Who is the mystery man in The Rings Of Power premiere?
The Stranger made an impact with his crash landing in episode one and, though we still don't know his identity, his demeanor seems awfully familiar
TV Features The Lord of the Rings
**Warning: spoilers for the first two episodes of The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power lie ahead**
Throughout the two hours of its sweeping series premiere, The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power delivered cornerstone after cornerstone of Middle-earth lore, setting up an expansive status quo from which the story will launch, and offering plenty of tantalizing hints about its future. Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s own writing about the history of his fictional world, The Rings Of Power nevertheless proved right away that it’s as interested in blazing its own trail as it is in paying homage to its creator, introducing us to myriad new characters and situations that will all play a role in Amazon’s epic, 50-episode grand plan.
These first two episodes, directed with appropriate grandeur by J.A. Bayona, also raised plenty of questions about the future of these characters. What’s in that glowing chest that Durin III and Durin IV are looking into? Who’s that hot guy on the raft in the ocean? Why does Celebrimbor want to build a big forge? They’re all enticing, and they’ll all be answered in due time, but even among these questions, another mystery stands out.
Who is that strange, raggedy man who fell from the sky?
Credited only as “The Stranger” and played by English actor Daniel Weyman, the mysterious being emerges in a smoking crater after apparently falling from the sky in episode one. The adventurous, curious Harfoot Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) takes it upon herself, with some reluctant help from her best friend Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards), to try and relate to the mystery man, bringing him food and keeping his existence a secret until she can figure out who he is and what he wants. Eventually, she comes to realize that he’s looking for a specific place, though he speaks in a language she doesn’t understand and spends a lot of time whispering to fireflies. It’s there, on the verge of more discovery, that we leave Nori, Poppy, and The Stranger at the end of episode 2, as our mystery man drapes himself in ragged fabrics and looks for answers after his arrival in Middle-earth.
So, who is this man? Based on his general appearance, the color of the cloth he’s wrapped in, and his tendency to communicate with insects, signs point to the possibility that we’ve just met a very early version of Gandalf the Grey, the wise and driven wizard played by Ian McKellen in both The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.
Like his fellow wizards, Gandalf began life as one of the Maiar, a sort of primordial, demigod spirit created to help build the world in the earliest stages of creation. In this form, he was named Olórin, served the creator-beings known as the Valar, and came to befriend and love the Elves long before he ever set foot on Middle-earth.
It’s there, with the question of his arrival on Middle-earth itself, that things get potentially tricky. Tolkien’s own limited writings on the origins of the wizard suggest that none of them set foot on the continent until 1,000 years into the Third Age, when the rising threat of Sauron grew too great to ignore, and the Valar decided the peoples of Middle-earth needed some extra help. The Rings Of Power is set firmly in the Second Age, which would suggest that Gandalf’s arrival is off by more than a millennium. Impossible, right?
Not so fast. Because Tolkien’s writings on events that pre-date The Hobbit are often full of gaps, and the timeline of Middle-earth is so long, The Rings Of Power creators have admitted to taking certain liberties with history.
“We talked with the Tolkien estate,” co-creator J.D. Payne told Vanity Fair. “If you are true to the exact letter of the law, you are going to be telling a story in which your human characters are dying off every season because you’re jumping 200 years in time, and then you’re not meeting really big, important canon characters until season four. Look, there might be some fans who want us to do a documentary of Middle-earth, but we’re going to tell one story that unites all these things.”
So, it’s entirely possible that the showrunners opted to move up Gandalf’s arrival in Middle-earth, to tie his story more closely with that of the Rings of Power themselves and give him a greater sense of awareness that Sauron’s presence and influence lingers. That has the potential to change some things, but remember that when it comes to Tolkien’s own writings on the Second Age, there are vast swaths of time in which we just don’t know that much about what went down. That means the series has a lot of blank canvas to fill, and a lot of different ways to use Gandalf or a Gandalf-like figure. Maybe he spends some time in Middle-earth, then goes back to the Valar to report on what he’s seen. Maybe he’s not really Gandalf until the Third Age. Maybe something else entirely is the right explanation, but planting him here would certainly tie him even closer to characters like Galadriel, and his early relationship with Harfoots would explain his lifelong love of Hobbits. As for his disoriented demeanor, well, for that we can look back to Tolkien, and this passage from Unfinished Tales:
For it is said indeed that being embodied the Istari [wizards] had need to learn much anew by slow experience, and though they knew whence they came the memory of the Blessed Realm was to them a vision from afar off, for which (so long as they remained true to their mission) they yearned exceedingly. Thus by enduring of free will the pangs of exile and the deceits of Sauron they might redress the evils of that time.
A spirit in a new body, sent from afar and imbued with longing for a paradise he barely remembers, would certainly explain a lot of things about The Stranger’s behavior. Whether or not it’s really the great Grey Wizard, and how much he’ll remind us of the Third Age hero he’ll eventually become, will have to wait for future episodes.
125 Comments
Pretty sure it’s Dumbledore.
sounds like a campaign slogan.
Hopefully it’s NOT Gandalf, that’d be disappointing. I’d be okay with him being one of the blue wizards though, which are mostly ignored in Tolkien’s work
God I hope it is one of the blue wizards. That is the obscure Tolkien shit that I cannot get enough of Gandalf would be fine tooNot Radagast
Gandalf was never in the second age. He doesn’t appear until the third age.
Nobody likes Radagast. I liked him because of the theory that the major wizards represent branches of science — Gandalf is chemistry because he likes fireworks, Saruman is physics because he likes medieval-style machinery (based on the intro physics concept of simple machines like pulleys and levers), and Radagast is biology, because he likes animals. And I’m a biologist.
My first thought actually went to Tom Bombadil, just because he’s a kind of unexplored character but we know he is not affected by the rings. And the whole talking to fireflies/sprites/whatever fits him MO.
I read somewhere that they specifically could not discuss the Blue Wizards in LOTR because they did not have the rights to the earlier material.
I’m rooting for one of the blue wizards as well, since they’re basically blank slates. It’d also fit with the southern focus; what little we know about them involves establishing themselves in the lands of the humans.
I don’t see how they would make him Gandalf. Blue Wizard is far more likely. No idea if they can use their names or not contractually. Palando? Can’t remember.
If they stick strictly to material from The Lord of the Rings, they can’t use any of the many names or titles Tolkien gave to the blue wizards, including “Blue Wizards.” They are of course free to let viewers draw their own conclusions. (Peter Jackson included a cheeky reference to blue wizards in one of his movies, but he may have been on thin legal ice.) I’ve read in various places that the Tolkien Estate has allowed Amazon to use some elements from outside LOTR, but I haven’t seen that officially confirmed.
In the name of fan service, it seems very likely it’s Gandalf whether that makes sense or not. They want to give far more casual fans things they recognize.
Tolkien vacillated between Pallando and Alatar for the names of the Blue Wizards (Ithryn Luin) and Romestamo and Morinehtar.
I think it’s Gandalf only because they went heavy on calling him the stranger. Saruman is my other bet though, try to show the earlier better side of him. If there was I have not finished any of the books. Great books most likely, but when I’ve had the time to read them they haven’t been what I wanted to read.
I’m team chaos: Glorfindel
It’s Tom Bombadil and I’ll fight whoever says otherwise
I wondered that as well, but wasn’t Tom the first being on Middle Earth?
Yes, according to him. I was absolutely not being serious but we should start a petition if there’s enough public support for sexy naked Tom
I’ll sign it
I wold put money on that. He’s a very well-known character to Tolkien fans, but also something of a blank slate as far as his origins go. Though–and I haven’t read up on it recently–he should’ve already been in Middle Earth at this point, I think.
i so wish, but tom was always there. I haven’t been watching because it looks like a big time commitment, but it tom appears ill finish the whole @#$%ing series.
Does this production have different access to Tolkien materials than the movies did? They couldn’t use the blue wizards in those, which was why Gandalf just said he forgot their names.
I’ve read that amazon only has rights to LOTR and the Hobbit, not the Silmarillion and other writings (so a lot of the history comes from appendices to what they have). My first thought was Tom Bombadil as well. Love to see an exploration of him.
Of course it is. They paid 250 million for the rights. Hobbits weren’t supposed to factor in but people expect hobbits in LOTR so they are in.You know what else a casual audience expects and would be excited by? Gandalf.This is shallow JJ Abrams mystery box stuff to drive exactly this kind of “speculation” and clickbait article.
They are NOT going to buy Gandalf and leave that toy collecting dust. They are NOT going to exercise restraint or respect Tolkien’s timeline. The door is already wide, wide open to make huge changes to it.They are going to use that IP. He’s the perfect character to push the harfoot subplot forward.
Only deeply obsessed fans give two fucks about “Blue Wizards” or remember the handful of references. They are only INDIRECTLY mentioned in Two Towers anyway. They are going to go big and do the school of JJ AMAZING TWIST!It’s Gandalf. If anybody wants to place their bets, I’m game. I know these people, I know how these producers think, and I know what would make me a few bucks here.
I’d take that bet.We’re supposed to assume that it’s Gandalf; but between the dead fireflies, and the suspicious timing of the Dad’s broken ankle, the show has “written ‘Gandalf is [NOT] here’ in signs that all can read from Rivendell to the mouths of Anduin.”The obvious “surprise” suspect is Sauron himself. Though I’m hoping for someone more interesting. Saruman?(I’m pretty sure it’s not Eärendil, but I wish it was. I mean, logically, who else would fall out of the sky? Plus, it’d be nice for Elrond to see his father again.)
Exactly this. You can see it coming a mile away. I have no idea why some people think otherwise – bringing in a character known and loved by casual fans is a no brainer from the producers’ perspective, even if it means taking liberties with Tolkien’s work.
I hate so much how right you are.
My money is on it not being Gandalf, but then they introduce Gandalf anyway later in a big surprise reveal. You’re right that they aren’t going to let Gandalf sit on the shelf.
In Peoples of Middle-earth Tolkien toys with the ideas of the blue wizards arriving in the Second Age, so it would fit.
BUT, I believe they also arrived together. And this show won’t be able to resist it being Gandalf (even though Gandalf was the last wizard to get there and arrived by ship, which is how he got Narya from Cirdan, kind of an important detail).
Not to mention, I don’t believe they can use the blue wizards in this show. They are very indirectly mentioned in the Two Towers. Basically Gandalf says there were others like him. Beyond that they only appear in the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, which this show can’t use.
That’s what I was thinking – the fact that Gandalf arrives in Middle Earth at the Grey Havens is kind of a big deal.
I wouldn’t mind if it was Saruman.In the movie Fellowship (not going to going into the books), Gandalf clearly looks to him as the greatest of their order and a true hero. It would be cool to see him being heroic and then see a tiny nick in his armor from Sauron, that we undertand slowly grows into the infection that pays off in his total corruption in the Lord of the Rings.
This will almost certainly be Gandalf…but…How do I wish it was one of the Blue Wizards. I have been fascinated with their potential since I was a kid. This could, quite easily, establish a significant foundation for an expansion of lore both in greater Middle Earth during the Second Age and, specifically, in the far East in the Third Age (where the wizards presumably spent their time). Doing this almost certainly represents too big a risk for Amazon given the amount of money they’ve spent…. but man… it would be so fantastic if they just went for it.
either they’re creatively bankrupt and it’s gandalfor its something obscure and i dont careor its something new and i dont caresome will love this show. others will take the first bite and be like “uh…no more please”. sad to be one of the latter =(
I’ve just been assuming it’s Gandalf. It would be a twist if it wasn’t.
I saw this theory in the comments on Polygon and I think it’s the only theory that makes sense: The Stranger is Gandalf after he battles the Balrog.“Darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and TIME, and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell. Naked I was sent back — for a brief time, until my task is done.”A couple thousand years is probably still considered “brief” to a Maiar. Full theory is posted in a comment by “Hydra” here: https://www.polygon.com/23327884/rings-power-meteor-stranger-who-is-character-lord-rings-explained?commentID=a6c21952-aba8-4b14-9628-cdd0693169ca
This is a pretty big misreading of the obvious meaning of “sent back” in that line.
I always thought of the Blue Wizards as a pair, so I wouldn’t like to see one but not the other.
50:50 it’s either Gandalf or Saruman. Although it’s interesting if its actually Sauron.
My bet is that this is a fakeout, and they’re trying to make us think it’s Gandalf but it’s actually Sauron. And then, plot twist, Ian McKellen actually shows up as Gandalf in the season finale
This more or less was my feeling on it
Even Mrs Lizardo, who is less well versed in these things, said it was Gandalf. I won’t say that it definitively is, but I think it is almost certainly some Maiar.
It’s Tim
It’s Tom.
OK. You win.
It’s Beorn. Who was basically the beta test for Tom.
Greetings Tim the Enchanter.
Tim Benzedrine?
There are some who call him that.
It’s obviously Jeff.
It’s Dave, from Accounting.Went through the wrong bloody door again…..
Jeff Bezos, after his Blue Origin spacecraft travelled through a wormhole for 30 years to the LOTR multiverse, thus setting up the Amazon Cinematic Universe.
A Bezos isekai, except instead of just a smartphone, he also has a rocket ship
Is it not Sauron? I just assumed that it was since since he keep screaming dark magic at people and the fiery crater where he landed looked just like the Eye of Sauron. Maybe I misinterpreted, I guess.
I’d love for it to be Sauron, but it’s going to be Gandalf.
Definitely not Sauron. The heavily foreshadowed twist of the season is going to be that the elves have had Sauron in captivity the whole time. Only the Elf Lords know about it, hence the whole ‘You’re not allowed in the next meeting, Elrond’ bit.
The heavily foreshadowed twist of the season is going to be that the elves have had Sauron in captivity the whole time. I definitely consider that wild mass guessing rather than a credible theory at this juncture. Gil-Galad may know more about Sauron’s whereabouts than he’s letting on, but if they were holding Sauron captive, then they would have just sent him over the Sea long ago to be judged by the Valar.
Canonically Celebrimbor gets the idea to make the Rings from Sauron while he’s being held prisoner, so Celebrimbor’s whole ‘I need to build this big forge and I need it built in 6 weeks’ thing would be being driven by Sauron’s influence. There’s also the rotten leaf that falls on Gil-Galad. That’s clear, really heavy-handed, foreshadowing that there’s something rotten in Elf Land. And ‘we needed to shut down Galadriel’s search because she might start a new war’ absolutely reeks of a combination of Sauron’s influence and ‘we’ve got the big bad, his minions aren’t really a threat’ hubris.
Canonically Celebrimbor gets the idea to make the Rings from Sauron while he’s being held prisonerI have to ask where you got this from, since it’s not in any Tolkienian source that I can think off the top of my head. In The Silmarillion, and paraphrased slightly shorter in the LotR itself, Sauron comes to Eregion in a fair disguise and pretends to be a herald of the Valar, and offers his assistance to the Elven Smiths in making Middle-Earth a better place for the Elves to live. The Great Rings were the culmination of their collaboration. It was only after Sauron made the One that Celebrimbor discovered who he had been working with. And ‘we needed to shut down Galadriel’s search because she might start a new war’ absolutely reeks of a combination of Sauron’s influence and ‘we’ve got the big bad, his minions aren’t really a threat’ hubris.It’s hard to say at this point. It seems to me that Gil-Galad knows more than he’s letting on, but fears that Galadriel might start a war that the Elves aren’t ready to handle.
Canonically Celebrimbor gets the idea to make the Rings from Sauron while he’s being held prisonerThat’s not true at all. Sauron approaches the elves in a fair form as Annatar and tutored and encouraged Celebrimbor to make the rings of power. By that time Sauron had already started to rebuild and his evil was spreading, as is happening in the show. It’s the rising threat of Sauron that ironically ends up being used by Sauron, in the form of Annatar, to set up his master plan.
Yeah I think this is confusing the Eregion story with the Numenor one. The Numenorians are powerful enough to take Sauron prisoner, but he ultimately suborns them and it results in the destruction of Numenor.
Yep – and we’re definitely going to Numenor next week.
That’s a stupid twist, IMO. Sticking with the source material would have been a much better decision.
That would be far off what Tolkien wrote. But this is quickly developing into crappy fan fiction, so it wouldn’t surprise me.
Trying to be as vague as possible here, but they not only announced Sauron’s casting, they released a still of him without the armor. So I don’t think it’s Sauron. The only way that would be conceivable is if Amazon Studios was issuing fake press releases to fake everyone out and I imagine publications wouldn’t take kindly to that sort of thing.
That still doesn’t mean it can’t be Sauron. He’s famously a shape-changer, and importantly the elves were completely fooled until he put on the One Ring.
In terms of preexisting lore, it would make the most sense for him to be one of the Blue Wizards since Tolkien flip-flopped between them arriving in the second or third age. In terms of the show, it would be surprising if it weren’t either Gandalf or Saruman though even though they didn’t arrive in Middle Earth until the third age.
Maybe it’s because the Stranger fell from the sky, or his affinity with light sources, but I was reminded of Earendil the Mariner.
Cool idea, but Eärendil didn’t have particular magical powers, and he was doomed to never touch the mortal lands again. The most recognisable star in the sky would be gone if he wasn’t where he was supposed to be.
Pretty obvious that the man who fell to Middle-earth is David Bowie.
I’d love it if there was a dwarf named Bowi. Second cousin to Fili and Kili.
Looks more like Keith Richards.
Anyone but Tom Bloody Bombadil.
What is your fucking problem, problem probarillo?With Tom, Merry Tom, Tom Bombadillo?
It’ll be Gandalf, and his adventures with Nori will be framed as an explanation for why he loves hobbits so much, which is something that never needed a backstory.
Maybe, but I wouldn’t count my chickens just yet.
Weed. (There’s your explanation…)
Pipe weed is tobacco. Even if every hippie and Peter Jackson doesn’t get that. Tolkien even says it’s a strain of Nicotiana (tobacco).
So Sauron should just have waited for all of the good guys to die of cancer.
Surely living next to an active volcano can’t have been good for you.
Not to mention all the workers’ comp cases from orcs suffering from asthma, falling in to the volcano, etc.
I mean, tobacco will get you high, especially if you don’t smoke it often and you’re using a pipe. There’s a reason it’s considered one of the most addictive drugs.
I thought it was sweet to see hobbits as his introduction to having a body and living on ME. Of course he was able to love ME as a whole after meeting hobbits. Sort of the way Treebeard feels connected to the hobbits because it reminds him a little of meeting Entings.
if it is Gandalf…this show is creatively bankrupt and making characters that were well established for simply BEING who they were during our mass introduction to them in film some sort of “COMET SPECIAL SUPERMAN” actually takes away from what makes them so special to us by serving them on a fancily made up plate which is the equivalent to a parent serving you something you liked as a kid and saying “HUHHH? YOU LIKE THIS REMEMBER?!??”
Hopefully it won’t be. Why? Because, and I may be getting this wrong, that would mean that Gandalf was around for the War of the Last Alliance, and therefore would have known exactly what The Ring was at Bilbo’s birthday party and wouldn’t have needed to spend years traveling around researching it.
This is what I have been assuming as well.
You cannot convince me this is someone other than Jim Caviezel
He’s calling the Eagles lol
Oh boy, a Abrams-esque mystery box character. Just what Tolkien fans asked for.
Yes, there were never mysterious characters of unknown identity until Abrams came along.
I mean the safest route would be a made up Maia. Sauron prob going to need a lieutenant in 5 seasons
“They call me either Ganduman or Saralf, depending who wins in the writers’ room”.
In Bakshi’s version Saruman is sometimes Aruman and other times Saruman…
Which always confused me.
Aren’t all the balrogs Maiar?
They are but they haven’t really been presented as “people” that you can really talk to.
Maybe that’s why they’re so angry all the time.
Hey; I think it might be interesting to explore a Balrog as a character.
Yes, but no “new” balrogs arose after the First Age, and they were all servants of Morgoth, not Sauron, who was essentiall of the same rank as they were originally.
Sauron is definitely higher up than the balrogs. Presumably because he has abilities related to originally working for Aule. But yeah, the Stranger being a balrog probably makes little sense. I think I prefer him being a newly incarnated Gandalf or a blue wizard.
I’m going with Balrog. The crater was eye-shaped (ok, not so much a Morgoth thing as a Saron thing), the fire wasn’t hot and they noted in a previous scene that fire wasn’t hot because of the presence of extreme evil, Wizards don’t show up until much later, Sauron is already in Middle Earth, and they show a Balrog in the trailers.Maybe it just hasn’t taken its full form yet.
The first name that came to mind when I saw him was ‘Gandalf’, but who knows. All I know is that I’m excited about this show and I’m stoked that my low expectations were unwarranted.
I thought it was Sauron, although… would they really do ‘oh no, the cart rolled away’ comedy bits with the Dark Lord?
“Where did he come from?”
“He fell out of the sky!”
“Oof! I sat on a carrot and it broke!”
“What happened to the cartful of man we were dragging!”
Isn’t obvious by now? It’s Manson.
I don’t know a ton about Tolkien’s works, or how any of the magic in his world actually works, so maybe there’s something that contradicts this, but to me, it seems that The Stranger is Sauron, reborn in a new human form.There’s pretty clear hints in the show for this. The fire given off by his “crash” is not hot to the touch, which is something the Elves said earlier was a sign of the presence of evil. The fireflies around the Stranger all died after he used them, which seems a little sus. Galadrial and crew couldn’t find him anywhere, so it seems like he actually was absent from the world, until now.
And of course, all the signs of evil rising across the various storylines start kicking in (via montage, anyway) as soon as the Stranger wakes up.
I think the show wants fans to think it’s Gandalf or another wizard, but I don’t know how interesting a story that would be. It would be more interesting, narratively, if the innocent Harfoot were responsible for harboring the world’s greatest evil and setting up his rise to power.It might also be a way to explain how, later on, Hobbit-folk are better suited to resist the power of the One Ring, because of some woo woo about how because they helped Sauron he carries a bit of them with him and has a harder time formulating a way to corrupt them. I donno.
The best evidence that I’m wrong about this is that I’m surprised that no one has proposed this theory yet in the blogs and podcasts I’ve seen. It seems so obvious to me because if you’re just using the hints in the show itself, and not relying on any other works, it seems like they’re telling you that it’s Sauron.
It’s an interesting theory. The problem with it is that book Sauron knows exactly who he is and what he’s doing pretty shortly after that crash given where we apparently are in the timeline; I won’t spoil the plot for those coming across this comment who haven’t gone into the lore, but you may want to look up Annatar.A quick glance at the appendices (licensed) doesn’t develop that particular character that much – I can’t remember what the Silmarillion (offlimits) says – so while I’m pretty confident how we’re going to what Sauron does initially, there may be a few twists in how he shows up.
If I recall, after the final battle of the First Age, Sauron was captured and taken back to Valinor. He actually did attempt a genuine contrition, but his pride and lust for power got the better of him. I don’t think any Tolkien source states exactly when and how he returns to Middle Earth.
Maybe it’s Saruman.
I figured Sauron himself considering the cold fire shit.
Harfoots are Ewoks.
I thought we were supposed to think he was evil, because the flames around the crater didn’t hurt the annoying hobbit. Wasn’t that established like three scenes before? That cold flames = bad? But of course it’s Gandalf, nothing matters.
My bet is a season spent doing everythi g possible to convince us its gandalf and then a surprise saruman finale. dude even looks vaguely reminiscent of christopher lee if you smoke a bit of pipe weed knock back a couple full pints then turn your head and squint.
That quote on the Istari makes them sound like Mr. Meeseeks.
Couldn’t it be some early Ur-Istari we don’t know about? There’s not an accounting of how many Maia there were. This could be just one who showed up in this age and wasn’t around for the events of LOTR.
It’s 100% Sauron.Or rather, it’s Annatar, Lord of Gifts.
He’s not the lord of grooming
Larry David has arrived in Middle Earth
Canon suggests that it can’t be Gandalf or any of the Istari, unless Amazon wants blood in the streets. All wizards arrived during the third age to show that the Valar had not forgotten Middle Earth. My guess is that this is Annatar, i.e., Sauron’s fair disguise as an elf craftsman of unknown origins when he deceived the smiths of Eregion. A simple Google search of the actor shows him to be pretty handsome and elf-like, and this could easily be the origin of this particular disguise. Why he would think arriving in a comet is a good idea, I have no idea. Either that or a totally new character, which I’m fine with.
I was sure it was Bernie.
Will Jeff Bezos appear in a cameo?
Yeah I think there’s a certain amount of reverse misdirection going on and it is Olórin, possibly on an unsanctioned solo mission doomed to fail, adding poignance to his later insecurity about how he measures up to Sauron. The fire-wielding, bug talking, memory loss, and first encounter with proto-hobbits are all there.Difficult to see how a show that picked up Galadriel, who doesn’t have much to do in canon during this period, would leave a major character like pre-Gandalf (who has some textual history of ME visits in the First Age) on the table in favor of such a niche character as Rómestámo as some fans are hoping.