Who is the guy in the meteor from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power?

Is the meteor man Radagast?

As I alluded to above, Gandalf wasn’t the only wizard. We all remember Saruman, who went over to Sauron’s side during the War of the Ring. Then there’s a Radagast, a nature-loving wizard who featured fairly heavily in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies.

Meteor Man does at least one thing that reminded me of Radagast: at one point he talks to some fireflies to help him communicate with Nori, the harfoot who found him after he crashed. Radagast was known to talk to animals. Also, his general spaciness recalls Radagast; dude didn’t have his head screwed on completely striaght. Perhaps they’re one and the same?

Again, this is very unlikely, because all the wizards — Radagast included — are said to have arrived during the Third Age. The Rings of Power takes place in the Second, ergo, not Radagast.

And again, if Meteor Man does end up being Radagast anyway, The Rings of Power producers will have some ‘splaining to do.

Is the meteor man Sauron?

Yes, I know these choices are crazy. There aren’t many characters who could survive falling to Middle-earth in a meteor, so our picks are limited.

As already mentioned, Sauron is a Maia, one of the strongest in existence and certainly the strongest being on Middle-earth. He could survive a meteor crash…but what would he be doing up there in the first place?

As the show lays out for us, Sauron fought for his master Morgoth during the First Age of Middle-earth. After Morgoth’s defeat, Sauron disappeared; Galadriel has apparently been searching for him for centuries. We don’t where exactly he went or what exactly he was doing during this time; Tolkien never fills us in. Maybe he lived in a meteor for a while?

There is one troubling thing about Meteor Man worth noting: when he uses his powers, things around him die. We see this most clearly with the fireflies he uses to communicate with Nori. Those bugs are dead. That seems to be the kind of thing Sauron would do; whatever he was in the beginning, he has long since become a spirit of malevolence. Then again, it’s hard to know if Meteor Man killed the fireflies intentionally or if he was as surprised as the rest of us.

This doesn’t seem likely, but maybe there’s some big twist coming. And speaking of things that aren’t likely…