"Adar" is the third episode of the first season of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The series is based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). Set thousands of years before the novel in Middle-earth's Second Age, the episode introduces the island kingdom of Númenor. It was written by Jason Cahill and Justin Doble, and directed by Wayne Che Yip.
The series was ordered in November 2017. J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay were set to develop it in July 2018. Filming for the first season took place in New Zealand, and work on episodes beyond the first two began in January 2021. Yip was revealed to be directing four episodes of the season that March, including the third. Production wrapped for the season in August 2021. A lot of focus was put on the design of Númenor and its culture, which had not been seen in previous Tolkien adaptations. The episode also introduces Orc culture in the series, with the Orcs being primarily created with practical prosthetics. The design of the Orcs' Warg in the episode was based on chihuahuas.
"Adar" premiered on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video on September 9, 2022. It was estimated to have high viewership and received generally positive reviews. The episode received two awards as well as a Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award nomination for its prosthetic makeup.
Plot The captured Arondir is taken to an Orc construction camp where other captives are digging trenches somewhere in the Southlands. These allow the Orcs, who are sensitive to sunlight, to move during the day. Arondir finds his fellow Elves Médhor and Revion have also been brought there, and they begin planning their escape. When Revion refuses to cut down a tree in their path, the Orcs kill Médhor. Arondir agrees to cut down the tree. He sees that the surrounding area has become poisoned and desolate.
Galadriel and Halbrand are picked up by a ship captained by Elendil who takes them to Númenor, an island kingdom ruled by Men. Relations between the island and the Elves have grown strained, and Queen Regent Míriel denies Galadriel's request for a ship back to Middle-earth. Elendil is assigned to watch over Galadriel and he takes her to the kingdom's Hall of Lore. They discover that the mark of Sauron is actually a map of the Southlands, where a new realm for evil forces is planned.
Halbrand gets into a fight with some Númenóreans and is imprisoned. Galadriel finds him and reveals that she knows he is the true king of the Southlands, descended from the Man who united the tribes of the Southlands and was loyal to Morgoth. She asks him to return to Middle-earth with her to redeem both of their bloodlines. Meanwhile, Elendil's son Isildur nears the end of his training as a naval cadet, but has been encouraged by his brother Anárion to postpone his graduation against Elendil's wishes.
The evening before the Harfoots' next migration, the Stranger accidentally reveals himself to the rest of the Harfoots while trying to read some star maps. The shocked Harfoots consider exiling Nori Brandyfoot for helping the Stranger, but she is forgiven because of her young age. The next day, the Harfoots start migrating and the Brandyfoots struggle to keep up due to Largo, Nori's father, who has an injured ankle. The Stranger follows them and helps them with their cart.
Arondir, Revion, and some other captives attempt to escape from the Orcs when the Sun is highest. The Orcs send a Warg to attack them, which Arondir kills. Revion makes it out of the trench but is killed by archers. Arondir is unable to get free and is brought before the mysterious leader of the Orcs, Adar.
Production Development Amazon acquired the television rights for J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954–55) in November 2017. The company's streaming service, Amazon Prime Video, ordered a series based on the novel and its appendices to be produced by Amazon Studios in association with New Line Cinema. It was later titled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Amazon hired J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay to develop the series and serve as showrunners in July 2018. Jason Cahill and Justin Doble joined the series as writers by July 2019, and Wayne Che Yip was set to direct four episodes of the first season by March 2021. The series was originally expected to be a continuation of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014) film trilogies, but Amazon later clarified that their deal with the Tolkien Estate required them to keep the series distinct from Jackson's films. Despite this, the showrunners intended for it to be visually consistent with the films. Amazon said in September 2019 that the first season would be filmed in New Zealand, where Jackson's films were made.
The series is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings. Because Amazon did not acquire the rights to Tolkien's other works where the First and Second Ages are primarily explored, the writers had to identify references to the Second Age in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and its appendices, and create a story that bridged those passages. The first season focuses on introducing the setting and major heroic characters to the audience. Written by Cahill and Doble, and directed by Yip, the third episode is titled "Adar".
Writing
The showrunners said the first two episodes of the series had a lot of worldbuilding to do and introduced a lot of different "worlds", but the third episode introduced the "biggest world yet" in the island kingdom of Númenor. They said visiting Númenor was one of the key reasons for making a series set in the Second Age, noting that it is a major location in the history of Tolkien's works with its own important lore, characters, and ideas. The episode was referred to as a second pilot by the writers because so much of the Númenórean world is established in it. Doble felt there was a lot of exposition required before they could focus on the Númenórean characters in future episodes. Each group of characters in the series is introduced at "a time of enormous change in their worlds" which the showrunners hoped would help make the series more dramatic. This includes the Númenóreans, who they said are "at a tipping point in [their] politics and culture. And [we] introduce them at the moment that Galadriel, an Elf, returns to the island and is going to set all those conflicts simmering." Executive producer Lindsey Weber elaborated that the Númenóreans "were given the island by the Elves. And half of the population or so feels very indebted and connected to Elven ways, and half or so feel that they are their own people who do things in the Númenórean way". Because of this, the arrival of an Elf on the island in this episode has a big impact on their society.
The episode's title, "Adar", is the word for "father" in Sindarin, one of Tolkien's constructed languages for the Elves. It is the name given to the leader of the Orcs in the series, who makes a brief, out-of-focus appearance at the end of this episode. The tunnels that are being dug by the Orcs through the beautiful landscape of the Southlands were inspired by the trenches of World War I. The scene where Arondir reluctantly cuts down a tree was originally improvised by actor Ismael Cruz Córdova during his audition for the series. He explained that cutting down a tree is one of the most difficult things an Elf can do due to their spiritual connection to nature, and he felt this only added to the character's struggles after losing his friend and father figure in the episode.
Casting
The season's cast includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Míriel, Maxim Baldry as Isildur, Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, Ismael Cruz Córdova as Arondir, Trystan Gravelle as Pharazôn, Lenny Henry as Sadoc Burrows, Ema Horvath as Eärien, Markella Kavenagh as Elanor "Nori" Brandyfoot, Lloyd Owen as Elendil, Megan Richards as Poppy Proudfellow, Dylan Smith as Largo Brandyfoot, Charlie Vickers as Halbrand, Daniel Weyman as the Stranger, and Sara Zwangobani as Marigold Brandyfoot. Also starring in the episode are Augustus Prew as Médhor, Simon Merrells as Revion, Anthony Crum as Ontamo, Alex Tarrant as Valandil, Beau Cassidy as Dilly Brandyfoot, Thusitha Jayasundera as Malva, Maxine Cunliffe as Vilma, Joseph Mawle as Adar, Jed Brophy as Vrath, Antonio Te Maioha as the sail master, Edward Clendon as Lurka, Luke Hawker as Magrot, Phil Grieve as Bazur, Phil Vaughan as the smithy, and Jason Hood as Tamar. Robert Strange plays an unnamed Orc in the episode.
Design One of the initial "guideposts" that the showrunners gave production designer Ramsey Avery was to ensure that the audience could easily identify the different cultures of Middle-earth in the series. Costume designer Kate Hawley had created mood boards that established a design language for each Middle-earth culture and Avery was thankful that he could use these as the starting point for his own work. A "war room" was assembled where the design language for each culture was defined. Dialect coach Leith McPherson, who also worked on the Hobbit films, established different dialects for each culture. The production had use of seven stages and multiple backlot spaces across Auckland Film Studios, Kumeu Film Studios, and Kelly Park Film Studios; Kelly Park is a former equestrian center where they could dig into the dirt floor. Wētā Workshop created props, weapons, and prosthetics for the season. Daniel Reeve, who was responsible for calligraphy and maps on the films, returned to do the same for the series and to invent new writing systems.
High Men Payne, McKay, and Avery put a lot of focus on designing Númenor, especially because it had not been seen in previous Tolkien adaptations. The showrunners said they were obsessed with getting the design right and depicting Númenor as the "greatest kingdom of Men that ever existed". Avery worked closely with Yip on the designs before confirming them with the showrunners. They planned out the entire city, with three layers of architecture based on Tolkien's history of Númenor: the original Elvish layer, which is vertical and ethereal; a more "Mannish" layer as the Númenóreans developed their own culture; and an anti-Elvish layer as they cut ties with the Elves. Because the realm of Gondor in the films is founded by Númenóreans, Avery wanted Númenor to look like the inspiration for the Gondor city Minas Tirith but with more "grandeur, beauty, and richness".