The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power revealed that actor Ciarán Hinds will play a character called the Dark Wizard and provided some details on what viewers can expect from him.
Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor and Amelia Kenworhty as Mirdania in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios
In an exclusive given to The Irish Times, Prime Video revealed, “The mysterious being known as the Stranger is not the only wizard who has come to Middle-earth. For in the mysterious lands of Rhûn, another wizard awaits him.”
They added, “A dark and powerful wizard, whose origins and intentions are shrouded in secrecy, and who has a legion of magic-wielding acolytes who obey his every command, among them the three travellers who sought out the Stranger at the end of season one – on the Dark Wizard’s orders.”
Tanya Moodie as Gundabel in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios
Showrunner Patrick McKay also discussed the character with ComicBook.com. He was asked, “What does Dark Wizard mean? Like fallen Maia? What are we dealing with?”
McKay answered, “I don’t know if it’s that new of a concept. We have seen throughout Tolkien that, you know, powerful beings are tempted to evil. Gandalf will not carry the Ring for he fears the evil it could do through him. Saruman turns to evil believing that that’s the best way to save the world, you know, in whatever twisted logic he’s come up with.”
“So we know that good characters can turn to evil and we know that even wizards can turn to the dark side, so to speak, and watching how that’s gonna play out with Ciarán Hinds is gonna be hopefully a real thrill for people,” he added.
Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios
This revelation that the show will be introducing another wizard indicates it will be doubling down on its attempt to excise J.R.R. Tolkien from The Lord of the Rings.
In fact, McKay recently admitted to Entertainment Weekly that the whole reason he and fellow showrunner J.D. Payne and Amazon MGM Studios chose the Second Age was so they could do with it as they pleased.
He said, “The whole idea of doing a show in the Second Age was that it’s not a fixed target, there’s an enormous amount of room for creation and improv within a loose framework.”
Gavi Singh Chera as Merimac in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios
It’s unlikely that this strategy will work given it failed to in the first season. The Hollywood Reporter’s Kim Masters reported in April 2023 that 63% of people who watched part of the first episode did not finish the entire series.
She wrote, “While Amazon, like other streamers, provides only limited data — and internally, it held information even more closely than usual on the series — sources confirm that The Rings of Power had a 37 percent domestic completion rate (customers who watched the entire series).
For those outside the United States, the completion rate was higher. Masters shared, “Overseas, it reached 45 percent. (A 50 percent completion rate would be a solid but not spectacular result, according to insiders).”
Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Queen Regent Míriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios
According to Nielsen, the show was watched 1.253 billion minutes during its two-episode premiere at the beginning of September. However, that number quickly declined. In its second week viewership declined to 1.203 billion minutes viewed. By its third week it had fallen to 988 million minutes viewed.
That downward trend continued in the show’s fourth week. It only garnered 977 million minutes. The fifth week saw it fall to 966 million minutes. There was a slight jump up by the show’s finale when viewers were able to binge the entire series. It brought in 1.137 billion minutes.
However, the week after the show’s finale, it only had 570 million minutes viewed. The following week it was no longer on Nielsen’s Top 10 charts with minutes viewed below 354 million.
Owain Arthur as Durin IV; Sophia Nomvete as Disa in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios
What do you make of this Dark Wizard being introduced and how the series describes him?
