Before moving on to the rest of the post, it’s important that you know that there are some spoilers for Rings of Power. Therefore, if you did not have the opportunity to watch the first two episodes of the series, we recommend that you stop reading right now.
Rings of Powerlong awaited series Lord of the Rings from Amazon Prime Video, which finally premiered this week. As expected, the first chapters generate a lot of talk due to various circumstances. Whether it’s for your amazing audiovisual productionor because it’s not 100% related to the work of J. R. R. Tolkien.
It’s a topic that has made a big splash about the strange character played by Daniel Weyman, who arrives in Middle-earth as if it were a meteorite. All sorts of theories are popping up on the internet, but the reality is that we are still not sure who he is. Of course, by the way of arrival and appearance, we can form an idea.
If you have read Tolkien’s books or at least seen the film adaptation Lord of the Rings D hobbitmaybe you quickly linked it to Gandalf the Gray. Yes, a wizard whose role was instrumental in the destruction of the Ring of Omnipotence.
Does it make sense that Gandalf appears in Rings of Power?
While there are certainly some clues that allow us to link him to Gandalf, others obscure the idea. The problem is, we don’t know how much Amazon respects the British writer’s work when it comes to this character. Let’s go in order.
Gandalf, whose real name is Olorinactually is Maiar. That is, a spiritual being created in the mind of Ilúvatar (the creator and unique God in Tolkien’s universe). During the Third Age of the Sun, Gandalf and other Maiar such as Saruman travel to the physical world to aid the free peoples in their fight against Sauron.
The important point is that the Maiar, despite being spirits, had the ability to take on a corporeal form. Therefore, Gandalf would not have had too many difficulties in integrating among the inhabitants of the physical plane.
Okay, as long as we can connect the dots. Rings of Power This will show us the moment when Olorin arrives in Middle-earth. But there is a “small” problem. According to Tolkien, The Maiar did not appear in the physical world until 1000 years after the start of the Third Age.; when the forces of Sauron were already wreaking havoc in Middle-earth. Rings of Powerhowever, set in the Second Age.
Therefore, if we strictly adhere to the chronology of Tolkien’s work, It doesn’t make any sense that it’s Gandalf. He arrived in Middle-earth long after the events of the series.
I don’t rule it out…
Can we now rule out Gandalf entirely? Oh no. It is possible that Amazon and the writers of the series took over freedom to change some data to strengthen your argument. After all, the universe created by Tolkien has many gaps in the narrative, including the story of Gandalf.
If the strange character we see in Rings of Power turns out to be a previous version of Gandalf, that would be a way to create a direct connection to the narrative of Lord of the Ringswhich would be beneficial from a marketing point of view. Of course, there will be no disputes.
The currently available chapters already have a large number of inconsistencies in relation to the books, but this was a situation that was envisioned from the start as the series wants to offer its own identity. So the addition of another one with Gandalf shouldn’t surprise anyone. The other option is a completely original character, or even a Balrog.
