The Rings Of Power Season 2 Rumor Suggests Will See Galadriel Captured By Orcs

Galadriel has quite a story arc in Season 1 of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power." She starts as a young Elf in the heavenly realm of Valinor. By the end of that same season, she's managed to anger her own king and leave a trail of chaos in her wake as she attempts to chase down and catch the Dark Lord Sauron before he surfaces again as a world superpower. Despite her best efforts, Sauron manages to succeed in resurrecting his fortunes, and he does so in a way that leaves Galadriel flabbergasted — by tricking her into trusting him in the guise of the tragic Man Halbrand.

When Season 2 starts, Galadriel won't be in proactive "catch evil before it can get established" mode. Instead, she'll be reacting to the news that Sauron is alive and well — and likely about to make his first major play to conquer Middle-earth. How Galadriel will react to this news is unknown, and we likely won't know much solid news for a while still (it looks like Season 2 will arrive in 2024 at this point), but a recent rumor indicates that Galadriel will stay active in resisting Sauron ...and even get into some trouble along the way.

Fansite Fellowship of Fans shared an exclusive scoop claiming that "Galadriel will get captured by Adar and the Orcs at some point in The Rings of Power Season 2." Adar (Joesph Mawle in Season 1) is the villainous counterpart to Sauron (Charlie Vickers). He's created by the show (i.e., he's not an original Tolkien character), and the last time we saw the compelling antagonist, he had just become the de-facto ruler of the newly minted Mordor. The question is, how and where could Galadriel cross paths with the corrupt Elf?

If the rumor is true, and Galadriel ends up in an Orcish prison, there are a couple of scenarios in which that could easily happen. Orcs live all over Middle-earth, but the fact that the leak names "Adar and the Orcs" seems to point toward Mordor as the location of Galadriel's captivity. Perhaps Galadriel will chase after the newly revealed Sauron, who is shown in Season 1's final moments re-entering Mordor. In that case, the Elf leader could end up caught by Adar and the Orcs as she attempts to track down and finally dispatch the Dark Lord she's sought for so many centuries.

It's hard to picture any other setting where Adar and his Orcs could get close enough to get their claws on Galadriel. They hate the sunlight, and they finally got a sun-free home base in Mordor. The thought that they would leave it so soon doesn't make much sense. Then again, Adar is an ambitious leader. Maybe by Season 2, he already has plans to spread his conquests beyond the mountainous walls of his new kingdom. If that happens, they could bump into Galadriel anywhere, really.

Realistically, though, if Galadriel is going to be caught by Adar, it's probably going to be in Mordor. That doesn't exactly fit with any of Tolkien's original writings, but J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay have shown that they're willing to bend the rules a bit, especially where timelines are concerned. Technically, there's a lengthy part of Galadriel's backstory where she wanders all over Middle-earth (the source material is really vague at this point). Perhaps they'll use this wandering aspect as the inspiration to send Galadriel south to spend a stint in the jail cells of Adar and his minions.

One interesting potential factor in all of this is that, if Galadriel does end up captured by Adar and the Orcs, the Elf herself has already captured Adar in the past. She questioned him brutally in Season 1, treating him like a piece of dirt and threatening to torture his Orcish followers if he wouldn't cooperate. Up until that point, the two had never crossed paths, and Adar capturing Galadriel would have simply been a run-of-the-mill jail situation. Now that Adar's been done dirty by an angry Galadriel, will the Orc captain have any mercy left for her if and when the tables are turned?

It's also worth pointing out that, even though Adar is a made-up, non-canon character, he had an integral role in Season 1 (Mordor wouldn't exist in J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay's adaptation without him — nor would much of Sauron's vengeful ambitions). The character appears ready to resume his essential status moving forward, too.

Adar has been recast for Season 2 — he'll now be played by "Peaky Blinders" star Sam Hazeldine — which shows that the creators aren't about to write him out of the narrative just because they can't keep the same actor on set. Previous rumors have also claimed that Vickers and Hazeldine have shared time on set, separately adding that Halbrand/Sauron might get severely injured during the earlier episodes of the season.

Whatever way you slice it, Adar is already poised to play a key role in Season 2. The fact that Galadriel may end up in his clutches indicates that he could be more central than may have been thought. Of course, the only real way of knowing is to watch the next season when it finally comes out next year.