King Pharazon of Numenor has been making plenty of moves as The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 unfolds.
At the start of the series he seemed broadly happy to accept Numenor’s Queen Regent, Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), as the kingdom’s next monarch… until he discovered she’d been consulting the Palantir.
Many of her subjects felt the ‘Elvish artefact’ influenced her decision to send Numenor's armies to Middle-Earth to help Galadriel at the end of the first series, where swathes of them were killed in the Battle of the Southlands
It was a decision that proved very unpopular with some Numenoreans and seemed to be a watershed moment for Pharazon (Trystan Gravelle)...
The event awoke an ambition to supplant his cousin and become the next King of Númenor, which he achieved when he disrupted her coronation, with many fans believing he hijacked the eagle that had come to give Miriel its seal of approval.
Those who’ve studied Tolkien’s writings will know all about the role King Pharazon played in the fall of Numenor, but we’re beginning to wonder if the show’s writers might have an even worse fate for him.
With Annatar (sorry… Sauron) producing the much-anticipated nine rings for mortal men in Eregion, could Pharazon get his hands on one and become a Nazgul?
Let’s take a look…
What happened to Pharazon in Tolkien’s writings? (SPOILERS FOLLOW)
King Pharazon does not become a Nazgul in Tolkien’s writings.
The author's famous tome, The Silmarillion, describes him becoming King of Numenor after forcing Queen Regent Miriel to marry him, before sending his armies to Middle-Earth to launch an assault upon Mordor itself.
He eventually takes Sauron hostage, yet the Dark Lord is able to trick Pharazon into worshipping Morgoth and turning Numenor into an iron-willed dictatorship.
As King Pharazon grows old and starts to fear death, Sauron - who is now his most trusted advisor - is able to persuade him to attack Valinor (otherwise known as The Undying Lands) in the hope of obtaining the same immortality as the elves.
However that aggression prompts Eru Ilúvatar, the supreme deity of Middle Earth, to submerge Numenor in the sea in retribution for the arrogance and greed of men. Pharazon is then trapped in the Caves of the Forgotten for eternity. Bad times.
Will Pharazon become a Nazgul in The Rings of Power?
In his later works, Tolkien had some interesting comments about the origins of the Nazgul…
“… it is said that among those whom Sauron enslaved with the Nine Rings three were great lords of Númenórean race,” he wrote, which puts Pharazon at the front and centre of our search for potential Ringwraiths.
Yet while Pharazon wasn't one of those 'great lords' in Tolkien's legendarium, we know The Rings of Power's writers aren't shy about tweaking the tale when it suits them - and it certainly wouldn’t be a huge leap for them to turn Pharazon, a man with a dangerous ambition, into a Nazgul.
They also have a black canvas to play with in some regards, as Tolkien didn’t explicitly explain who any of the nine were before they took the rings of power in his works.
Basically the showrunners have creative licence to pick any nine men (and women!) from the Second Age and turn them into Sauron’s most terrible servants - and they’re certainly teeing up Pharazon nicely for that.
You may also remember how earlier in this year’s series, Pharazon's son Kemen (Leon Wadham) asked his father why he seemed dissatisfied, even after becoming the King. "Is the sceptre of Numenor not enough?" he asked. “All my life I believed it was..” ruminated Pharazon, before tailing off.
It’s a comment that matches up with the character’s story according to Tolkien, yet it could be telling that the show’s writers are featuring such scenes while Sauron and Celebrimbor are making the nine rings in Eregion.
King Pharazon is also openly envious of the elves’ immortality and Trystan Gravelle, who plays him in the series, is quite open about how that envy is curdling into resentment.
“Why adhere to a faith that, when you strip everything back, says men are second-rate citizens compared to elves?” he says. “Pharazôn has an internal ambition. He knows exactly what he wants.”
We know the rings of power have the ability to make men immortal, meaning he would almost certainly accept one if Sauron proffered it up. (We very much doubt Sauron the Deceiver would bother mentioning the serious drawbacks of his gift or that it comes with a life sentence in the Unseen World.)
As such, becoming an immortal Nazgul would be everything Pharazon has ever wanted - kind of…
With promotional images of scenes-yet-to-come also hinting that King Pharazon starts using the Palantir he took from Queen Regent Miriel (above), it seems Sauron could have a hotline straight to the King of Numenor!
Will Kemen become a Nazgul?
With three Numenoreans becoming Ringwraiths in Tolkien's writings, there's certainly space for King Pharazon's son, Kemen (Leon Wadham) to join him as one of Sauron's most terrible servants. Or maybe become a Nazgul instead of him, which would be a cool twist!
"Kemen is suddenly starving, he's hungry for power," Leon Wadham told RNZ. "He wants more responsibility. He wants more respect. He wants it immediately, as well, which is an issue. What'll be interesting this season is that Kemen is tipping closer and closer toward the darkness."
The King's son is certainly showing the kind of cruelty and malice you might expect from a Nazgul, while we can't forget Pharazon's tale about Kemen's mother, who prophesized he would come to "ill ends". 👀
