When it comes to inspirational tales, few have had an impact on almost all forms of entertainment quite like J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit novels.

J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings was first published in 1954, followed by The Two Towers and The Return of the King in the two respective years. Since that time, on some level, the likes of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Elder Scrolls, Star Wars and more have been inspired by these iconic tales.

Star Wars villain Sheev Palpatine, is a master manipulator who rose to power to eventually become Darth Sidious and master of Darth Vader. It’s fair to say that this Star Wars villain was inspired by The Lord of the Rings villain, Sauron, someone who was once known as Mairon who later became the big, bad evil of Middle-earth.

That being said, at least on the surface, we know more about the origins of Darth Sidious than we do Sauron. Yet, despite being explored a little in the Peter Jackson movies, as explained by CBR, it seems that some of the villain’s origins may have been explained further in some of Tolkien’s written works, but is left open to interpretation.

Before Mairon became Sauron, his race, Ainur, was known as the “Holy Ones”. This leans into the explanation in the written works that Sauron was once a fallen angel believed to be on a similar level to everyone’s favourite grand wizard, Gandalf when he served under Morgoth.

Still, the origins of Sauron are quite vague which is perhaps why his backstory is left to interpretation, a concept that the Amazon Prime Video series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power borrowed so heavily from.

Speaking of which, season two of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will premiere on 29 August 2024.