Since The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power takes place in the Second Age and depicts the downfall of Númenor, followed by the War of the Last Alliance, Elendil and Isildur will take up a lot of focus not only as the founders of Arnor and Gondor but also the only Men to resist Sauron’s deception, allowing them to survive the doom that befalls most of their kin.
That resilience doesn’t ultimately save them from the greed that afflicts the rest of their race, however, or else the events of The Lord of the Rings in the Third Age would never happen. In the last push against Sauron’s armies, on the Plateau of Gorgoroth, the Elves and Men fight Mordor’s armies and bring them to the verge of defeat.
It is here that Sauron shows his face and takes on the army. Elendil, then king of Gondor, faces the dark lord and dies in the process, with his son Isildur taking up his father’s broken sword and cutting off the One Ring from Sauron’s hand, thus vanquishing the enemy. Isildur fails to destroy the Ring, and the weapon of the Enemy corrupts his thoughts the same way it does Gollum’s, ensuring Sauron’s survival while also weakening the line of the kings.
But what if instead of Isildur, his father Elendil had managed to defeat Sauron and inherit the Ring? Would he have destroyed it? Well, The Rings of Power star Lloyd Owen, who’ll be portraying Isildur in this five-season series, gave an interesting answer to that question in a chat with Collider.
“I posed the question to a few people that if the Ring was on the other finger, and rather than Isildur getting the ring, it was Elendil that got the ring, would he throw it into the fire? And as I asked Corey Olson, who’s the Tolkien professor, he goes, ‘No.’ And he immediately said it was such an emotional reaction. I was like, okay, you’re so invested in that? And I don’t know the answer to that question. But I would ponder or posit that Tolkein might say, it’s unknown as to whether he would because at the moment of holding that Ring, the fool is apparent in every man and he’s a fallible human being. So yeah, that’s where I feel a real privilege to play him and a great responsibility.”
The Rings of Power will become available for streaming on Prime Video come Sep. 2.