In order to explain this conundrum, Tolkien adapted the trolls that appear in his later works to be far more bestial, and to have less reaction to the sun, because they have been bred specifically to do so under years of corruption from Sauron’s influence. In essence, they are a different kind of troll, protected from the daylight’s adverse effects by Sauron’s dominance of them. But a similar question has been raised about the orcs in the First and Second Age of Middle Earth after the release of the latest Rings of Power trailer shows colonies of orcs in a way that they have never been depicted before.
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In previous trailers, there have been shots shown of the usual armor wearing orcs marching up the battlements, presumably towards Arondir’s tower. This is expanded upon in the newer trailer to show an epic battle scene between the handsome elf and his assailants, as he sends an avalanche of rocks pouring down on the orcs below him. There is also a later scene in the trailer that shows Arondir leaping towards his enemies in battle, before being thrown off a cliff, at which point the camera angle turns around to reveal the face of one of the orcs who pushed him.
At first glance, there is nothing particularly unusual about this orc, he appears to have the same sort of grey, shriveled skin, animalistic teeth and gnarled, clawed hands. But upon closer inspection, there is one thing that makes this orc different from the ones we have seen in the later Jackson movie adaptation: his clothes. In every single shot of this orc, he is covered head to foot in swaths of material, including a large baggy hood that covers his face from the light. The same goes for the other orcs that can be seen in the scene with Arondir. This creates a very interesting question: are the orcs in the First and Second Age of Middle Earth weakened by sunlight, like the earlier trolls of this time period were. And if so, why?
It is actually highly plausible that this is true, and that this will play a big part in the upcoming series. When looking at the origin of orcs, canon suggests that Morgoth took a band of elves as captives and kept them in the dungeons of his fortress where he carried out all sorts of cruel and evil experiments upon them until he was able to corrupt them so thoroughly that they became different creatures entirely. This he did to get back at Eru, the creator of the world, who loved the elves above all else, as they were known as the children of Illuvatar, the first beings that he awoke in Middle Earth. When Morgoth corrupted them and turned them into orcs, he destroyed so much of their original being that they were forever twisted to darkness, and could never be redeemed.
So if these orcs in the Rings of Power trailer stem from those originally created in Morgoth’s evil, they are a much wilder, much more archaic and evil breed than the ones shown in the later films. If this is true, then these orcs are so imbued with evil that any form of light would pierce and burn them. In many ways, the sunlight is akin to the light of Valinor, the light that Galadriel keeps referencing as she talks about hope and freedom from the troubles of the past, the light that they thought would last forever. This light would be extremely painful for those recently twisted, once beautiful elves-turned-orcs to be near, because the purity of the light and its memory would conflict torturously with Sauron’s corruption.
This could corroborate with one final scene in the latest trailer, in which a group of figures is seen clothed in large cloaks and masks, reminiscent of the plague-doctor masks of 17th century Europe. These skull-like masks and other garments are clearly used to block ou the sun, as is the giant parapet above the figures which gives the scene an appearance of a shady black market. Now whether these figures are indeed orcs who are weakened by the sun, or a civilization of men such as those in far Harad who dress this way to survive the extreme heat of the South, remains to be seen.
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