Game of Thrones veteran Joseph Mawle played the dark elf Adar in the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. In season 2, Adar is played by Sam Hazeldine.

The second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has landed on Prime Video, with the first three episodes available to watch right now. Viewers may notice that one character got recast: Joseph Mawle, who played the dark elf Adar on the first season of The Lord of the Rings prequel show, has been replaced by Slow Horses star Sam Hazeldine. What gives?

Happily, we don’t have to go searching for the answer. Mawle, who played Benjen Stark on Game of Thrones, sent out a message about the recast in 2022, the same year the first season of The Rings of Power aired. “I loved my time exploring middle earth and diving into Tolkien’s mythology. I’m so honoured that the character was liked. He cared deeply about telling you his story,” he wrote on Twitter. “Though as an actor it remains my wish, my job description to explore new characters and worlds. Wishing all the best to cast and crew for S2, I’ll be cheering you on from the sidelines.”

So it sounds like Mawle left the role to pursue other opportunities and play new characters in other worlds. Is that the whole of the story? We can’t know for sure; I’ll note that Mawle played Benjen for multiple seasons on Game of Thrones, so he doesn’t seem to have any formal objection to playing the same character over multiple seasons of TV, at least not at the time. But there’s no real reason to second guess his explanation, so we’ll let it stand.

As for Hazeldine, he sounds psyched to take on the part of Adar and has nothing but respect for Mawle. “I worked with [Mawle] years ago,” Hazeldine told Entertainment Weekly. “I think he’s a fantastic actor, and I really loved what he did in the first season. So it was actually a pleasure to take the baton from him. Obviously we don’t look the same, but the character is instantly recognizable.”

If you’re going to recast a character, Adar is a good candidate since he’s buried under a lot of makeup and prosthetics; I’m betting a lot of people at home didn’t even realize the role had been recast. Whether you did or not, new episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power drop Thursday on Prime Video.