‘Rings of Power’: Stranger Identity Revealed — Daniel Weyman Interview

The next incorporates spoilers from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Energy‘s Season 1 finale. Proceed accordingly.

With The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Energy revealing a key a part of The Stranger’s id in Thursday’s Season 1 finale, we’re one step nearer to studying who he actually is.

The massive second got here throughout a confrontation with the mystics, who believed him to be their grasp Sauron. However the Stranger protected his Harfoot mates (which included Nori, Poppy, Marigold and Sadoc), proving that he wasn’t the Darkish Lord however relatively, “the opposite.” He was an Istari, aka a wizard.

That reveal additionally caught the Stranger’s portrayer, Daniel Weyman, abruptly, as a result of he didn’t know who he was enjoying till simply earlier than filming the finale.

“I sat there, and I used to be like, ‘Whoa,’ as a result of I didn’t know both means they have been going,” Weyman tells TVLine. “I knew that he was in a position to harness some energy from the pure world, so he needed to be some form of Maiar. However the way it was going to land, I didn’t know. So, once I learn that half, I used to be like, ‘No means! That’s who I’m. All proper! Right here we go.’  It was an incredible second.”

When Nori identified that she overheard the mystics name him “Istari,” it was the Stranger who used the phrase “wizard” to self-identify.

“We will see him pondering, looking for that phrase however this different phrase’s there,” Weyman explains. “The ‘wizard’ phrase comes out in a really tough, barely shady reminiscence form of means.” And since the Stranger had no recollection of who he was, Weyman felt that he didn’t want know who precisely he was enjoying prematurely and located the secrecy to be liberating.

“The very thrilling stuff that I’ve had, we’re ranging from a clean slate,” he shared. “If someone had mentioned to me, ‘In that first scene within the crater, you should be enjoying [for example] Sauron,’ then that may have coloured every thing that I had gone by. We might see him determine stuff out and I didn’t must undertaking one thing onto it, and that didn’t get in the way in which of me experiencing the current.”

With the thriller surrounding the Stranger spanning the complete first season, followers have been filling within the blanks with their very own theories about his true id — from Gandalf the Gray to Saruman the White to the nature-loving Radagast the Brown. Whether or not any of those guesses are appropriate stays to be seen, however the Rings of Energy actor is thrilled to see the viewers so engaged. 

“One of many issues that I liked about this season was watching and listening to how the viewers has taken their possession and information of Tolkien’s tales, and so they’ve introduced that into our world created for the telly… And that has knowledgeable them of who they assume this character is definitely going to be,” he says.

Who the Stranger is “could be someone completely model new, or it could be a named character in canon.” So does that imply Weyman nonetheless doesn’t know precisely who he’s enjoying simply but? In keeping with the actor, “no one is aware of what the Stranger is, aside from what they’ve met.”

Nori, who’s spent important time with him, has the closest concept of what the Stranger is. Others, in the meantime, could have “felt some change within the ambiance or the vitality of the world that they stay in, however may not know something about it but. I believe we’re going with that no one on this planet of Center-earth is aware of the id previous the Stranger, and that actually contains me [the actor].”

What did you consider the Rings of Energy finale? What do you hope to see in Season 2? Pontificate under.