Next month Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will debut. The expensive series set in an iconic world is getting a second season, and once those episodes come around, those running the show plan to bring in another notable from the books.
An article published today by TIME with showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay reveals Círdan is joining the second order of episodes set to begin filming later this year. Círdan is one of the oldest and wisest of the elves in Middle Earth. He fights alongside Elrond and Isildur against Sauron and is there when Isildur initially has the opportunity to destroy the one ring at Mount Doom. He is the only elf who has a beard, appears only once in person in the end of Tolkien’s trilogy, but Payne says fans should be psyched.
“We don’t want to give too much away, but one character we’re excited for folks to meet in Season 2 is Círdan the Shipwright. In the time of our story, he’s the oldest of all known elves in Middle Earth—in fact he lived so long, he had a beard.”
Elves typically do not have facial hair and it remains a subject of debate among Tolkien fans and scholars as to whether others besides Círdan can grow any. More will be revealed when the show, which is guaranteed five seasons and is the most expensive ever produced, with costs for the project rising above $1 billion, premieres on Sept. 2 of this year. It is not a continuation of any of the films at all.