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Despite facing some unfavorable reviews and backlash from self-described “fans,” The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon ultimately became a hit series. The show’s second season premiered on August 29, 2024, and concluded on October 3, 2024, with the final episode titled “Shadow and Flame.”
Amazon has labeled the second season a success. Additionally, both critics and fans have noted that it represents an improvement over the first season. And while everyone is waiting for an official confirmation that a third season is going to be made, the fans are still discussing the revelations related to the final episode.
But not just the fans! Namely, showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay sat down for a talk with The Hollywood Reporter in which they revealed several interesting details about the final episode. In this report, we are going to focus on those revelations that are related to The Stranger, whose true identity has finally been revealed!
Among the characters in the series, The Stranger has definitely been one of the most fascinating characters in the entire series. Played by Daniel Weyman, the character has been a major mystery throughout the two seasons of the show, with everyone wandering about the character’s true identity.
While we have been correct in our assumptions that it could be Gandalf, the showrunners have provided us with more details related to the decision to make him Gandalf in the series, despite all the potential lore-related issues. Here is what they said:
I was relieved that you didn’t stick with “Grand Elf” because I was thinking, “Oh, is this going to be some weird legally differentiated Kirkland version of Gandalf?” Was this a character you had rights to all along? Was this reveal always the plan?
JD PAYNE Yeah, we’ve had the rights to him from beginning and certainly we had leanings in terms of who we suspected The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) was going to become. The further we got into the story, the further it just made sense for him to be Gandalf. And there are a couple of reasons. One, Gandalf has this strangely strong relationship with Halflings.
He’s a wizard who loves to hang out in the Shire. Why? And we thought, “Well, if at one point in his existence he had vulnerably come to Middle-earth in this challenging time with no memory of who he was, and he had been found by ancestors of the Hobbits and they had helped him, that would be a thing he would never forget.”
Second, we see this character crosses path with Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear) and has a relationship in which he can learn his power as a wizard. Gandalf, in the books, right before he’s about to leave Middle-earth, the last thing he does is to say, “Before I leave, I’m going to go hang out with Tom Bombadil, and I have some questions I need to ask him.”
And usually, when you’re leaving a place, you don’t go meet a new person you’ve never talked to before; you hang out with your friends. We talked about other options. There were blue wizards who were around in the North during the Second Age who went to the East. This just felt like the story that wanted to be told.
PATRICK MCKAY Also, we love this character. The idea of an earlier version of Gandalf on a journey of self-discovery felt like really fertile ground.
So, is this Gandalf being born for the first time?
MCKAY Well, Middle-earth has many ages and many histories, and there are tantalizing hints in some of J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings that Gandalf has appeared in different forms and has walked among various races. The idea that perhaps there is even an earlier story of him is for someone else to tell.
Because when he comes back as Gandalf the White, he’s discombobulated for a few minutes. But this time, not knowing who he was, not knowing his powers, for such a long time … I was wondering what the sort of internal explanation was for that?
PAYNE: Those details we might reveal as the story continues to go forward. But he did have an identity before that moment in the crater.
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