The Rings of Power‘s stars recently sat down with Nerdist for an interview to discuss season two of the series. Among other fascinating insights, Morfydd Clark, who plays Galadriel, Charlie Vickers, who plays Sauron, and Sam Hazeldine, who plays Adar, chimed in on the trailer-teased “Meeting of Sauron’s exes” in the upcoming season. Yes, however unlikely it might have felt in season one, in season two of The Rings of Power, Galadriel and Adar seem to (at least consider) teaming up against the being that hurt them both (in not dissimilar ways), Sauron. But what is that alliance like for the fairly antagonistic Galadriel and Adar? And what does Sauron think about two old flames teaming up against him in such a fashion? Here’s what Clark, Hazeldine, and Vickers had to share about the complex relationships between their characters in The Rings of Power season two.
When asked about what Nerdist has termed “the meeting of the exes,” Clark notes that there’s shared pain that connects Galadriel and Adar when it comes to Sauron, and that’s quite possibly the only thing that their tenuous relationship is based on. “The thing that unites them is that they’ve both been deceived and hurt in the same way, which I don’t think is often the case and can make for quite a complicated alliance.” She goes on to share, “Neither of them are comfortable with it. I would say that there’s a possibility that they could be on the same page about anything. No. I think particularly for Galadriel, the thought that she ever be anywhere near close to agreeing with Adar is just gross to her.” But regardless of those feelings, there’s an urgency at hand that draws them together.
Hazeldine agrees, “But what can we do? We have to do something because we could all be completely enslaved, wiped out by Sauron. So we have to kind of think of something and there’s no time.”
Still, beyond a meeting of circumstance, it feels like the relationship between Adar and Galadriel will evolve in The Rings of Power season two. It is after all their intimate knowledge of Sauron and his threat to all things that brings them together, and the very specific experience they both went through as elves touched by evil. Morfydd Clark notes that we very well may see Galadriel regret the exchange she had with Adar in season one of the series, now that she herself has been transformed by darkness. In it, she very callously dismissed him as “ruined,” among other choice words.
Clark shares, “I think that she was as far away from her elveness and herself as she has ever been during that meeting. And I think also it’s good for her to feel a little ashamed. It’s difficult for the elves because they don’t make a huge amount of mistakes and you do learn from them. And with mistakes come wisdom depending on how you manage it. Yeah. So I think, as Adar alluded to in the first season, he does hold up a mirror to her that is painful to look into.”
As to the question of how they both feel about with Sauron in The Rings of Power season two, Clark notes that “she’s being haunted” by him. She offers a very coy shrug when asked if Sauron is whispering inside of Galadriel’s head this season. But Hazeldine chimes in to say, “Yeah, well he does, doesn’t he?” Before adding that, Sauron is relying on having broken Galadriel. He shares, “For Galadriel, it’s a fresh hurt. Sauron’s relying on her being broken by what he’s done to her and she has to not be broken and step up when she’s most needed.” Clark gives his assessment of Galdriel and Sauron’s current status the seal of approval.
But what does the Dark Lord himself, Sauron, think of all this wound-licking and aligning between the two elves, whom in a sense, he hoped to manipulate and deceive so that they would join him in his cause? Charlie Vickers’ Sauron is pointing his finger at Adar and Galadriel. Vickers shares, “I think he’d be a bit bitter. Two old foes just finally uniting against him. I think he’d probably be quite upset because I think he would hope that they would’ve joined him and be fighting alongside him, but that makes him all the more determined to defeat them.” He concludes by sharing that Sauron thinks, “They chose the wrong person, they chose the wrong side.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power releases on August 29th, it streams on Prime Video.
