The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power actor Charlie Vickers has said he wasn’t worried about being recast as Sauron for Season 2 of the show, despite the character’s shape-shifting abilities.

In Season 1, Vickers played Halbrand, a character invented by the showrunners for The Rings of Power as a form Sauron took on during the late Second Age of Middle-earth. In J. R. R. Tolkien’s original works, Sauron is a shape-shifter who in the Second Age assumes a fair form and becomes Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, in order to deceive the races of Middle-Earth in the creation of the Ring of Power.

Some fans had wondered whether Sauron would be played by a new actor with each season of The Rings of Power, leaning into the character’s fondness for disguises and deception during the time period in which the show is set. But Vickers reprised his role as Sauron for Season 2’s Annatar, albeit with a different, fairer look, which we can see in the new trailer below.

During a The Rings of Power panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2024, attended by IGN, a fan asked Vickers if he was afraid of being recast due to Sauron’s ability to change shape. In response, Vickers joked that this was never on the cards, insisting he had “full faith” that he wasn’t going to be recast for Season 2.

Meanwhile, Vickers teased more scenes between “Hot Sauron” and Galadriel, played by Morfyyd Clark, in Season 2, in response to another fan question.

The new trailer is but our latest look at The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 as it returns to San Diego Comic-Con, following up its big 2022 appearance for Season 1. Several members of the cast will hit IGN’s SDCC show this weekend.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuts with three episodes on Prime Video on August 29. In the meantime, check out 50 new details that we got from our visit to the set.