“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” stars shine in EW's exclusive cover shoot

We've also got exclusive episodic and behind-the-scenes shots for season 2 of Prime Video's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth mythology.

Welcome back to Middle-earth. This month sees the premiere of season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and Entertainment Weekly has your scoop on what to expect. In addition to our new digital cover story, check out our full photo shoot with the stars, along with some exclusive episodic and behind-the-scenes pictures from the upcoming season, which premieres Aug. 29 on Prime Video.

The heroes (and villain) of Middle-earth

All these faces should be familiar from season 1 ofThe Rings of Power, which introduced viewers to the Second Age of Middle-earth. But now that we know the good guys, it's time for Sauron (Charlie Vickers) to start making his moves.

“If season 1 was like the heroes’ journey, season 2 is the villains’ journey,” Cynthia Addai-Robinson tells EW.

Morfydd Clark

Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) may have failed to detect Sauron's disguise in season 1, but she won't give up her desire to protect Middle-earth from his machinations. She is, after all, destined to wield one of those titular rings of power.

"She's at a crossroads," Clark says. "She's had to let go of this idea of herself as being magnanimous and completely wise. Also she's got this ring, this new power, and the question is really, who is she going to be? She doesn't know."

Charlie Vickers and Morfydd Clark

Galadriel spent most of season 1 fighting alongside Halbrand, who she believed to be a noble prince. The revelation that he was actually Sauron in disguise the whole time has shaken her.

“She has really made a fool of herself,” Clark says. “The elves aren’t really known for doing that, so she’s in a whole new space where she’s no longer the voice of authority and reason. He’s been very successful at destabilizing his enemies.”

Charlie Vickers and Morfydd Clark

After their falling out in the season 1 finale, expect Sauron and Galadriel to stay on opposite sides of the board for now. But they're always on each other's minds.

“Whether they're in close proximity to each other or not, their relationship is going to be a theme throughout the show,” Vickers says. “She symbolizes good and he symbolizes evil.”

Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards

Sauron has exchanged one elf companion for another. He spent most of season 1 with Galadriel, and will now spend much of season 2 working alongside Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) to forge the titular rings of power.

“Celebrimbor has the ability, and Sauron has the vision,” Edwards says. “It’s an interesting give-and-take actually, which often happens in these kinds of relationships where they both need each other badly."

Charles Edwards

Why would a wise and knowledgeable elf like Celebrimbor work alongside Sauron? Well, for one thing, Sauron has taken on another disguise as Annatar, the Lord of Gifts. But he also plays into Celebrimbor's ambition to accomplish something worthy of his legendary lineage.

“His ambition has been eating away at him,” Edwards says. “He wants to produce something that will, yes, help the world, but also will ensure that his name is on a plaque somewhere forever.”

Charlie Vickers

Much of the fun of season 1 was trying to figure out which of the characters might secretly be Sauron. Now that viewers know the Dark Lord's identity, they'll get to see his perspective like never before.

“Instead of trying to guess who Sauron is, we’re now inside his mind,” Vickers says. “In the past, the camera would cut away from him when he had his private thoughts. Now the camera follows him through those thoughts. The audience is in on it, which I think is quite fun.”

Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Lloyd Owen, and Maxim Baldry

The forces of Númenor heroically arrived to save the Southlands from orcs in season 1's epic battle episode, but they paid a high price. Queen-Regent Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) was left blinded and Isildur (Maxim Baldry) was assumed dead, leaving Elendil (Lloyd Owen) to mourn one and care for the other.

"That schism between family and duty is just getting bigger and bigger for him," Owen says.

Cynthia Addai-Robinson

As the daughter of the recently deceased Númenorean king, Miriel is accustomed to power. But her blindness was a new challenge this season, for both the character and the actor.

"One element of the character's blindness is that you can't lock eyes with your fellow actor," Addai-Robinson says. "I had to use my other senses to read the room and feel the space. That was a really interesting challenge for me."

Lloyd Owen

Following the death of the Númenorean king (Miriel's father) at the end of season 1, the island kingdom is being split along political lines — and Elendil finds himself on the opposite side from his daughter Eärien (Ema Horvath).

“It's like he's got faith and she's an atheist,” Owen says. “Essentially, she's moving to the nationalist side of the argument and he's staying loyal to what the old Númenor would be. That’s tearing his heart apart.”

Maxim Baldry

Separated from his home and family, Isildur has to learn how to survive on his own in season 2. In the process he'll meet some familiar faces from Middle-earth, both good (the Ents!) and bad (look out for Shelob!).

“Maxim's awesome and can do anything,” co-showrunner Patrick McKay says. “When you have an actor like that, you want to throw him a fastball. Isildur is very, very important to the mythology, and more and more he's going to move toward the center of the action.”

Markella Kavenagh

Nori Brandyfoot hails from a tribe of nomadic harfoots, but now she's going farther than they've ever gone before by exploring the mysterious region of Rhun alongside the Stranger (Daniel Weyman).

“It’s something she's actually craved for a while,” Kavenagh says. “Not necessarily being away from her family, but more just being granted the freedom to explore the unknown.”

Owain Arthur and Sophia Nomvete

As married dwarven royals Prince Durin IV and Princess Disa, Owain Arthur and Sophia Nomvete have developed a close working relationship over the course of two seasons, the first produced in New Zealand and the second in the United Kingdom.

"We had a blast out in New Zealand and it was just like riding a bike, returning to the shorthand that we have with each other," Arthur says."I love her to bits. She's a sweetheart and a clown, but very talented as well. So I'm a lucky boy."

Sophia Nomvete

Princess Disa wants to support her husband above all, but Nomvete doesn't deny the light shades of Lady Macbeth in her character.

“She’s a very ambitious woman,” Nomvete says. “She not only wants the best for her kingdom and her husband, but she has her own ambitions that start to rise. The throne is in her sights.”

Owain Arthur

The dwarves of Khazad-dum need help, and the new rings forged by Celebrimbor and Sauron (in his Annatar disguise) seem like a perfectly-timed solution. But Prince Durin thinks it sounds a little too good to be true.

"What I like is that Durin is immediately suspicious of Annatar and therefore of Celebrimbor, even though he's known Celebrimbor for quite some time," Arthur says.

Sauron in chains

In The Lord of the Rings, Sauron is the lord of Mordor. But currently, that position is held by the orc Adar (Sam Hazeldine), and these two have bad blood.

“There’s certainly a sense of anger and injustice on his part,” Vickers says of Sauron's falling out with Adar.

Celebrimbor at the forge

Celebrimbor is the greatest elf smith since his grandfather Fëanor, who forged the Silmaril jewels that kicked off the events of The Silmarillion back in the First Age. Like Theoden and other Lord of the Rings characters, Celebrimbor longs to match the accomplishments of his ancestors.

The blind queen

A blind leader is rarely a good omen, but Míriel's new affliction has come right as a power vaccuum opens in Númenor, making her position more precarious than she expected.

"She knows that she is on very shaky ground," Addai-Robinson says.

Elrond and Galadriel

While Celebrimbor works alongside Sauron on their grand project, Galadriel teams up with Elrond (Robert Aramayo) to hunt monsters like the ghostly barrow-wights.

Galadriel in action

As portrayed by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, Galadriel was an enemy of Sauron but mostly stood above the fray. In The Rings of Power, she gets her hands dirty.

Isildur alone

One day, Isildur will cut the One Ring from Sauron's finger. For now, he's just trying to survive to adulthood.

“It's a story of survival and it's a story about ‘be careful what you wish for,'" Baldry says. "He grows from a boy into a man and has to learn who to trust and who not to trust.”

Prince Durin IV

Prince Durin IV is already on shaky terms with his father, King Durin III (Peter Mullan), following a blowup fight at the end of season 1. The new rings of power will exaggerate those problems.

"Prince Durin sees a change in his father — a darkness in his father — which has a massive effect on him," Arthur says.

Princess Disa

As the crisis in Khazad-dûm unfolds, Princess Disa struggles to keep up with the changing situation.

“She's trying to figure out which of those emotions are useful or need to be listened to," Nomvete says. "So she's quite up and down in her views. One minute she's like, ‘Yes, we need the rings!’ Then she's like, ‘Oh no, but the ring!’"

Poppy and Nori

Nori may be exploring the unknown this season, but at least she has her best friend Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards) by her side.

"As much as she really cares for the Stranger, he's only known her for a relatively short amount of time," Kavenagh says.

At home with the stoors

As they explore Rhûn alongside the Stranger, Nori and Poppy will meet the stoors — distant cousins of the harfoots. The sense of exploration was as true for the actors as the characters.

“Nori’s excitement about being somewhere new was mirroring our own excitement to be in Tenerife," Kavenagh says. "It was really helpful for me in channeling that energy of being in a new place.”

Celebrimbor at work

Many of the scenes between Sauron and Celebrimbor take place in the latter's forge, where the rings of power will be made.

“We designed an almost cathedral-like space,” production designer Kristian Milsted says of the forge set. “Elves have an art nouveau sensibility, that’s been established beautifully before. But we took that further and added brutalist elements to that space so that it doesn’t look industrial. We made it more ecclesiastical, like a temple of science.”

Political education

Elendil helps Miriel with her blindness out of a sense of duty, and also the experience of shared trauma after the battle in Middle-earth. But in the process, he learns some important lessons that will help him achieve his destiny.

“Once she becomes blind, Elendil has to be her eyes,” Owen says. “So he sees and informs, she interprets what he sees, and thus Elendil learns. This is a leader in training for where we ultimately have to get him.”

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.