Popverse's top stories of the day

• How Disney+'s What If...? is the moonshot for the next 50 years of Marvel Studios & the MCU
• Watch: Dune: Prophecy's Desmond Hart explained: His secret identity, his past, and his possible future [SPOILERS]
• Dune: Prophecy's Desmond Hart explained: His secret identity, his past, and his possible future [SPOILERS]

Of the many characters in Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the orc-father Adar is of special interest. Not only is he original to the show, but he's also swapped actors between the first and second season. Plus, though he's certainly not one of the goodies, his stance as protector of orcs makes him a complex and even empathetic villain. Now, after the release of the second season's third trailer, we're even more interested in the mysterious malcontent, as he may his character arc may be pointed into territory almost never explored in Tolkien lore. Check out the video first and then we'll get into why.

As you can see, Adar's character only appears in flashing snippets throughout, far less than the character who appears to be the main focus of the second season, Sauron. But at about the 1:23 mark of the trailer, one of Adar's brief appearances seems to hint at the idea that he's willing to lend his orcs to Galadriel's army. "Sauron is my enemy as much as yours," he says, "I can help you destroy him."

Whether or not it makes sense in the context of the show, the idea of orcs working alongside men or especially elves is a giant departure from what we know of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth. Nowhere in any of the books is there an example of an orc choosing to fight alongside the elves, in fact, some readers theorize that orcs wouldn't even be capable of making a choice like that, as they might be automatons fully in thrall to either Sauron or Tokien's bigger, badder Dark Lord, Morgoth. 

The closest we've ever gotten to an orc/hero alliance is probably from the well-loved but canonically questionable Shadow of Mordor games. But even then, most of the orcs allied with the Gondorian main character are doing so under mind control - only one especially skeevy orc named Ratbag comes to the hero's aid on his own accord.

But who knows? Maybe Rings of Power will change that idea of orcs. Tolkien himself often wrestled with the nature of these characters his heroes would kill by the droves; perhaps fans of the show will get the chance to do the same.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power heads to Amazon Prime Video August 29.

Whether you're Shirefolk, Elven, Dwarven, or something else, there's a good reason to love Lord of the Rings. We do! With that in mind, we have a dragon's horde of goodies for you from a Lord of the Rings reading guide, a Lord of the Rings watch guide, details on the upcoming animated film Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim, a full the Lord of the Rings reunion panel you can watch, how the OG Hobbit actors stay in touch every day on a groupchat, and the true message of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, according to Gimli himself - John Rhys-Davies.