Whether you love The Rings of Power or not, most fans can agree on one thing: the series is a bit too invested in questions we already kind of know the answers to. Prime Video’s foray into the realm of Middle-earth followed a mystery box format, its first season teasing the introduction of the evil entity Sauron. The Rings of Power ran on the idea that Sauron could truly be anyone in disguise, from the disillusioned blacksmith Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) to the imposing, amnesic Stranger (Daniel Weyman).
After Season 1 reached its halfway point, it was pretty clear that Halbrand was the series’ Big Bad, while the Stranger seemed like a much-younger incarnation of Gandalf the Grey. The season finale confirmed the former, but the Stranger’s true identity has still not been explicitly revealed. It may be the most obvious mystery going into Rings of Power’s second season, but it’s one that showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne also promise to answer before long.
“Really for us, this isn’t one of these sort of things where we’re trying to purposely be concealing something or there’s some big rug-pull coming,” Payne recently told IGN. “Really, the journey that we want fans to go on is the same journey that The Stranger himself is going on, which is one of self-discovery.”
The Stranger went through an intense journey in The Rings of Power Season 1. After inexplicably falling from the sky, the character wakes with no memory or real form of speech. He’s nurtured by a Harfoot named Nori (Markella Kavenagh) and demonstrates a capacity for magic; that comes in handy during a confrontation in the season finale. It’s here that the Stranger learns he’s a wizard, unlocking his latent potential. His journey will continue in Season 2: with the help of a fellow wizard, Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear), the Stranger will hopefully learn to control his powers and try to make sense of his destiny.
“Is it my task to stop the fire?” the Stranger asks in the latest trailer for The Rings of Power Season 2. Even here, his true identity feels like an open secret; at this point we’re just waiting for someone in the series to say the name “Gandalf.”
The Rings of Power showrunners did not confirm or deny that the Stranger is actually Gandalf in their conversation with IGN. “But we can say that yes, the name will be revealed by the end of Season 2,” Payne added.
That confirmation may feel unnecessary to most fans, given the context clues. But Payne and McKay seem determined to take us on a true journey with the Stranger, and keep his story rooted in his own perspective as much as possible. It’s a clever way to approach a new story in familiar IP: we all know the Stranger is probably Gandalf, but it’s more important that the Stranger discovers that truth himself. And given a season’s worth of build-up, it’s safe to assume that Season 2 will reveal the truth in epic fashion.
