The Rings of Power: Daniel Weyman on Developing The Stranger Further in Season 2

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 will premiere this week, and series star Daniel Weyman is teasing where the story of “The Stranger” is going next. The identity of The Stranger was one of the driving mysteries of Rings of Power Season 1, with fan theories ranging from the character being the form taken on by dark lord Sauron, to the obvious similarities with Lord of the Rings’ noble wizard Gandalf the Grey. We didn’t get any firm answers by the time the Season 1 finale dropped, only that The Stranger is one of the Istari – aka “The Order of Wizards,” who were sent to Middle-earth by the Valar, to defend against the threat of Sauron. 

The reveal that The Stranger is a member of the Order of Wizards narrows down the focus on his possible true identity, considerably. The group was comprised of names like Saruman, Gandalf, and Radagast – each of whom appeared in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and/or The Hobbit movie trilogies – as well as lesser-knowns like the “Blue Wizards” Alatar and Pallando. 

When ComicBook spoke to the Rings of Power Season 2 cast, actor Daniel Weyman teased how his performance as The Stranger will grow, now that he’s regained key knowledge of who he is: 

“[The performance] feels really homogenous with the piece [season] that came before,” Weyman explained. “I think what he went through in Season 1 was such a deep layering of understanding about how relationships work. He learned so much by watching the Harfoots; he learned about food, love, he learned about friendship, he learned about fear, he learned about anger – you know all these different things. And those things were non-verbal in that case, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t important. And I think laying those foundations correctly hopefully is going to come to his aid later on.” 

The lore of J.R.R. Tolkien supports the theory that Rings of Power is using “The Stranger” as a sort of prequel window into how Gandalf arrived on Middle-earth and became distinctly different from his Istari brethren. The lore is vague in that respect, marking the late Second Age as his possible time of arrival on Middle-earth, while his wanderings and formative encounters with the different peoples of the world for centuries have never been fully detailed. That’s all to say: the smart money is on Rings of Power Season 2 pushing “The Stranger” into his full-fledged identity as Gandalf and possibly building his connection to characters like Galadriel and the Elven Rings of Power. 

“He still makes a few mistakes in Season 2 I’d say – for which he is very sorry – but I think yeah [the arc] felt and has always felt really continuous,” Weyman added. “And I’m really pleased [with] the way [ Sharon Tal Yguado] and the writers have written the piece. It’s made my job very east to just move from one season to the next, hopefully fairly seamlessly.”

Lord fo the Rings: The Rings of Power streams on Prime Video.