The Silmarillion, Tom Bombadil and Sauron's backstory: The Rings of Power season 2 will reportedly be insane

Celeborn, Celebrimbor and Galadriel

It's well established in Tolkien's lore that Galadriel has a husband, Celeborn; we see him in Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies, where he's played by Marton Czokas. He was strangely absent from The Rings of Power season 1, but the show did throw us an odd hint that he's still around: following the destruction of the Southlands, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) confesses to Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) that she believes Celeborn is dead, though she stopped short of actually explaining what happened to him.

As with so many other things we've discussed, this is a strange deviation from the source material. The leak suggests that, in season 2, Sauron will assume the form of Celeborn to try and dupe the Elves and Galadriel when he needs to return to Eregion. Then, in the season 2 finale, we'll finally meet the real Celeborn played by Calam Lynch.

Another elf whose fate was discussed is Celebrimbor (Charlie Edwards), the elven smith who helped forge the rings of power at the end of season 1. In Tolkien's writings, Celebrimbor doesn't survive the Second Age. The show will keep this plot point; apparently, Celebrimbor will be beheaded Ned Stark-style and his head will be hoisted up on a pike. TOR believes this will likely happen during one of the two final episodes of the season, where we're expecting to see the sacking of Eregion by Sauron and Adar's forces.

We may see Gandalf meet Shadowfax in The Rings of Power season 2

Going back to The Stranger, aka the guy everyone thinks is Gandalf, we're obviously going to learn more about his mysterious past during The Rings of Power season 2. We're also probably going to start seeing some of the things that made him into the wizard we know from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Foremost among those: the leak claims we're going to get a "full episode" which explores the great line of horses called the Mearas, and will show how Gandalf meets Shadowfax, the noble steed who bears him to and fro in the Third Age.

As TOR notes, this is another one of those deviations from the source material; Shadowfax and the Mearas aren't around during the Second Age in Tolkien's writings. But as deviations go, it's pretty small. If you've already got Gandalf in this show, why not throw in Shadowfax too? I'll take it.

The Rings of Power season 2 will end with Sauron forging the One Ring

Our final item of interest is the very last scene of the season, which the leak claims will be Sauron forging the One Ring that he uses to control all the others. Another part of the leak mentions that Sauron will be welcomed by the Dwarves after telling them that he “apprenticed under Aulë,” the Vala that created the Dwarves. So there's good reason to think he may get up to forging rings of power for Dwarves and Men before the end of the season as well, unless Amazon shuffles things around a bit.

That about brings us up to speed on all of the major reveals from this latest leak, which has gotten The Lord of the Rings fandom buzzing. TheOneRing.net's analysis is also very much worth a read if you found this interesting.

As with any such leaks, take it all with a grain of salt till we get some official confirmations from Amazon. But if even a fraction of this stuff ends up being true, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 is going to be extremely interesting, to say the least.

The Rings of Power is expected to release sometime in 2024, though at this point we don't have any official word about when that might be. We'll have our ear to the ground for more updates.

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