‘The Rings of Power’ reveal of The Stranger’s identity is a masterstroke the new ‘LOTR’ movies can learn from

This article contains spoilers for The Rings of Power season 2!

After a lot of secret-keeping that fueled many theories and discussions, The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 finale finally revealed The Stranger’s (Daniel Weyman) identity.

And it was everyone’s favourite wizard from Middle-earth with a wide pointy hat and old wooden staff—Gandalf. The bets were already stacked on The Stranger being Gandalf. But there’s something to be said about how The Rings of Power chose to reveal this iconic character with a slow burn, giving viewers time to connect with him, care for him, and accept him as Gandalf while another portrayal of the character was already etched forever in everyone’s hearts. 

It’s a funny coincidence that mere days before Daniel Weyman’s Stranger was revealed to be Gandalf, Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf the Grey in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit movies, had said that he was open to reprising the role again in the new LOTR movies if the filmmakers were quick to do them. 

Fans cheered over this because the mere suggestion that we would have new actors reprise iconic characters like Gandalf, Aragorn, or even Gollum felt unfathomable. Even The Rings of Power received lots of negative reactions to the suggestion (and eventually the reveal) that The Stranger was Gandalf, because, for one, it wasn’t canon for him to appear in the Second Age. And two, acceptance was an issue.

But then again, there was clear backlash when Orlando Bloom suggested he could return as Legolas using AI and he has discussed it with Andy Serkis for The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. So does that mean we don’t tell these beautiful stories at all if the actors cannot return to reprise these characters? Because look at the kind of unnecessary hate The Rings of Power has gotten, constantly criticized for not adhering to canon and being compared to the LOTR movies ad nauseam that, BTW, digressed from canon quite a bit too. So how do we tell these stories then? Well, The Rings of Power‘s introduction of Gandalf is a pretty fantastic example to follow.

Why The Stranger’s arc in Rings of Power season 1 was important before the reveal

There have been plenty of hints since season 1 for The Stranger being Gandalf. The ragged old cloak he dons is very reminiscent of Gandalf’s look. And then there was that one scene in the season 1 finale when he says a proper Gandalf quote to Nori, “When in doubt, follow your nose.” These little nods kept the discussion going and warmed people up to the idea that The Stranger could be Gandalf. But the biggest hint has been that his first encounter on Middle-earth was with the ancestors of the very race of hobbits that would give us Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin.

The Harfoot storyline got a lot of hate for being completely removed from the rest of the story in the series and many claimed that it served no purpose. But even if the Harfoots don’t have a part to play just yet, Gandalf does. And his story is so deeply intertwined with theirs. It’s not just about the parallels that this draws with the events of the Third Age; The Rings of Power makes a very nuanced point about nature and nurture here.

A recurring theme in Tolkien’s mythology is about what people are born as and what their actions or choices make them into. Sauron was a Maiar, just like Gandalf, and so was Saruman and they were both born good but got corrupted due to the company they kept. And look where their choices and actions got them. We see that in The Rings of Power with Adar; born an elf but becomes an Uruk. But despite his power, even though he is a ring bearer and even after he becomes Gandalf the White, Gandalf remains grounded and unwavering, displaying the same kind of resilience to evil that Frodo and Sam did. 

It could be because of his ring, Narya, that Círdan gave him. But couldn’t it also be because of the company that Gandalf has always kept that nurtured him? Because when he first arrived on Middle-earth— as the lore indicates, devoid of any memory and vulnerable to human weaknesses—he learnt how to be from the best? The Harfoots, with their love for God’s green earth and all the small things that could make the biggest differences, their sense of friendship and not leaving people behind, and above all, love for a good song? 

The Stranger understood the value of these things and he learnt to choose them before he picked up his power, which came in the form of a staff that we see Nori casually discard in the season 2 finale. Hobbits don’t care for power or riches, because there are other far better things in life, and The Stranger imbibed all of this before he became Gandalf. It had a lasting impact on him. No wonder he kept returning to the hobbits to smoke his favourite leaf and to seek them out for adventures because he knew these little fellas always got the job done but never let a toxic workplace affect them for long! 

The Stranger’s staff quest in season 2 adds more meaning to his identity reveal

In season 2, The Stranger has recurring dreams about a staff. The kind of wooden staffs that the Stranger attempts to take in his first few tries look similar to the humble, wooden one that Gandalf carries. Furthermore, the meaning of the name ‘Gandalf’ lends more significance to this quest revealing his identity.

You see, J.R.R. Tolkien took Gandalf’s name from the Völuspá’s Dvergatal, which has a list of dwarf names. And it is based on the Old Norse word Gandálfr, made up of two words “gandr,” meaning “wand,” “staff,” or “magic,” and “alfr,” meaning “elf,” which together forms which Gandalf, meaning “wand elf”. The language that Tolkien created for his dwarves, Khuzdul, has Gandalf being called “Tharkûn,” which would translate to “staff-man.” So clearly, the staff being made a huge deal was a dead giveaway too.

We got to understand a new aspect of Gandalf as a character that we never did before in the Peter Jackson movies, which didn’t elaborate much on the Istari. As for the lore, Tolkien himself wrote and rewrote many versions, in one of which, he did suggest that the wizards could have arrived to Middle-earth in the Second Age too. It’s an interesting footnote, even if scratched out, to explore just so we can tell a whole new story about an already established character.

Connecting Gandalf to Tom Bombadil is life in full circle as per the lore

Finally, there is the matter of The Stranger’s path crossing with Tom Bombadil, which gave book readers further confirmation that he is most certainly Gandalf. In the books, Gandalf has more knowledge about Bombadil, as is indicated during the Council of Elrond, than anyone else. And after Sauron is defeated, Gandalf wants to pay Tom Bombadil a visit and have a long talk with him. It’s a tiny mention in The Return of The King book but when you play with the possibilities of what this association could mean, you get what The Rings of Power has done with the two fascinating characters who remain shrouded in some mystery.

It makes a neat circle for Gandalf’s journey to have begun with the Harfoots and Bombadil when Sauron was forging the rings of power and rising as the new Dark Lord, and to have ended with the hobbits and the defeat of Sauron, post which he would once again meet Bombadil before returning to Valinor.

The lore tells us that at the time of The Fellowship of The Ring, Tom Bombadil didn’t give two flying birds about the affairs of Middle-earth. You could say he had become more hands-off. But perhaps in the Second Age, he was more hands-on, just like the Valar or Eru Illúvatar (God) intervening in pivotal moments to help until the rings were forged and the Istari arrived to handle things? And who better than Bombadil to further instil good in Gandalf and build on the life lessons that the Harfoots had already shown him?

It would have been an utter disaster if The Rings of Power just straight up dropped a beloved character like Gandalf in the series set in an age where he canonically wasn’t even present. But by seeding him in slowly, exploring a whole new side to his story, and tying him to several other fascinating stories and characters that haven’t been explored yet, The Rings of Power nails the only way it could’ve introduced their version of this legendary Tolkien character and have the audience accept him.