We decided early on in this project to show the 'bad guys', while the published Silmarillion only tells parts of what concerns Morgoth and his people. This decision has consequences. The feeling one has about the Silmarillion story and the feelings one has about our version will not always be same. It is part of our adaption. I tend to argue for keeping of mystery, and keeping as close to the written text as possible. But the decsison to show what's going on in Angband has been made, and we can't just leave that storyline. I know that nobody is arguing that we should go that far, but that would be the extreme position in the stance some people seem to be taking. We can leave things out, but we have to show what the bad guys are doing. It's not about explaining or not explaining. Personally, I don't care if I understand everything in films I see. I love mystery. I could have been happy with a Silmfilm storyline with a pure elvish perspective, with the bad guys being totally mysterious and just showing up as horrible enemies from time to time. But that's not what we've agreed to do. We have decided to show their activities from the inside. Now that is a challenge; how do we make that interesting, exciting, thrilling? The challenge is extra hard in times where the Silmarillion has surprises. It will happen again next season, with the Dagor Bragollach. How do we make that surprise work? This season, the enemy is failing and doing all sorts of stuff that is successful to various degrees. They also do things in the East that we can't really show. So what is the overall picture of the bad guy activityu this season? They are failing and struggling. That's not very impressive. Their efforts will (except for the kidnappings) look unimpressive, at least to some degree.
In what way can we show Glaurung as a part of that overall picture without trivializing him or showing his powers too soon? What is the line that keeps the right balance? Not too small? Big and strong, but no fire-breathing? That's not a big discussion. We're really down to details in this part of the discussion, I think. It has to be possible to find a consensus. Another issue is the timing. My suggestion is that he is introduced in some form in episode 3 or 4, just before Morgoth learns of the awakening of the Men. He can then have started a Dragon project (struck a deal with an unwilling but power-hungry Glaurung-spririt, or something like that, we can work out the details) with just a general goal, but then he leaves because the new Children of Ilúvatar is obviously a priority. Putting the dragon project on hold will then not trivialize Glaurung at all, it is clearly less important. We can then show Glaurung showing impatience once or twice, that will be enough, probably once will be enough, and then he could manipulate Gothmog to start a battle. That would be a really big thing. If Morgoth then goes back to the dragon project, we can show perhaps some sign of a rapid development, before he escapes. That's all that is needed to give Glaurung an arch, in my opinion.