‘Rings of Power’ Season 3 Script Pages Reveal Sauron’s Brutal Failed Attempt to Forge the One Ring

‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power‘ has spent its first two seasons slowly building toward one inevitable moment: the creation of the One Ring itself. Charlie Vickers’s Sauron has moved through disguises and manipulation, first posing as the mysterious Halbrand before revealing himself as the elven smith Annatar to deceive Celebrimbor into forging the earlier Rings of Power.

That patient buildup is finally paying off. Co-showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay have confirmed that Season 3 will show Sauron finally attempting to forge the legendary One Ring, a moment McKay has described as “the single most ambitious, technically challenging sequence we’ve ever done on the show.”

Now Entertainment Weekly has offered a striking new preview of exactly how that moment plays out, sharing script pages from the season’s opening that reveal Sauron doesn’t succeed on his first attempt. According to the pages, Sauron tries to create the One Ring at his forge in Barad-dûr, only for his plans to literally go up in flames when an orc’s hand bursts into “unearthly flames” during the process, ultimately consuming the orc entirely and leaving nothing behind but a “pile of bones.”

That dramatic failure sets up a season built around genuine internal conflict for Sauron, despite his outward dominance across Middle-earth. Co-showrunner Patrick McKay explained the thinking behind opening the season this way, telling Entertainment Weekly that beginnings matter deeply to the show, and that Season 3 marks the point where Sauron actually makes the One Ring in the volcano.

McKay elaborated further, noting that even with the nine rings for Men already spreading across Middle-earth and his armies ascendant, crafting something more powerful than anything forged before proves to be a genuine personal struggle for the character. That tension between Sauron’s outward military dominance and his private difficulty perfecting his ultimate weapon gives the season’s opening real dramatic stakes beyond simple spectacle.

Co-showrunner J.D. Payne has framed this season as a genuine tonal shift for the series overall. According to earlier comments from Payne, Season 3 finally presents “a full-on villain” in a way the show hadn’t previously attempted, with McKay adding that Sauron’s true emergence “changes the tone of the show” and makes this “darker, more dangerous” than what’s come before, promising that no one is safe.

For Vickers himself, stepping fully into Sauron’s true form after two seasons of disguise and deception was an emotional milestone. He’s described crying on his first day walking onto set in the character’s full costume, calling the experience an incredible privilege to help tell this pivotal chapter of the story.

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— Fellowship of Fans 💍 (@FellowshipFans) July 24, 2026

The actual forging sequence proved to be a massive undertaking behind the scenes. Vickers has said the production spent two full weeks filming the Ring’s creation given how lengthy the sequence turned out to be, and McKay has praised the actor’s performance in those scenes as “absolutely staggering,” saying the crew couldn’t have fully prepared for what Vickers ultimately delivered.

Vickers has also spoken about the physical prop itself leaving a lasting impression, describing two different ring versions used on set, one bearing its iconic inscription and one left plain. When asked whether the Ring seemed to affect him during filming, Vickers said it “whispered a lot of stuff” to him over those two weeks of shooting.

With McKay describing the first two seasons as focused on “lighting all these fuses and setting all these stories in motion,” Season 3 is positioned as the moment those buildups finally explode. Whether Sauron’s initial failure at the forge sets up a longer, more tortured path toward eventually completing the One Ring, or whether he succeeds shortly after this opening stumble, remains to be seen once the season actually airs.

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