Charlie Vickers, who plays Halbrand in Rings of Power, says that the relationship between Sauron and Adar will be explored further in the next season. Throughout the entirety of Rings of Power season 1, fans were asking one big question: who is Sauron?
For a sizable period of time, audiences thought that the evil Elf Adar could be Sauron under a different identity. That’s because he was an original Lord of the Rings character who certainly seemed shifty enough, and he had a very close relationship with the evil orcs. However, as it turns out, Adar was not Sauron. In fact, Adar hated Sauron just like Galadriel and believed that he had killed him.
Of course, as the audience we know that Sauron was alive and well because he has so much left to do in Middle-earth lore. And, in Rings of Power episode 8 it was finally revealed that Sauron was actually Halbrand all along – not Adar. Then, as the finale comes to a close, we see that Sauron has returned to Mordor, which is where Adar is now residing with his orcs, and this set up a big confrontation between the two in Rings of Power season 2.
Now Charlie Vickers, the actor who plays Halbrand / Sauron, has confirmed that the relationship between Sauron and Adar will be explored more in the second season. Speaking to Screen Rant in the aftermath of the season finale, Vickers said “we spent quite a lot of time working over [Sauron and Adar’s shared] backstory based on information from the showrunners and things that we will see next season. We see Adar’s relationship with Sauron. So it’s a really complex and long-standing relationship that comes to a head in that moment.”
Vickers’ comments seem to set up a big head-to-head between the two, and it’s possible to predict how that might play out. Now that Sauron is in Mordor, Adar will soon learn that he is still alive and that will no doubt lead to the confrontation that Vickers has teased. We know that Sauron ends up taking control of Mordor, so we’re going to guess that the big head-to-head between the two isn’t going to end too well for Adar.
What we don’t know is what that previous relationship looked like, and why Adar hates the former servant of Morgoth so much. However, we’re sure that Rings of Power season 2 will provide all the answers about that, and plenty more.
For more Middle-earth deep dives, check out our guides to Elrond and Durin. Or, find out the answer to the question: is Isildur really dead?