Don’t be a stranger.
Spoilers below for the Season 2 finale of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”
The Stranger on Prime Video’s “Rings of Power,” played by Daniel Weyman, finally revealed his identity– as some viewers guessed, he is indeed a younger version of Gandalf.
Weyman told the Post that he didn’t know he was playing the famous wizard when he first landed the role.
“Literally right before filming that scene was the first time I learned that I was going to utter those words,” Weyman told The Post, referring to the Stranger proclaiming that his name will be Gandalf.
He added that the showrunners, J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay, sat him down to break the news shortly before filming the Season 2 finale.
“It was a pretty special moment.”
The English actor continued, “There was lots of talk around who he’s going to become, and [while] I wouldn’t have minded if he was any other version of a character who we’ve seen, or haven’t seen, I think there is inevitably something about the child in me going, ‘wait a second, you’re going to be playing this amazing heartwarming character who everybody knows.’ That’s a massive ‘pinch me’ moment.”
“The Rings of Power” is set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world thousands of years before the events of the Peter Jackson movies.
The show follows various characters during the forging of the rings of power and the rise of Sauron (Charlie Vickers), including the elves Galadriel (Cate Blanchett in the films, Morfydd Clark in the show), Elrond (Hugo Weaving in the films, Robert Aramayo here) and a host of other characters such as the dwarves Durin (Owain Arthur) and his wife, Disa (Sophia Nomvete), and the Harfoot — a type of hobbit — Elanor “Nori” Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh).
For all of Season 1 and most of Season 2, the Stranger was Nori’s friend and traveling companion, and his identity was unknown. He fell out of the sky in Season 1 and had no memory of his past, but he could do magic.
Now, by the end of Season 2, he’s met Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear) and he’s stepping into his identity as Gandalf.
“It’s not like some moment where he’s like ‘Ah, this all fits into place, I know exactly who I am.’ Because this is the first time Gandalf has existed in Middle Earth,” Weyman explained.
He added, “So rather than ‘oh, this is who I am’ it’s ‘this is another piece of the jigsaw puzzle. This name feels right… going forward.’ But it’s not suddenly, he’s the person we know he’s going to be at the end of the Third Age.”
Weyman said that he didn’t feel like he had to echo Ian McKellen’s performance from the movies.
“I don’t feel the pressure. I obviously loved the portrayal of Gandalf that I know. It’s extraordinary. But I don’t feel like I’m trying to copy it, because that Gandalf has gone through all these other things. It’s only because of this experience [in the show] that will give us an understanding of where he got his wisdom, his honesty, all these different things he has. We’ll see how they were formed.”
Weyman added that he was “thrilled” to learn the news.
“It was a cool thing to be starting the journey of – and it is a long journey. There’s a lot of difference between this version of Gandalf and the film version, or any other version in the books. He hasn’t been through the stuff he needs to go through to get there,” he said.
He continued, “That allows us a lot of storytelling space. You think about – how do you become wise? You certainly don’t just be wise.”
