The Rings of Power introduces his replacement Saruman in season 2, but This character is different from Lord of the Rings’ villain in style. The Dark Wizard of Rhûn becomes a new secondary antagonist in The Rings of PowerIn season two, going to extreme lengths to track down the Stranger – and then becoming angry when the other Istar doesn’t join him. THE The showrunners’ recent confirmation of the Dark Wizard rules out the possibility of him being Saruman, a popular theory about the character. However, he still serves as a stand-in for the villain.
Based on comments from JD Payne and Patrick McKay, it appears that the Istar in Rhûn is one of JRR Tolkien’s Blue Wizards. These characters do not receive much attention in Tolkien’s writings and do not appear The Lord of the Rings. This makes introducing one of them an interesting prospect. But even though the Dark Wizard of Rhûn is a character yet to be explored in adaptations of Tolkien’s works, he mirrors Saruman by taking on a similar role in the Amazon series.
The dark wizard from The Rings Of Power is a parallel to Saruman from The Lord of the Rings
He is a secondary villain to Sauron and a foil to Gandalf.
The Rings of PowerThe Dark Wizard may not be Saruman, but he is clearly the Lord of the Rings the show’s replacement for the character. His narrative parallels Saruman’s in two main aspects. The first is that he serves as Sauron’s secondary antagonist. Sauron is Amazon’s big bad Lord of the Rings show, and he fully embraces that role in Season 2. But that didn’t stop The Rings of Power of introducing other threats, such as Adar and Rhûn’s Dark Wizard. The latter will take a backseat to Sauron, just as Saruman does in SDA.
They portray what happens when an Istar uses their power for selfish reasons, while Gandalf shows the exact opposite.
Additionally, both Saruman and the new Dark Wizard serve as a foil to Gandalf’s character. The characters’ relationships with Gandalf are different. Saruman is an old friend who betrays him, while Weyman’s opinion of Gandalf is unknown The Rings of Poweris the wizard. Still, both characters represent a dark path that Gandalf will not follow. They portray what happens when an Istar uses their power for selfish reasons, while Gandalf shows the exact opposite. The Rings of Power and The Lord of the Rings.
Because LOTR’s blue wizards are not evil, the dark wizard must become good again
The Dark Wizard will do what Saruman could not
The Rings of PowerThe Dark Wizard may have a similar role to Saruman in the series, but its ending must deviate from that of the SDA villain. Although Tolkien doesn’t delve much into the characters of the Blue Wizards – and some of his writings are contradictory – there is no indication that they serve Sauron in his Third Age story. Tolkien suggests that the Blue Wizards become cult leaders, which fits with The Rings of Powerthe representation of your wizard so far. The show’s Dark Wizard is obviously attracted to power and is willing to do questionable things to achieve it.
Tolkien’s characterization of the Blue Wizards suggests that they avoid serving Sauron, unlike Saruman.
That said, Tolkien’s early writings state that the Blue Wizards travel as “missionaries to lands ‘occupied by the enemy’,” and he later confirms that they try to convince people to follow Sauron (via Tolkien Portal). Tolkien originally wrote that they “failed“in this effort, but he eventually credits them with “weakening and disorganizing the forces of the East.“Tolkien’s characterization of the Blue Wizards suggests that they avoid serving Sauron, unlike Saruman. This means that the Blue Assistant in The Rings of Power it won’t be all badand he can see a story of redemption – something Saruman never can.
The rings of power that rescue the dark wizard will differentiate him from Saruman
The Blue Wizard’s story will be different from that of Saruman and Gandalf
If The Rings of Power chooses to rescue his Dark Wizard – something the show also strives to do with Adar in the end – This will differentiate your character from Saruman’s. So far, the Amazon show is repeating a lot of narrative beats from The Lord of the Rings‘Story of Gandalf and Saruman. However, the series has an opportunity to do something entirely new with its Blue Wizard. This could give Istar a completely unique character arc, placing him morally in the middle of Gandalf and Saruman.
Given what we know about the Dark Wizard of Rhûn and Tolkien’s Blue Wizards, it seems unlikely that this character sees Middle-earth in exactly the same way as Gandalf. However, The Rings of PowerGandalf’s version could convince him to use his powers for the benefit of Middle-earth – especially with the threat of Sauron looming. Viewers will have to wait until The Rings of Power Season 3 to find out if the show’s Saruman replacement gets redemption is the SDA character never does. This would fit into Tolkien’s lore and make for an interesting plot.
Source: Tolkien Portal