Two years after its debut in 2022 The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has returned for a second season.

The prequel series, created by JD Payne and Patrick McKay, is set thousands of years before JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and describes the rise of Sauron in the Second Age of Middle Earth.

• READ MORE: The Rings Of Power star Morfydd Clark: “I don’t think I’m made for Hollywood”

The cast of the show is led by Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, alongside Lenny Henry, Sara Zwangobani, Robert Aramayo, Benjamin Walker, Charles Edwards, Daniel Weyman and Charlie Vickers.

New additions to the cast for season two include Ciarán Hinds, Rory Kinnear, Tanya Moodie, Ben Daniels, Stuart Bowman, Kevin Eldon and Oliver Alvin-Wilson.

Who plays Sauron in the first episode of The Rings of Power Season 2?

While Charlie Vickers plays Sauron in the series, Jack Lowden plays a younger version of the Dark Lord in a flashback in the first episode of the second season.

Lowden is best known for his leading roles in the BBC miniseries War and Peace and Apple TVs Slow horsesHe also played Morrissey in a biopic England belongs to meand played the lead role in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk as an RAF fighter pilot.

At the beginning of the year he married his long-time partner Saoirse Ronan.

How many episodes are there in The Rings of Power Season 2?

The second season consists of eight episodes. The first three were released on Amazon on August 29th, the remaining five are scheduled to be released weekly from that date, with the finale scheduled for October 3rd. You can check out the list of episodes below.

• Episode one – August 29
• Episode two – August 29
• Episode three – August 29
• Episode four – September 5
• Episode five – September 12
• Episode six – September 19
• Episode seven – September 26
• Episode eight – October 3