Adar's Recast is the Weakest Point of Rings of Power Season 2 So Far

Summary

• In October 2022, it was revealed that Adar would be played by a new actor.
• Despite being non-canon, Adar is one of the most profound characters in RoP, making his presence on the show incredibly important.
• The recasting could be a harbinger of a number of problems that will weaken Season 2.

Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has become one of the company's most high-profile projects, with the studio budgeting approximately $465 million for the first season, an unprecedented sum in the history of television series. Despite backlash from die-hard fans of Tolkien's books and Peter Jackson's film adaptations, the first season of The Rings of Power was a commercial success, becoming the most-watched show on Amazon Prime Video and receiving strong critical acclaim.

Speaking of the second season, the creators worked on it long before the filming of the first one, and therefore we await even more exciting interpretation of the history of Middle-earth. However, we can expect not only even greater events of the Second Age, but also a number of changes. For example, the original Rings of Power character, the orc leader named Adar, will be played by a new actor. However, this may cause some problems for Season 2. Let's get to the bottom of it.

Why Adar Has Been Recast

The fact that the Lord-father of all the Uruks would be played by a new actor became known back in December 2022, when Season 1's Joseph Mawle himself announced it on his Twitter account (now known as X). As it turned out, the reason was not some on-set drama, but Mawle's personal decision to move on and conquer new heights of acting.

His boots were filled in the second season by Sam Hazeldine, known for fantasy roles like Barnaby in Netflix's The Sandman, Eredin in The Witcher, and other projects like Masters of the Air, Rain Dogs, Slow Horses and Peaky Blinders.

Although Non-canon, Adar Is One of the Best Characters

In The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien linked the history of the Orcs exclusively to Morgoth and Sauron, but the writers of the show made a very bold decision to depart from canon and introduce a new complex and multifaceted character named Adar.

Adar was one of the first Elven victims to be corrupted by Morgoth, and as a representative of the first generation of Orcs, he retained his Elven appearance (though disfigured) and even the remnants of his mind. Unlike Morgoth and Sauron, for whom the Orcs were mere tools, Adar felt responsible for them, showing compassion for his kin and wanting to find a better life for them while taking revenge on their wrongdoers.

However, consumed by the evil of Morgoth that filled him, he began to act like his oppressors, destroying settlements and enslaving their inhabitants.

Why Adar's Recast Might Be a Problem

Hazeldine and Mawle knew each other before The Rings of Power, so this will certainly contribute to a smoother transition between the two actors. However, the recasting brings with it a few problems that could significantly diminish the quality of Season 2.

First, while Hazeldine has experience with the fantasy genre, we still don't know how well he'll do with the role of Adar specifically. Unfortunately, the fans have set a high bar after Season 1, so Hazeldine has a difficult task ahead of him.

Second, Adar himself will have significantly less screen time in Season 2. After the Season 1 finale, we know that the main antagonist of the series is, of course, Sauron. Now that he makes no secret of his presence in Middle-earth, Adar's focus will clearly be on revenge, which will prevent him from being revealed as a more morally ambiguous character.

As we mentioned earlier, The Rings of Power Season 2 will hit the small screens of Amazon Prime Video subscribers in just two months, on August 29, 2024.

Source: Entertainment Weekly.