The Rings of Power: Sam Hazeldine Reflects on Taking Over the Role of Adar in Season 2

The second season of and there’s one notable cast change from Season 1. Game of Thrones alum Joseph Mawle, who played Adar in Season 1, has been replaced with Sam Hazeldine. Now, Hazeldine is opening about taking over the role, telling ComicBook that it was a pleasure to take on the role he described as being such a “rich character”.

“No, it wasn’t actually, it was really honestly a pleasure,” Hazeldine said when asked if taking over the role was a challenge. “I think that’s because it was such a rich character that’s been created by the writers and by Joseph in Season 1. And so, it was a real privilege to take on that character and see where the story takes him from there. So, I really enjoyed it. I just loved every part of it.”

He also opened up about where he sees Adar on the “moral spectrum”.

“I don’t think he thinks about the moral question,” he said. “It’s like a whatever it takes thing. There’s different aspects of it. There’s that whatever it takes to keep… to find a home for his children as he sees them, the uruks, but also, he is deeply kind of, obviously has some kind of mental and emotional scars from whatever he went through with Sauron and Morgoth before as well as the physical scars. And I think he carries a lot of that and I think he’s got a lot of issues, but he’s trying… I think his actions are purely, from his perspective, for the good of his children. And he’s frightening because he feels like he has a worthy cause and he’s organized.”

What is The Rings of Power Season 2 About?

Here’s the official Prime Video synopsis of The Rings of Power Season 2: “In Season Two of The Rings of Power, Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Building on Season One’s epic scope and ambition, the new season plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.”

Developed by showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power adapts J.R.R. Tolkien’s tales of the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the War of the Ring.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 is now streaming on Prime Video.