Did The Rings Of Power Finally Cast Its Most Mysterious Character?
Middle-earth just got a little bit bigger.
There’s a lot going on in The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power. Prime Video’s fantasy epic has its hands full with a sprawling chapter of Middle-earth history: while it mostly follows the struggle between the Dark Lord Sauron and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, that story notably spans centuries of Tolkien lore. The Rings of Power wisely took its time to establish a major conflict, but it also took its fair share of artistic liberties. As Season 3 enters production, it’ll have to work overtime to keep this adaptation in line with canon... but two new characters could be arriving to make that task just a bit easier.
The third season of The Rings of Power will feature two new faces in Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things, The Mortal Instruments) and Eddie Marsan (Ray Donovan, Sherlock Holmes). Bower has been cast as a series regular, and Marsan will play a recurring role — but their specific roles in the series are being kept under wraps. That said, theories are quickly beginning to take shape. Deadline suggests that Marsan may be playing a dwarf, while Bower could play “a handsome high-born knight,” a potential love interest for the Elven warrior Galadriel (Morfydd Clark). It’s not a lot to go on, and Deadline’s intel may not be entirely accurate. But it could have gotten one thing right about Bower’s mystery man, at least where his connection to Galadriel is concerned.
Has The Rings of Power finally cast Celeborn?
Jamie Campbell Bower could be playing a character that’s crucial to Tolkien lore.
There’s every chance that Bower could be playing a high-born knight, or any character created specifically for The Rings of Power. That said, there’s one character from Tolkien lore who has yet to appear in the series: Celeborn, a wise Elf who also happens to be Galadriel’s long-lost husband. He plays an important role in the fight against Sauron, but in The Rings of Power, he was pronounced dead long before the Dark Lord returned to Middle-earth. As Galadriel reveals in Season 1, Celeborn went missing in a battle with Sauron’s predecessor, Morgoth, centuries before the series began. He hasn’t been seen since, but Tolkien aficionados know (or, more accurately, hope) that it’s only a matter of time before he makes his way into the series.
JD Payne and Patrick McKay, the showrunners of The Rings of Power, have been coy about Celeborn’s future in the series. In an interview with Esquire, the duo affirmed that Celeborn is “a part of [Galadriel] that could become important” in future seasons. “If and when that comes back, that would be like a freight train crashing into her, if the love of her life is still around,” Payne said. “Now that we’ve spread the foundation of her relationships with Sauron, Elrond, and even Gil-Galad, we have the opportunity in future seasons to see how other relationships, maybe including Celeborn, will continue to show other sides of her.”
Season 3 will reportedly take place after a major time jump, and there’s every chance that Celeborn could finally appear in the future. Given Bower’s stately, surreal vibes and long blond locks, imagining him as an Elf — and as Celeborn specifically — isn’t that much of a stretch. It may be a while before Prime Video, Payne, or McKay confirm Bower’s role in The Rings of Power, but either way, Season 3 is poised for a lot more romantic drama.
