2027’s The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will mainly be Gollum’s story, however Sauron retains his spot because the franchise’s villain. In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings books, Sauron stays nearly totally unseen and largely undescribed, merely a darkish presence calling the photographs from his Mordor tower of Barad-dûr. Whereas there are references to a watchful “eye” (as there’s a “mouth”), the time period is generally figurative, used to explain Sauron’s obvious omniscience over Center-earth.
Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films reworked Sauron right into a bodily presence by making the Eye of Sauron a literal factor sitting atop Barad-dûr. The large flaming oculus served because the trilogy’s illustration of Sauron, and whereas the change proved considerably controversial, it made sense for Jackson’s films to present the viewers a extra tangible enemy.
The choice to make Sauron a giant flaming eye does, nevertheless, create an fascinating dilemma for The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.
The Lord Of The Rings: The Hunt For Gollum Can Give Sauron A Bodily Type
With The Hunt for Gollum seemingly set shortly earlier than the principle occasions of The Lord of the Rings, Andy Serkis’ film appears primed to cowl Gollum’s imprisonment in Mordor. As defined within the trilogy itself, Gollum was tortured and ultimately revealed the One Ring was hidden within the Shire earlier than being launched and swiftly recaptured, this time by Aragorn and Gandalf.
Maybe essentially the most fascinating a part of Gollum’s journey to Mordor, nevertheless, was his fleeting glimpse of Sauron’s actual kind. Gollum describes a black hand with a finger lacking (the one lower off by Isildor), and the textual content closely implies Sauron performed a direct half in squeezing Gollum for details about the Ring.
The scene solely received just a few traces within the e book, and the scant frames of Gollum’s torture in The Fellowship of the Ring‘s film adaptation have been Sauron-free, however The Hunt for Gollum has the scope to dedicate extra time to Gollum’s expertise in Mordor. The bit with Sauron presents an particularly thrilling space of Tolkien canon to render in live-action, even when we do solely see a darkish hand.
Would Displaying Sauron’s Bodily Physique Contradict The Lord Of The Rings Films?
In Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the place the flaming eye does not exist, Sauron was an ailing determine lurking in Barad-dûr and giving orders. He desperately wanted the One Ring to revive his true glory, however he completely did exist as a bodily being as a result of Gollum confirms it.
In Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films, the precise reverse was true. Saruman declared that Sauron couldn’t take “bodily kind” with out the Ring, suggesting the villain’s will and spirit have been represented totally by the attention hanging above Barad-dûr. A deleted scene from The Return of the King briefly confirmed a dreamlike picture of Sauron in full armor holding a palantír, that means he may’ve collected sufficient energy to manifest bodily by the third film. Nonetheless, there was nothing to counsel Sauron inhabited a physique in The Lord of the Rings‘ film canon earlier than that.
Can The Hunt for Gollum actually get away with exhibiting Sauron’s black hand torturing Gollum if it exists inside the similar continuity as different films? Even when we assume Saruman was mendacity or mistaken when he mentioned Sauron can’t take bodily kind with out the Ring, how might an embodied, Ring-less Sauron sitting in Barad-dûr have sufficient energy to conjure a large eye consistently watching over Mordor?
The Hunt for Gollum should present Sauron, however cannot with out making a contradiction. Both it discredits the notion that the Eye is Sauron (as put ahead by Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films), or it makes Sauron too potent by letting him exist bodily whereas casting an enormous spell to place his “eye” on high of his tower. The Eye of Sauron may’ve made sense on the time, however this controversial e book change might come again to chunk The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.
- Launch Date
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December 17, 2027
- Writers
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Arty Papageorgiou, Phoebe Gittins, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, J.R.R. Tolkien