings of Power, Bower was already deeply invested in the series as a fan. "Barrie Gower, who does all the prosthetic stuff on this show, also worked on the last gig that I was on as well, and I'd been relentlessly pestering him about this world and about this show, 'cause I've been watching it since season 1," Bower said, revealing that when he finally landed the part of Celeborn, Gower was "one of the first people" that he told he was joining the series.
"So, the process of that took sort of like November to kind of...January, is when I had my screen test with Morfydd and I finished my screen test and I was like in this space of kind of just...total vulnerability and sensitivity and we connected and it was just beautiful and I've been a fan of her work for a really long time outside of this show as well, and I called my agent and I said, you know, if that's all it is then brilliant, so be it, I've had the greatest time."
Preparing to play Celeborn
Suffice to say, that wasn't all it was. Bower's screen test went well enough to convince McKay, Payne, and casting director Theo Park that they had found the Celeborn to their show's Galadriel. But that was only the beginning for Bower, who then had to turn around and prepare to take on this character from J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium. And while the likes of Sauron and Galadriel are fairly well-known figures to even casual fans, a full exploration of Celeborn's backstory and how he fit into the broader mythos took a bit of digging.
"I tried to absorb as much as possible," Bower said, noting that Celeborn is "approached in The Silmarillion and then also re-approached in The Unfinished Tales as well...where is he from and all of that kind of stuff, in that chapter, 'The History of Galadriel and Celeborn.'"
Preparing wasn't only a cerebral exercise, either. Bower also underwent fight and stunt training as part of the lead-up to season 3. Ultimately, however, it sounds like the best resource for the actor in getting a handle on Celeborn were his colleagues on The Rings of Power themselves. Bower credited conversations with J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, as well as the show's dialect coach Leith McPherson, as a large help in his journey. McPherson in particular, Bower singled out as someone who "just knows this world inside and out."
"We're so lucky to have all of these people...they're like encyclopedias on this world," Bower said. "And so you just have to mine for it, and then you eventually just have to get to a point where you go, this is who he is and this what I want to bring to it, too."
"Going back to that idea of sensitivity, that was a driving force for me," the actor added. "I spent a long time thinking about his kind of... belief system, and the idea of being old, as well."
Celeborn is indeed many centuries old by this point in The Lord of the Rings history — so old that it's not even clear whether he first crossed paths with Sauron in the First Age or the Second, when the main events of the show take place. A character with that sort of depth no doubt provides ample opportunities for an actor of Bower's skill, and I for one can't wait to see what he brings to Middle-earth with his performance.
You can see Jamie Campbell Bower's work as Celeborn in the third season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Its gargantuan, four-episode premiere drops Wednesday, November 11 on Prime Video.
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