Why Galadriel's Husband Celeborn Is Missing From Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power

It took three seconds after "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" season 2 wrapped for me to say that we've got to get Celeborn in season 3. I'm not a prophet. I don't have any inside information. It just makes sense. Anyone who's a fan of the source material knows Galadriel's husband should have been in this show from the jump, and yet, 16 episodes in, he's nowhere to be found. The wildest part? There's no clear explanation for his absence from the cast or the showrunners.

So far, we've met Galadriel's brother, Finrod (Will Fletcher), which was fun. She smooched Elrond (Robert Aramayo), which was less cool and not canonical at all. She has a weird simmering tension with Sauron (Charlie Vickers) that, again, isn't part of the canon, but that's okay. We can work with it. I'm not criticizing the creative license with this story. It's generally fine by me.

But where the heck is Celeborn? The best explanation we've gotten so far was from Morfydd Clark, who made one of the more recent comments on the subject, saying in an interview with Dexerto right before season 2 aired:

"Well ... we know Celeborn is out there. We can tell Galadriel is feeling a lot of pain for not being with Celeborn, and that this was a terrible loss to her, and I hope that they shall be reunited."

That's great, but after Clark uttered her semi-hopeful words, season 2 came and went, and still no Celeborn. At least we know he exists. So, what's up?

Since we don't have an official reason he's missing, I've dug into the past of the character and pulled together one of my best guesses for why he isn't in the show yet.

Before we dig into some speculation surrounding the mysterious case of the missing Celeborn, let's do a quick recap of this guy's backstory. According to Tolkien's own writings in the book "Unfinished Tales," which has some incomplete and dissonant accounts about Celeborn and Galadriel, it says in one version of the story that he's a direct relative of a really important Elven king named Thingol. This makes him an Elven royal family member. When he meets his fellow royal, Galadriel, during the First Age of Middle-earth history (when the evil Morgoth is the primary baddie), they fall in love.

After Morgoth is defeated, Celeborn and Galadriel head east together, entering mainland Middle-earth and becoming one of the major power couples in the region. This is during the period of time when "The Rings of Power" is set, and Celeborn remains an important figure throughout that story. He and Galadriel live in Lindon with Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker on the show). They get involved in the politics in Eregion, too, where Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) leads his ring-making smiths. Eventually, Galadriel goes through the Dwarven mansion of Khazad-dûm to Lothlórien, but Celeborn initially stays behind. (He doesn't get along with Dwarves). This means he's around during the Sack of Eregion, which is that gigantic multi-episode battle we got at the end of season 2. He even fights alongside Elrond and is with him when he reaches the spot that will become Rivendell (which we saw at the very end of season 2). So, summing it all up, Celeborn is a major player in the Second Age and — in the books, at least — he's involved in many plot points we've seen in the show so far.

In the Third Age, Celeborn and Galadriel settle down in Lothlórien to lead an important enclave of Elves who become key in resisting the second rise of Sauron. This culminates in "The Lord of the Rings," where Celeborn plays his most memorable role when he crosses paths with the Fellowship of the Ring after they bump into a Balrog in Moria.

But that isn't all. Celeborn and his Elven forces also resist Sauron's servants in the northeast of Middle-earth, especially in Mirkwood. He works with Thranduil (Lee Pace from "The Hobbit" films) to purge the wood of evil. The appendix of "The Return of the King" says, "Celeborn took all the southern wood below the Narrows, and named it East Lórien." It adds that after Galadriel left on the ship with Frodo, Bilbo, and Gandalf, "Celeborn grew weary of his realm and went to Imladris to dwell with the sons of Elrond."

The prologue to "The Fellowship of the Ring" book completes his story (as much as we get to know the end) by saying:

"But there is no record of the day when at last he sought the Grey Havens, and with him went the last living memory of the Elder Days in Middle-earth."

Celeborn's role isn't quite as epic in Peter Jackson's adaptation. He shows up briefly, played by Marton Csokas, but his role in the other films in the trilogy was trimmed, leaving him as a small, forgettable side character. So, here's the million-dollar question: Where is Celeborn in "The Rings of Power"? He's in the books, and this period of time is the point when he's particularly present in the story. Where is he in the show? I have a few guesses.

I have a personal theory for Celeborn's absence based on Galadriel's explanation for her missing husband in season 1, where she says:

"When [Celeborn] went to [the war], I chided him. His armor didn't fit properly. I called him a silver clam. I never saw him again after that."

So, we know they're already married and that he's missing in action. This isn't in the books, which means they're off-script. That's why my best guess, at this point, is that they're combining Celeborn's story with another character who gets captured in war. My best guess? Maethros or Gwindor. Maedhros is an Elven king in exile who is captured by Morgoth during the First Age. "The Silmarillion" explains:

"Morgoth took Maedhros and hung him from the face of a precipice upon Thangorodrim, and he was caught to the rock by the wrist of his right hand in a band of steel."

The timing is tricky here (the math with Tolkien's timelines can drive you nuts), but suffice it to say that Maedhros is chained to the cliff for years, probably decades, before he's rescued by a friend who rides an Eagle up to him, cuts off his hand at the wrist, and carries him back to safety.

Gwindor is captured in war, too, and while he isn't chained to a mountain, he is enslaved for over a decade before escaping and finding his way back home. The story of Maedhros is badass, while Gwindor's is more tragic. Either way, I would guess the showrunners of "The Rings of Power" are going to pull some kind of "traumatically captured for a really long time" stunt to explain why Celeborn is just plumb missing all this time.

The other major issue Celeborn's absence creates is that his daughter with Galadriel — a lovely Elven lady named Celebrían — is missing. This is the future wife of Elrond and mother of Arwen, and she's supposed to be born to Galadriel and Celeborn early in the "Rings of Power" story. But, yeah, Celeborn isn't even around, so no daughter. Instead, Elrond is busy kissing her mom, and yes, his future mother-in-law. (Yeah, really not my favorite adaptation decision there, guys.)

The issue of Celebrían is a much bigger deal than that of the missing Celeborn. If Celeborn isn't here yet, at least we know he's alive. He'll show up at some point, and they'll have some explanation for why he's been MIA for centuries.

But Celebrían? She hasn't even been born yet. How can we catch up the timeline enough to make it remotely reasonable for her to marry Elrond at some point in the story? We're talking about Elves. They take decades to mature and a century to reach adulthood. It's going to take some serious explaining to get this to remotely make sense.

All that said, I want to make one thing clear: Two seasons into this show, I have a lot of faith in the showrunners and writers for "The Rings of Power." There's always a solid reason behind why they're doing what they're doing. I don't always agree, but that's okay.  As a fan and an audience member, I'm along for the ride, and one thing I've learned during the last few years is that showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay aren't afraid to flip the script with this story.

More than once, they've changed the Tolkien timeline to tell a more cohesive narrative. They've mashed together characters from "The Silmarillion" to create a single story that doesn't span millennia (and therefore doesn't have to kill off its mortal characters every season). They've expanded, added, and adjusted to create their adaptation, including cutting Celeborn from the story for two crucial seasons. I'm sure there's a reason behind the borderline bewildering absence, and I trust that they'll bring him in at a time that makes sense. After all, these guys mapped out the entire story from start to finish before they even got started. Payne literally said, early in the process:

"We even know what our final shot of the last episode is going to be. This was a big story with a clear beginning, middle and end. There are things in the first season that don't pay off until season 5."

Let's hope Celeborn (and by extension, Celebrían) is one of those things — and that we don't have to wait until season 5 to see how Galadriel's life comes back together.