A new rumor claims that Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series plans to make the Stranger character into a “major rival and enemy against Sauron.”
Daniel Weyman as The Stranger in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022), Prime Video
This latest rumor comes from Fellowship of Fans on X, who first shared, “When the Stranger and Nori travel East they will encounter a ‘Wizard’ that will help train The Stranger improving his abilities and magic making him very powerful.”
The outlet added, “It is unsure yet whether this ‘Wizard’ is one of the Istari or just another ‘magical’ character.”
🚨EXCLUSIVE: When the Stranger and Nori travel East they will encounter a “Wizard” that will help train The Stranger improving his abilities and magic making him very powerful.
It is unsure yet whether this ‘Wizard’ is one of the Istari or just another ‘magical’ character.… pic.twitter.com/DYoNgmwG53
— Fellowship of Fans (@FellowshipFans) February 4, 2024
The outlet went on to allege, “The Stranger is being built up to be a future major rival and enemy against Sauron in future seasons. This season is where he will learn and improve his abilities.”
Excl: The Stranger is being built up to be a future major rival and enemy against Sauron in future seasons. This season is where he will learn and improve his abilities.
— Fellowship of Fans (@FellowshipFans) February 4, 2024
Fellowship of Fans also shared that part of The Stranger’s journey will seemingly be adapted from Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, which was published back in 1980 by Christopher Tolkien following the death of his father, J.R.R. Tolkien.
The book includes a number of stories about Gandalf, the Istari, the death of Isildur, the founding of Rohan, and more.
The outlet posted, “For Rhun Amazon got special permission and access to two texts outside of the Appendices- one being from the Unfinished Tales around the Istari and consequently access to use all 5 wizards if needed. The other text they got access to is where Tolkien mentioned some of the Istari being around in the Second Age and travelling East.”
Excl: For Rhun Amazon got special permission and access to two texts outside of the Appendices- one being from the Unfinished Tales around the Istari and consequently access to use all 5 wizards if needed. The other text they got access to is where Tolkien mentioned some of the… pic.twitter.com/Mfx6sXP7Mn
— Fellowship of Fans (@FellowshipFans) February 4, 2024
Finally, they also shared that mumakhils and oliphaunts “are creatures internally listed in the production.”
Excl: Mumakhils/ Oliphaunts are creatures internally listed in the production for #TheRingsOfPower Season 2
Art by Luke Martins pic.twitter.com/t7UVbtIlmE— Fellowship of Fans (@FellowshipFans) February 4, 2024
The whole storyline with The Stranger should be scrapped given it has no place in a Second Age story set in Tolkien’s legendarium. Tolkien was very clear as to when the wizards arrived in Middle-earth and it was during the Third Age, not the Second Age.
Appendix B clearly states under a section titled The Third Age, “When maybe a thousand years had passed, and the first shadow had fallen on Greenwood the Great, the Istari or Wizards appeared in Middle-earth. It was afterwards said that they came out of the Far West and were messengers sent to contest the power of Sauron, and to unite all those who had the will to resist him; but they were forbidden to match his power with power, or to seek to dominate Elves or Men by force and fear.”
Tolkien further elaborated, “They came therefore in the shape of Men, though they were never young and aged only slowly, and they had many powers of mind and hand. They had revealed their true names to few, but used such names as were given to them. The two highest of this order (of who it is said there were five) were called by the Eldar Curunír, ‘the Man of Skill’, and Mithrandir, ‘the Grey Pilgrim’, but by Men in the North Saruman and Gandalf. Curunír journeyed often into the East, but dwelt at last in Isengard. Mithrandir was closest in friendship with the Eldar, and wandered mostly in the West, and never made for himself any lasting abode.”
Ian McKellen as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), New Line Cinema
In Unfinished Tales, in the essay of the Istari, it also confirms the Istari did not arrive until the Third Age. The book states, “They belonged solely to the Third Age and then departed, and
none save maybe Elrond, Círdan and Galadriel discovered of what kind they were or whence they came.”
It goes on to note, “They first appeared in Middle-earth about the year 1000 of the Third Age, but for long they went about in simple guise, as it were of Men already old in years but hale in body, travellers and wanderers, gaining knowledge of Middle-earth and all that dwelt therein, but revealing to none their powers and purposes.”
Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Ian McKellen as Gandalf in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), Warner Bros.
As for how they arrived in Middle-earth, Unfinished Tales shares, “For they came from over the Sea out of the Uttermost West; though this was for long known only to Círdan, Guardian of the Third Ring, master of the Grey Havens, who saw their landings upon the western shores. Emissaries they were from Lords of the West, the Valar, who still took counsel for the governance of Middle-earth, and when the shadow of Sauron began first to stir again took this means of resisting him. For with the consent of Eru they sent members of their own high order, but clad in bodies of as of Men, real and not feigned, but subject to the fears and pains and weariness of earth, able to hunger and thirst and be slain; though because of their noble spirits they did not die, and aged only by the cares and labours of many long years.”
As for the members of the Istari, it states, “Of this Order the number is unknown, but of those that came to the North of Middle-earth, where there was most hope (because of the remnant of the Dunedain and of the Eldar that abode there), the chiefs was five. The first to come was one of noble mien and bearing, with raven hair, and a fair voice, and he was clad in white; great skill he had in works of hand, and he was regard by well-nigh all, even by the Eldar, as the head of the Order. Others there were also: two clad in sea-blue, and one in earthen-brown; and the last came one who seemed the least, less tall than the others, and in looks more aged, grey-haired and grey-clad, and leaning on a staff. But Círdan from their first meeting at the Grey Havens divined in him reverence, and he gave to his keeping the Third Ring, Narya the Red.”
Christopher Lee as Saruman in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), Warner Bros. Pictures
Tolkien would also detail that the Istari knew where they came from unlike how The Rings of Power depicts The Stranger. He detailed, “For it is said indeed that being embodied the Istari had needs to learn much anew by slow experience, and though they knew whence they came the memory of the Blessed Realm was to them a vision from afar off, for which (so long as they remained true to their mission) they yearned exceedingly.”
“Thus by enduring of free will the pangs of exile and the deceits of Sauron they might redress the evils of that time,” Tolkien wrote.
Ian McKellen as Gandalf confronts King Theoden in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2022), New Line Cinema
What do you make of this latest rumor regarding The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2?
