Sauron Lord of the Rings: Who He Is, Actor and Fate

Sauron is the Dark Lord of Mordor, the maker of the One Ring, and the reason the whole quest in The Lord of the Rings exists. In the films he is evil because he wants to dominate every free people of Middle-earth, and he made a master Ring to control the other Rings of Power. The prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), directed by Peter Jackson, explains that the Ring was taken from him in battle but never destroyed.

The first trilogy keeps Sauron mostly offstage. He works through the Black Riders that hunt Frodo and through the wizard Saruman, who has sided with him, and in The Return of the King a palantír shows that he means to attack Minas Tirith. As a result, the threat is felt through the reactions of other characters rather than in speeches of his own.

The films do not show his life before he made the master Ring, because the prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring begins with that act. That history belongs to Tolkien's books. In The Silmarillion, Sauron is one of the Maiar, lesser spirits of great power, and he first served Morgoth, the original Dark Lord, before taking up that role himself. A viewer who has not read the books therefore meets him on screen as an ancient enemy with no origin story.

If you are new to the series, start with the lord of the rings movies in order guide, then return here for the details.

Sauron's closest ties in the films are to Gandalf, his great adversary, to Saruman, his ally, and to Gollum, through the Ring. The clearest clash with Gandalf comes at Dol Guldur, where Sauron overpowers him. Gandalf finds the tombs of the Nazgul empty alongside Radagast in the Hobbit trilogy, and in The Fellowship of the Ring he works out that Frodo's Ring is the One Ring and tells him to leave the Shire.

Saruman is the wizard who sides with Sauron. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Saruman holds Gandalf prisoner. Yet in The Battle of the Five Armies, he joins Galadriel and Elrond to rescue Gandalf from Dol Guldur and drive Sauron away. The Two Towers then has the Ents flood Isengard and trap Saruman in his tower.

Gollum is tied to Sauron through the Ring. Gollum murders Déagol for it in the opening of The Return of the King, and Bilbo wins it from him in a riddle contest in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. At Mount Doom, Gollum bites the Ring from Frodo's hand and falls into the lava with it.

Frodo Baggins carries Sauron's weapon, and Aragorn is the heir who draws Sauron's armies to the Black Gate. Between them, the bearer and the heir answer the same threat in very different ways.

In my opinion, Sauron works best in the films when he is felt rather than seen, and the best moments are the ones where other characters react to him.

The first is the prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring. In a few minutes it sets out that the master Ring was made, taken from him and never destroyed, and it gives the whole trilogy a clear cost for failure. It is an efficient piece of storytelling for a three hour film.

The second is the reveal at Dol Guldur in The Desolation of Smaug. The Necromancer overpowering Gandalf turns a side thread into the real stakes of the Hobbit trilogy, and it explains why the dwarves' quest for a mountain sits inside a larger war. It could be argued that this is the one place where the Hobbit films earn their link to the older trilogy rather than simply announcing it.

The third is the collapse of Mordor in The Return of the King. Aragorn's diversion at the Black Gate and Frodo's failure at the Crack of Doom happen together, so the villain's end is shared between an army and a single, flawed hobbit. That is a more interesting finish than a duel would have been, and it is consistent with how the series treats power throughout. Paradoxically, the Dark Lord is defeated by the one thing he made.