Fans who tuned in to the season finale of Stargate SG-1 were left with an ominous final image: Vala’s Ori-created child is about to be born. And when Season Ten arrives this summer, born she will be.
The child, named Adria, will rapidly grow to become a young woman early in the season, serving the Ori as their appointed leader of the bloody crusade to convert the Milky Way Galaxy.
“She’s an interesting character because she’s the Ori cheating,” executive producer Brad Wright said in an interview with GateWorld. “If an Ori had come to lead their armies in ascended form, that would have broken the laws of the Ancients and they would have been fought by the Ancients.”
The new character is more than a child in an adult’s body — she’s evil incarnate, the Ori’s attempt to create one of their own in human flesh. Because they cannot enter our galaxy in their ascended form without incurring the wrath of the Ancients, the Ori create a leader who is as powerful as a human-form Ori could possibly be.
“Essentially, Adria is the Ori equivalent of a Harcesis,” Wright explained, referring to a human child who possesses the knowledge of the Goa’uld (“Absolute Power”). “It’s as much of the knowledge of the Ori that they could cram into a highly-evolved human.
“And it also happens to be Vala’s daughter. And I don’t think I’m spilling too much by suggesting that we knew at the end of last season that she was about to give birth — and she does. And that child becomes Adria. And in a very, very good script written by Robert [Cooper] — ‘Flesh and Blood’ — she starts to grow. It is freaky.”
The 7-year-old Adria is rumored to be played by child actor Jodelle Ferland (“Silent Hill,” Smallville) in the season premiere. According to the Internet Movie Database, the 12-year-old Adria will be played by Brenna O’Brien (“Merlin’s Apprentice,” Zixx: Level Two) in the same episode.
The 20-something Adria viewers will come to know on a more permanent basis is currently being cast, and will appear in “Counterstrike.”
Season Ten premieres with “Flesh and Blood” this July on The SCI FI Channel in the U.S., and this fall on Sky One in the U.K.