Rings of Power Daily

Daniel Weyman as Gandalf in Empire's Exclusive Look at The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season 3

"For two seasons, he was The Stranger – a mysterious Middle-earth figure who hotfooted it around with Harfoots and gained a mentor in the one and only Tom Bombadil. But in Season 3 of The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, actor Daniel Weyman is a Stranger no more. It just takes one look at that beard, the staff, and – yes – the pointy grey hat to know that he is, in fact, one of the most beloved creations of J.R.R. Tolkien: Gandalf The Grey.

Heading into the new season, Weyman was told by the Rings Of Power showrunners J.D Payne and Patrick McKay that it was time to go full-Gandalf. “Just before we started Season 3, J.D. and Patrick told me: ‘We want to see that Gandalf has arrived. We want to see him as the wizard we all love from Tolkien’s writings’,” the actor tells Empire. It was exactly what he wanted to hear. “I found this new side to him, the side that we all hopefully recognise: the mischief, the twinkle in his eye.”

Charlie Vickers as Sauron in Empire's Exclusive Look at The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season 3

"There are very few TV series playing on the scale of The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power. Prime Video’s fantasy epic is a canvas on which to explore the Second Age of Middle-earth, long before Frodo went on his epic trek – a time that saw its own major conflicts of good and evil. But everything you’ve seen so far in Season 1 and Season 2 is just the beginning. The Rings Of Power Season 3 is fast approaching – and it’s about to take everything you’ve seen so far and plunge it into darkness. Sauron is rising. Mordor awaits. And the promise of the show’s title is about to pay off.

Yes, a pivotal piece of Middle-earth history is imminent. “This is the season,” co-showrunner Patrick McKay confirms to Empire, “where Sauron makes the One Ring in the volcano.” Charlie Vickers’ menacing Sauron is no longer in disguise, done with lurking in the shadows. And as he gets on with the business of corrupting Men, Elves, Orcs, and anyone else who steps his way, the stakes of The Rings Of Power are raising considerably. “We have a full-on villain this season, in a way that was quite different before,” says McKay’s fellow co-showrunner J.D. Payne. Sauron’s emergence “changes the tone of the show,” McKay adds. “This third season is darker, more dangerous. No-one is safe.”

For Vickers himself (pictured in the exclusive image above as Sauron, in his stronghold Barad-dûr) the chance to enact such a core moment in the Legendarium was not taken lightly. “The first day I walked onto that set, I cried,” he tells Empire. “What an amazing privilege and honour to be able to tell that story.” The forging of the scene was as epic as the forging of the Ring itself. “We were doing the Ring across two weeks, because the sequence is so long,” says Vickers. The result is, McKay promises, “the single most ambitious, technically challenging sequence we’ve ever done on the show. Charlie’s performance is absolutely staggering. We never could have prepared for it.”

Empire’s The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season 3 World-Exclusive Covers

no problem! wish i could have promoted it sooner tbh! if you ever need us to reblog something, feel free to use the #ringsofpowerdaily tag btw!