Is the Stranger Gandalf or what? The Rings of Power is still giving mixed signals
By Dan Selcke
For two seasons now, fans of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power have been wondering after the identity of the Stranger, a mysterious, magic-wielding man who falls out of the sky in the series premiere. Only they haven't really been wondering, because the show has been heavily hinting since the beginning that the Stranger is actually Gandalf, the kindly old wizard we know from The Lord of the Rings. He looks like Gandalf, he parrots some of Gandalf's most popular phrases, and it just seems like the most obvious choice.
The season 2 finale apparently confirmed that the Stranger is indeed Gandalf. Some of the Stoor halflings from Rhûn call him "grand elf," which sounds an awful lot like Gandalf. "That's what they're going to call me, isn't it?" the Stranger mulls. He also finds a staff that looks an awful lot like the one Gandalf uses in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies.
That would seem to settle the matter, but The Rings of Power gives us other hints that perpetuate the mystery. To start, nowhere in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien is it said that Gandalf travels to the land of Rhûn, which is in the east of Middle-earth. It's said that two other wizards named Alatar and Pallando go into the east, never to be seen again. For a while, fans speculated that the Stranger and the newly introduced Dark Wizard could be these two wizards.
And the finale didn't totally dispel that theory. When the Dark Wizard and the Stranger meet, the Dark Wizard says it was the Stranger who convinced him to come to Middle-earth in the first place. That does indeed sound like the story of Alatar and Pallando.
All five of the Istari are divine beings sent to Middle-earth by the Valar, who are basically the gods of this world. Their job is to contest Sauron. According to Tolkien, Alatar and Saruman both volunteer to go on the journey. The Valar Yavanna asks that Saruman take with him the Istari Radagast, whom we spend a lot of time with in Peter Jackson's Hobbit movies. The Valar Manwë asks that Gandalf go. Meanwhile, Alatar convinces his friend Pallando to come with him.
So if any of the Istari convince any of the others to travel to Middle-earth, it's Alatar convincing Pallando. So it seems like The Rings of Power is giving us hints that the Stranger is Gandalf on the one hand and hints that he's Alatar on the other. I don't think the mystery is solved. In fact, it's even muddier now that the Dark Wizard is in the mix.
We haven't officially heard about a third season of The Rings of Power as of yet, but if it happens, it likely won't be on our screens until 2026 at the earliest.
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