Gandalf's twist from the Rings of Power created an impossible LOTR problem

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power May regret the massive Gandalf hint dropped at the end of his first season and confirmed at the end of his second. Amazon's Tolkien TV show, set in The Lord of the Rings' Second Age, introduced two mystery characters in its debut season: Daniel Weyman's the Stranger and Charlie Vickers' Halbrand. The two most popular Stranger theories speculate that the fallen Harfoot-baderer is either Sauron or Gandalf. Ultimately, Halbrand was Sauron and The rings of powerEnding heavily insinuated the stranger is Gandalf.

The true identity of the stranger was not quite as iron-clad as the Halbrand, who revealed himself unknown. The Lord of the Rings' Jewelry-making main enemy. however, The end of The rings of power Season 2 finally confirmed what the season 1 finale hinted at: the stranger is Gandalf. The season 2 finale cemented the tease of season 1, with the Rings of power Gandalf referred to himself by name when he acquired his staff. However, Gandalf is in The rings of power is already creating problems for them Lord of the Rings Prequel.

The Rings of Power Gandalf is already creating problems for future seasons

Only a fool of a touk would go head-to-head with Ian McKellen's Gandalf

Meeting the obscenely high bar set by Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings Movie trilogy is arguably The rings of powers biggest challenge, and the most direct comparisons season 1 faced Amazon's recasts - Morphid Clark replaced Cate Blanchett as Galadriel and Robert Aramaio took over Hugo Weaving as Elrond. The original movie depictions of the elves are both beloved, which set huge expectations for The rings of power to meet.

Neither, however, are as beloved as Ian McKellen's Gandalf, and it shows The rings of power A much bigger headache. Not only will future seasons struggle depicting a Gandalf as popular and iconic as the wizard in Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies, but the confirmation at the end of season 2 also means there will be significant timeline problems.

Because the stranger's identity was a complete mystery at first, he entered The rings of power With no expectations attached. His characterization was completely original, containing spots of darkness and involving deep confusion about his arrival in Middle-earth.

Now a thread is directly connecting the stranger and Gandalf, The rings of power Season 3 and beyond need to give Daniel Weyman's hairy wizard all the familiar characteristics that Gandalf has. With his mind clearer at the end of season 1, audiences will expect to see the character they know and love, not a raving, childlike recluse.

This immediately created a lot more pressure The rings of power Season 2 - Stress that Gandalf's affirmation during the finale only increased for season 3 and beyond. Ian McKellen's Gandalf is a performance that cannot be toppedAnd after that The rings of power Season 1 Finale "Follow your nose"Tragedy and scene 2, where the wizard finally gets his staff, Weyman's Gandalf-ness will come under the microscope.

When recasting an iconic role, many movies and TV shows deliberately make the new interpretation different, hoping to avoid like-for-like comparisons between past and present characters. The rings of power Doesn't have that luxury, since Revenge Gandalf amounts to Tolkien's Skrilege.

Thus, the Gandalf line from Season 1 has created a no-win scenario. Future seasons of The rings of power Can or disappoint fans who are excited by continuing to write the stranger with a completely different personality to Lord of the Rings' most famous wizard, or it can run with the Gandalf clue and endure the inevitable, unwinnable comparisons between Wyman and Ian McKellen.

Gandalf's presence in the Rings of Power creates a canon problem as well

A wizard comes when he means to (but not until the third age)

The rings of power Season 1 followed Tolkien canon about as closely as Fëanor followed the rules of Valinor after creating the Silmarils, but despite making countless deviations and condensing the timeline, The rings of power was usually careful to avoid rewriting middle-earth lore wholesale. Stories like the Southlands being transformed into Mordor and Galadriel's connection to Sauron may not be plucked from Tolkien's legend, but they are not directly contradictory.

Including Gandalf in The rings of power Risks breaking that rule. Tolkien said so Gandalf did not come to Middle-earth until the third age And, indeed, was reluctant to be included among the wizards sent to oppose Sauron. Gandalf's reluctance to fight in the Third Age makes the prospect of him visiting the Second Age as "the Stranger" hard to entertain. It represents a much more significant break from canon than most of the other alterations made by The rings of power.

Can Gandalf's original form solve the rings of power's problem? Probably not

The stranger cannot get away from being "Olorin" instead of Gandalf

Peter Jackson The Lord of the Rings Movies gloss over the matter somewhat, but Gandalf is not strictly a wizard. Just like Saruman and Radagast, he is an angelic spirit - a Maia - who serves the god of Tolkien's fantasy world. Five Maia were chosen to travel to Middle-earth in the guise of wizards, which is how Gandalf ultimately became involved in The Lord of the Rings.

Crucially, the wizards only have vague memories of their Maya forms, as well as a fraction of their true power. Many wondered if The rings of power Season 2 would try to skirt around his Gandalf problem by calling the stranger "Olorin" - Gandalf's original Maya name.

Alas, that wouldn't work either. Dubbing the stranger "Olorin" would solve some problems, such as Amazons avoiding the "Gandalf" moniker and Third Age Gandalf not remembering his involvement in The rings of powerBut the two biggest issues would remain. Although Tolkien wrote relatively little about Olorin, the character feels identical to Gandalf in personality and spirit.

Even if the stranger called himself by his Maia name in season 2, there is no reason why Olorin would behave differently towards Gandalf. That means audiences would still have expected The rings of powers wizard to play more like Gandalf in season 2, and will still compare Daniel Weyman to Ian McKellen.

Using Olórin as a get-out-of-angband-free card wouldn't do any good either The rings of powerS Gandalf canon issues. As spirits, the Maiar reserve the right to travel to and from Middle-earth at will, so it is plausible that Olorin may have been present in Middle-earth during the Second Age.

When the stranger fought the resident, however, the villain openly referred to her opponent as "Istar" - meaning a sorcerer. This line completely excludes the possibility that the stranger is Olorin or a spirit version of Gandalf.

The Rings of Power couldn't prevent Season 1's Gandalf hint from happening

The mysterious wizard using Gandalf's own lines is Gandalf himself? Don't be ridiculous

Many have pointed out that The rings of power May have ignored the Gandalf tease from season 1 entirely, and various figures involved in the show hinted that this is the direction season 2 would take before the confirmation of his identity in the finale.

Writer Jennifer Hutchison played down the connection between Gandalf and the stranger, suggesting the "Follow your nose" Commentary may be passed from one character to another. Similarly, Creators JD Payne and Patrick McKay have refused to acknowledge any connection between the Stranger and GandalfEven suggesting Daniel Wyman's character could be revealed as a villain,

"Wizards can be as evil and as dangerous, they can be rivals for Sauron, or allies of Sauron, and the stranger's journey will continue. So, I think that's an open question yet…."

However, rretending there is nothing in it would also have led to The rings of power Season 1's Gandalf mocks himself as a cop-out. Amazon's TV show positioned the stranger's identity as a key mystery throughout season 1, and the writers must have known that Gandalf would be the first name on the minds of the viewers.

The rings of power Introduced a wizard, deliberately obscured his identity, dropped hints that the character might be Gandalf for the best part of eight episodes, then had the character speak one of Gandalf's most famous lines in the finale. To suggest viewers jump the gun if they assumed the stranger was Gandalf was unfair — especially in hindsight now that season 2 confirmed it.

If The rings of power Season 2 pulled back and confirmed that there is no connection between the Stranger and Gandalf, the Season 1 finale's "Follow your nose"Collback would have felt cheap in hindsight - a reference designed to spark excitement and speculation in the short-term without any real intention to pay it off in the long-term.

How fans reacted to the Gandalf twist

Diehard Tolkien fans did not take Gandalf in the rings of power well

Unfortunately for Amazon, Gandalf is in The rings of power Wasn't a decision received well by fans in the slightest - at least not those familiar with JRR Tolkien's established Middle-earth canon. It is no secret that Gandalf was not present for the fall of Sauron. This is even confirmed in Peter Jackson The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Moments like Elrond said "I was there Gandalf, 3000 years ago" When referring to the first time Sauron was defeated cemented the idea that, despite his long life, the Gray Wizard was not present for the great battle seen in the opening of the Fellowship of the Ring.

The Fellowship of the Ring s The opening montage itself also has a clear hint that Gandalf simply wasn't around when Sauron first rose to power. Given how directly involved he was in the War for the Ring and protecting Middle-earth from the forces of Mordor during the events of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, his not being there when Isildur refused to throw the ring into Mount Doom was a clear sign of his absence from Middle-earth in general. Even casual viewers can put two-and-two together in this regard - if Gandalf existed in the Second Age, he would have been present during the battle, because it is simply not in his nature to ignore such a huge threat to the free nations of Middle-earth.

Tolkien was also very clear about the time frame for the arrival of Gandalf, Saruman and the rest of the Istari to Middle-earth. They arrived as a response from Eru (the equivalent of God in Tolkien's myth) to the rise of Sauron as a safeguard against the same event again. The presence of the Istari was one of the defining differences that separated the Third Age of Middle-earth from the Second. Amazon's insertion of Gandalf in The rings of power Ignores not only Tolkien's established timeline, but also the thematic significance of exactly when the wizards arrived in Middle-earth.

Even many casual fans are not happy with Gandalf being in The rings of power. There are many who, without much knowledge of JRR Tolkien's canon, simply saw it as Amazon attempting to shoehorn in as many familiar names from Lord of the Rings as possible. While the history of The rings of power is far from over, Season 3 and beyond will have a significant uphill battle trying to win over the overwhelming majority of the incumbents Lord of the Rings fanbase when it comes to their decision to include Gandalf.