No - when Númenor sank, his body was destroyed, and could no longer re-embody a form “pleasing to the eye” but he could still make a body. Remember that Gollum specifically referred to the touch of his hand.
edited to add: maybe you’re thinking of the movies with the “spotlight of doom” thing going?
Some minor spoilers, but someone has edited all the trailers and commercials and online clips into a single 7-minute preview.
I have to admit, it is amazing how much we’ve gotten glimpses of.
Man - talk about spoliers galore! sheesh! now I don’t know if I want to see this movie or not…
j/k
Really? This is all standard Tolkien stuff, except for the casting. I didn’t think the identify of the Necromancer was a secret to anyone…
Sorry.
Unpronounceable - In LOTR, I believe, when Gandalf is talking to Frodo, maybe, I thought there was an exchange something like this, after Gandalf had told the story about how the great ring came to be lost:
Frodo: So Sauron is dead?
Gandalf: No, his physical body was destroyed, but his spirit remains and it is gaining power.
I’m sure something like this happens somewhere in those movies.
Roddy
I think you are confusing Smaug (dragon) voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch with Sauron.
It did occur in the movies, and was a significant variation from the book. Purists such as myself gnashed our teeth upon hearing it.
Per the book, Sauron was indeed embodied again by the time the events of The Hobbit took place.
Well… some people have never read any of the books, you know. Anything that wasn’t explicated on-screen in the first trilogy is a spoiler to them.
(simster was joking, though.)
This is why I’m looking forward to seeing The Hobbit. As long as John Howe and Alan Lee continue to be involved in the films, I’ll continue to watch. Yeah, I’m sure I’ll have gripes about any changes to the story but mostly I simply want to be immersed in Middle Earth for a few hours and long before Jackson came along these two were my favorite illustrators. I guess I’m a glass half full sort of person. Look at it this way. Jackson could have hired the Brothers Hildebrandt and then where would be? /shudder
My mistake - apparently he’s also doing the necromancer through motion capture.
Do NOT be dissing the Hildebrandts! They basically were the look of Middle-Earth for decades. Even the Rankin-Bass style (which I am sentimentally partial to…) didn’t have as much of an influence.
Frank Frazetta Tolkien drawings.
Thank you, that’s what I wanted to know.
So what happened to Sauron between the off-stage events in The Hobbit and LOTR such that he became the great eye thingie?
(Really, I didn’t think I was spoiling anything, but I can see how it might be for non-Tolkien-readers. If that was a joke post, all the better. )
Roddy
Hey, I had never seen those before. Thanks.
Um, Frazetta, wasn’t Eowyn supposed to be disguising the fact that she was a woman?
Not to mention that her armour seems a trifle … impractical. 
So what happened to Sauron between the off-stage events in The Hobbit and LOTR such that he became the great eye thingie?
Sauron rebuilds the Barad-dûr! : Sauron rebuilds the Barad-dûr - Events - Henneth Annûn
It wouldn’t be Frazetta otherwise…
ETA: Oh, yeah…orc butt was just what I needed…
YMMV, of course and if I’m disrespecting them it’s only by comparing them to Howe and Lee. I’m aware of the Hildebrandts’ legacy. I bought the calendars each year and I still have a copy of The Guide with their cover art around here somewhere but even thirty years ago I thought that their interpretation was oftentimes silly. Honestly, who would you rather have working on the films, the Hildebrandts or Howe and Lee?
Well, yeah, but…Yes, it is.
Hey, at least he’s equal-opportunity. Hott babes and orcs alike go into battle bare-assed.
Hey, maybe flashing the enemy distracts (or horrifies) 'em. 
It was primarily a joke - but I guess there was a ring of truth to it if someone were reading this thread taht had not, in fact, been aware of that detail.
I’m actually very curious as to how that is handled in the movie(s) - as in the Hobbit it’s not readily apparent what/who the Necromancer is - as much as I want the simplified Hobbit to be available as a single film - I am really anctious to see how they decide to incorporate these other parts that were alluded to in the books.
And I really do hope they put out the “Just the Hobbit” cut.
