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Despite a trainwreck with an eye-watering budget for a first season,Rings of Powergot another season and it was what a lot of us were expecting. On the lore front things are still a ragged fabric strung loosely together in a facsimile of Tolkein, and you just have to take what you can from it unfortunately.
One particular point of interest is The Stranger. A bizarre fellow that fell to Middle Earth in Season One and despite the world’s biggest neon sign above his head saying Gandalf, he apparently isn’t and we all have to coyly play along. For those that want a concrete answer, good luck. But we’ve scraped together a few theories on who The Stranger in Rings Of Power is.
Who Is The Stranger?
Ok so whilst Rings of Power won’t call him Gandalf, for nowThe Stranger remains namelessdespite other characters trying to name him. LikeNori for examplewho tries Andwise, Doderic, Fredegar and the timeNori almost says Gandalfoutright in reference to The Stranger being afraid that he’lllose control without a gand. A gand being another name for a staff, and a little on the nose.
Though that latter one didn’t stick as it probably pricked up the ears of aTolkein Estate Copyright Lawyersomewhere. It’s also not the last time theyskirt the fine linewith The Strangers identity as well as other little references.
A lot of fans find it odd that Rings of Power seems to often referencePeter Jacksons Lord of The Ringsand not the Tolkein book.
But what we know so far about The Stranger is that he’s an Istar and takes the role ofa guiding Wizard to Nori and Poppyas they go on their little journey. So he’s anextremely old angellic creaturethat’s forgot who he was, wasrescued by two Hardfootsand is now helping them with magic when he can.
All whilstslowlyrecovering his memoriesas they travel across Middle Earth together
Similar to howGandalf guided Sam and Frodoinitially. The Stranger also had frequentvisions or dreams about a staffand of course there’s his ability to wield magic. So we’re inWizard territoryfor sure.
We also learn from Tom Bombadil of all people that our mystery magic man has a destiny that’s set to collide orintertwine withthe Dark Lord Sauronand another evil Dark Wizard. Again just like Gandalf did in the Fellowship against Sauron and Saruman, it’s all so familiar.
There’s also theinfamous line in the Season One finalewhere The Stranger turns to Nori and says:” When in doubt, always follow your nose”.
Just likeGandalf did to the Fellowshipwhen they were lost in Moria. Gandalf chose the way because the air down one passage didn’t smell so foul by sayingthe exact same line.
But if he isn’t Gandalf despite all the evidence saying otherwise, who is he?
Casting A Light On Fan Theory
So whilst we canscrape what we can from the show, the gaps are unfortunately filled in withfan theory. Whether any of it is remotely close to what they decide to do in another season if Amazon decides it just wants toburn money againremains to be seen. But it can at least give us something to vaguely cling to.
Amazon has spent roughlyone billion dollarsso far on Rings of Power. It’s currentlythe most expensive TV showever created, even though it often doesn’t look like it.
For example, in Tolkein lore duringthe Third Age, Gandalf, Saruman and Radagast all were active in Middle Earth tofight against the rise of Sauron. So we could potentially single The Strangers' identity down to one of those three. But knowing how much they could actually use fromthe Tolkien Estate, we can probably rule them out.
Another theory is that he could bea Blue Wizardthat they’re introducing for the show or someone from the books that’s barely mentioned. This stems from the theory abouttwo Blue Wizards in Tolkien’s lorethat arrived in the Second Age. So he could be one of those, but again it’sgrabbing at straws. Especially as they weresent to the East, and with The Stranger headed to Rhun it kind of lines up.
Or, and this is athird prevailing theory, he is Gandalf and they’re justnever going to address itand hope they don’t get sued. But with howthe shows audience numbersare doing, it may get killed off before we ever find out.
Why Won’t They Say Gandalf?
So it’s time to addressthe exceedingly large Elephant in the room, why won’t they say Gandalf?
The short of it islicensing. Tolkein isn’t with us anymore sadly and so the rights to his works are handled by the Tolkien Estate. This is primarily managed bymembers of his surviving family, their descendants, those that were given the rights, and so on.
Whenever there’sa Lord Of The Rings project be that show, film or game. The Estate has the rights to release the use of particularcharacters and locations inMiddle Earthfor an exorbitant amount. This applies per character, per appearance. So it can get very pricey, very fast.
You can start to see where the problems come in.
Lack of access to licencing rights is also why we get random things like Tom Bombadil, Barrow Wights,Hardfoots instead of Hobbitsand refrences to The Shire without naming it. Amazon could afford those.
WhenAmazon approached the Tolkein Estatefor the rights to use any and all of Tolkien’s work, they were obviously givenvery, very limited controlover what and who they could use. Which is why we have the Rings Of Power. The era, locations and characters were what they could get or pad out from the Simarillion.
And can you guess who they weren’t allowed to have?
Yes, it’s Gandalf, plus quite a lot of other big names.
If he’sused, mentioned, named or appears in any shape or formthen Amazon gets slapped with the world’s most expensive Copyright Lawsuit from a legal group you do not want knowing you exist. Which is why we find ourselves as fans, or rather followers of this mess, in thislittle dance of all knowing that it’s Gandalfbut never having the show say it.
They even go so far as to set up The Stranger witha quest to find a staff, and often remarking that men mistake him for an elf with his magic. Why this is so frustratingly and annoyingly significant is that inTolkeins Unfinished Taleshe says the name Gandalf means “Elf of the Wand”, or Gand Elf.
Aren’t the Rings Of Powers writers so clever.
But instead of just biting the bullet andwriting a coherent story for us to followabout a character they probably shouldn’t have included in the first place, the show just looks at the audience witha little knowing nudge and wink. We all just have to play along and as we miss the good old days ofPeter Jackson’s Fellowship of The Ringand long for something better.
