With the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power now in the books, we still don’t officially know whether or not “The Stranger” is actually Gandalf, or to be more precise, the wizard who has not yet been given the name Gandalf. If it makes you feel better, Stranger actor Daniel Weyman doesn’t know either. Speaking to EW, he revealed, “The audience knows exactly the same as what I know. I haven’t started season 2 yet, and I literally have no more knowledge than anybody else, which is actually really great.”
One thing we do know, thanks to that same interview, is that rather than turning to Ian McKellen for inspiration, he picked a less likely source. Namely, Boris Karloff as the monster in Frankenstein. The Stranger, who’s gradually learning how to interact with the world, could have easily gone down a monstrous path with one misstep, Weyman says.
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“All the monster was doing was copying,” Weyman explains. “How was he to know that the child wouldn’t float in as beautiful a way as the flower on the water? But in that moment, suddenly the human perception of the monster has totally changed, and the monster becomes bad, and the way the monster is treated is different. Suddenly, we’re in this world where the writing’s on the wall, and the two sides have been drawn. I thought those were brilliant notes for the Stranger. Hopefully, we’ve seen that kind of darkness and light and lack of understanding and joy and pleasure and childish wonder and old-age wisdom.”
If he’s a mix of darkness and light, maybe he’s Saruman instead? It appears the showrunners will toy with us a little longer on that subject.
Do you think the Stranger is Gandalf? Or are the clues deliberate red herrings? Let us know in comments!
Recommended Reading: J.R.R. Tolkien 4-Book Boxed Set: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
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