The Rings of Power the showrunners concretely denied a common theory about the Dark Wizard characterwhich is a total relief after Gandalf’s reveal in season 2. After two seasons establishing his character, the Rings of Power The season 2 finale finally gave away The Stranger’s true identity, although fans had already speculated that it was him since season 1. The decision to obfuscate The Stranger’s name for so long was met with a divisive response from audiences who believed the response was frustrating. obvious, especially after extracting direct Gandalf quotes from The Lord of the Rings.
With that in mind, the introduction of yet another unnamed Istar (Mage) into The Rings of Power created more confusion and some frustration with the redundancy. The Istar were known to have arrived in Middle Earth during the Third Age, while The Rings of Power takes place in the Second Age, so the Dark Wizard’s characterization is something that cannot be confirmed by Tolkien’s text. However, given the character’s similarity and the fact that he is evil, Many have theorized that the Dark Wizard is Saruman, which has been refuted by producers JD Payne and Patrick McKay in a Reddit Q&A.
Q3. Now that we know it’s Gandalf and a Dark Wizard rather than the two blues, does that rule out the possibility of the blues being in the show? Also, can you definitively rule out Saruman being the Dark Wizard?
Patricio: I think it’s hard to say something is 100%, but we have no plans or intention for him to be Saruman. We are not thinking of him as Saruman. We know that there are five wizards mentioned in The Lord of the Rings. One of them is Saruman, one of them is Gandalf, one of them is Radagast and there are two others. Our expectation is that he will be one of these other two.
JD: What I will say is that I think it would be logically difficult to see how he could be Saruman. It would be a sort of “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” for Gandalf. If the Dark Wizard was Saruman, then he would be an evil wizard that Gandalf was interacting with and fighting in the Second Age. And then he would have to become good again and regain Gandalf’s trust, only to later become evil again and betray him. It would only strain credulity.
Patricio: What I would say to add is, you know, again, we’re not playing fast and loose or, or trying to be complicated – the characters reveal themselves to you as you go through their stories and, you know, The Stranger revealed more and more who he was. It is very difficult to imagine that the Dark Wizard would be Saruman. I think that while we want to be open as creators to all corners of Legendary, I don’t think that’s going to happen.
It is a great relief that the dark wizard of the rings of power is not Saruman
There is no reason to have Saruman in the rings of power
After The Rings of Power the first season kept audiences guessing not one, but two mysterious characters from the box in Sauron and Gandalf, making the Dark Wizard Saruman would have been in poor taste. The TV series has already received criticism from some Tolkien lovers for deviating from the source material and trying to appeal to Tolkien fans. The Lord of the Rings films integrating things like the Harfoots and Gandalf himself. These elements, which don’t necessarily relate to the Second Age events in the books, can seem quite complicated.
The series’ biggest successes are in the narrative elements that don’t seem to be in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy.
That’s not to say the show doesn’t have a place for the Harfoots or Gandalf, but continually incorporate Lord of the Rings elements to gain fan favor would become increasingly notable. Bringing in Saruman without any distinct purpose other than to have another character from the trilogy would be a bummer, and it’s a relief that they’re taking the character in a different direction. The series’ greatest successes lie in the narrative elements that don’t seem to exist in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy, which established an original identity for The Rings of Power.
For example, the conflict between Elves and Orcs in Season 2, along with the dynamic between Celebrimbor and Annatar, feels entirely different in tone from the Lord of the Rings films. These are the aspects of the show that feel more high fantasy, embracing the more magical world of the Second Age. The same can be said for the plot of Númenor, which goes in an exciting direction. Having the Dark Wizard as an unexplored character could continue to reinvigorate the show with exciting new life.
A Saruman reveal would have felt repetitive after Gandalf’s Rings of Power story
Mystery Box Characters Are Becoming Redundant
After spending sixteen episodes teasing the possibility that The Stranger was Gandalf, only to reveal that he really was Gandalf, it’s understandable that viewers are a little tired of the Mystery Box. It’s a narrative element that could work very well with decent planning and a clever plot twist, but the issue in The Rings of Power was that the two mysterious characters were exactly who the audience expected them to be. While some expected bizarre possibilities with The Stranger, it was always painfully obvious that he would be Gandalf.
Doing the exact same thing with Dark Wizard would be ridiculous. They hired an immensely talented actor in Ciarán Hinds and dressed him in a costume and appearance that bear an uncanny resemblance to Christopher Lee’s Saruman. To actually make him Saruman after several seasons of obscurity would be extraordinarily redundant and worthy of criticism. The decision to clarify this now, rather than letting the possibility linger, was a wise choice by the producers to avoid speculative criticism about this mystery in the future.
The Dark Wizard being Saruman wouldn’t make sense with his Lord of the Rings arc
Saruman being evil in the second age just wouldn’t make sense
Having Gandalf show up and make a huge impact on the Second Age is already a bit of a stretch, but incorporating Saruman just wouldn’t work. The entire effect of Saruman’s arc in the films is that he is seen as an ally of Gandalf up until the moment of his betrayal in The Fellowship of the Ring. Not only has he become jealous of Gandalf over time, but his perception of power is so distorted that he believes there is no possible way to defeat Sauron and decides he must join him.
So, putting this into the perspective of the Dark Wizard being Saruman: he would have already been evil in the Second Age, so he would have had to convince Gandalf that he was not evilcompletely regain his trust and then betray him again in the Third Age. As JD Payne said in the Q&A: “It would only strain credulity.” The producers agree that this narrative choice would seem drastically forced, which should appease some naysayers who worried about a possible Saruman twist.
The Rings Of Power Featuring A Blue Wizard Is A Much More Satisfying Twist
Blue wizards are some of the most intriguing characters in LOTR mythology
Of the five Istari, three play prominent roles in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: Gandalf, Radagast and Saruman. The two remaining Istar are known to many as the Blue Wizards, Alatar and Pallando. Payne and McKay suggest the Dark Wizard will be one of those charactersalthough not much is known about either of them to concretely determine who he will be. This is part of what makes the series so exciting, as there isn’t a lot of information about these characters.
The Istari’s goal was to send Maiar to Middle-earth to help defeat Sauron. All that is known about the Blue Wizards is that they traveled east, to areas such as Rhûn and Khand.along with Saruman. While the White Wizard returned from his journey, the Blue Wizards remained in the east, and their fates were never revealed in Tolkien’s writings. Importantly, they did not remain true to their goal of defeating Sauron, and there is a possibility that they formed magical cults, which aligns with the Dark Wizard in The Rings of Power.