Showrunners McKay and Payne Break Down the Shocking Revelations About The Stranger in the Finale

Despite facing mixed reviews and backlash from some self-proclaimed “fans,” Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power ultimately emerged as a hit. The show’s second season, which premiered on August 29, 2024, and wrapped up on October 3, 2024, with the finale titled “Shadow and Flame,” has been hailed as a success by Amazon.

Both critics and fans agree that Season 2 marked a significant improvement over the first. While everyone eagerly awaits official confirmation of a third season, fans are buzzing over the major revelations in the final episode.

And it’s not just the fans—showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to share exciting insights about the finale. In this report, we’ll focus on the key revelations surrounding The Stranger, whose true identity has finally been unveiled!

Among the many intriguing characters in The Rings of Power, The Stranger has stood out as one of the most captivating. Portrayed by Daniel Weyman, this mysterious figure has kept audiences guessing about his true identity throughout both seasons.

While many suspected early on that The Stranger might be Gandalf, the showrunners have now confirmed it. They also offered new insights into their decision to reveal him as Gandalf, despite potential conflicts with established lore. Here’s what they had to say:

I was relieved that you didn’t stick with “Grand Elf” because I was thinking, “Oh, is this going to be some weird legally differentiated Kirkland version of Gandalf?” Was this a character you had rights to all along? Was this reveal always the plan?

JD PAYNE Yeah, we’ve had the rights to him from beginning and certainly we had leanings in terms of who we suspected The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) was going to become. The further we got into the story, the further it just made sense for him to be Gandalf. And there are a couple of reasons. One, Gandalf has this strangely strong relationship with Halflings.

He’s a wizard who loves to hang out in the Shire. Why? And we thought, “Well, if at one point in his existence he had vulnerably come to Middle-earth in this challenging time with no memory of who he was, and he had been found by ancestors of the Hobbits and they had helped him, that would be a thing he would never forget.”

Second, we see this character crosses path with Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear) and has a relationship in which he can learn his power as a wizard. Gandalf, in the books, right before he’s about to leave Middle-earth, the last thing he does is to say, “Before I leave, I’m going to go hang out with Tom Bombadil, and I have some questions I need to ask him.”

And usually, when you’re leaving a place, you don’t go meet a new person you’ve never talked to before; you hang out with your friends. We talked about other options. There were blue wizards who were around in the North during the Second Age who went to the East. This just felt like the story that wanted to be told.

PATRICK MCKAY Also, we love this character. The idea of an earlier version of Gandalf on a journey of self-discovery felt like really fertile ground.

So, is this Gandalf being born for the first time?

MCKAY Well, Middle-earth has many ages and many histories, and there are tantalizing hints in some of J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings that Gandalf has appeared in different forms and has walked among various races. The idea that perhaps there is even an earlier story of him is for someone else to tell.

Because when he comes back as Gandalf the White, he’s discombobulated for a few minutes. But this time, not knowing who he was, not knowing his powers, for such a long time … I was wondering what the sort of internal explanation was for that?

PAYNE: Those details we might reveal as the story continues to go forward. But he did have an identity before that moment in the crater.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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