The headline has spoilers in it, but if for some reason you aren’t caught up with Rings of Power and want to see the show before reading about more spoilers, you can stream it with an Amazon Prime subscription.
Gandalf, or I mean The Stranger, is known for telling his Hobbit friends to always follow their noses. In Markella Kavenagh’s case, she needed to do just that and follow her instincts when it came to figuring out The Stranger’s identity. I write that because, now that the cat is out of the bag, and we know who Daniel Weyman’s character is, I got to learn the full story behind learning and revealing his identity from his co-star who plays the Harfoot Nori.
Right before the final episodes of Rings of Power’s second season dropped on the 2024 TV schedule, I talked to Markella Kavenagh about her character’s journey this season to help The Stranger find his name. In the finale, we finally found out that Weyman’s wizard was indeed Gandalf, and like me, the Nori actress was thrilled about it all.
During our interview for CinemaBlend, she told me why this whole experience dealing with a legendary Lord of the Rings character has been so surreal, saying:
It's very exciting. I don't think it's quite hit me until now, just how exciting it is that he's portraying, you know, Gandalf. And the fact that I can even say that, because obviously, it's something that's been kind of a secret for so long. So yeah, it feels really surreal.
Continuing to speak about learning that her longtime co-star was playing the iconic Gandalf, Kavenagh explained that her inner child was freaking out about the news. She told me that the 8-year-old version of herself would be shocked that she was making a show that involved a beloved Lord of the Rings character, and overall she’s overwhelmed in the best way by it all:
My inner child, and the person, the 8-year-old Markella who first heard about Lord of the Rings, is just very surprised at all of this, and just can't believe it. So I'm still very much in that headspace of just being so grateful and really overwhelmed by the fact that I get to do this.
After explaining how elated she was to learn about The Stranger’s identity, I asked the Rings of Power cast member how long she knew about her co-star’s name. While she had her suspicions for a long time, she didn’t find out he was Gandalf until late in the process, as she explained:
I've had my suspicions for a very long time, like since the first rehearsal, when I asked about it, and they just very much went and sidetracked [me]. But I found out really, really late in the process of filming Season 2. I think they really wanted to keep it as under wraps as possible.
So, much like Sauron’s identity, The Sranger’s name was kept close to the chest for a long time. However, that was helpful in a lot of ways, because up until the Season 2 finale, even The Stranger didn’t know what his name was. To that point, the Nori actress told me:
But when it happened, it didn't make too much of a difference in the sense of how we approach the characters, because at the end of the day, it's this being who's going through X, Y, Z, and the same with with Nori. So we just focused on our dynamic and the friendship and bringing that story to life. So that was the most important part for us.
Unlike Charlie Vickers’ Halbrand being in disguise as Sauron in Season 1, when The Stranger crashed into Middle-earth, he had absolutely no idea who he was. So, on this journey of self-discovery, he’s evolving into the wizard that we know and love.
Overall, it was a thrilling reveal that many predicted, and now, the anticipation to see how Gandalf impacts Rings of Power Season 3 is starting to build. While I’m so excited to see where the story goes and Markella Kavenagh is too, she’s also still processing just how massive this situation is. To that point, she closed out her comments on the reveal by saying:
It's just been now that I've been asked about it, that I've gone, ‘Oh, yeah, that's that's also happening, he’s playing this legend.’
Girl, I’m still processing it all too, and I cannot wait to see where Gandalf and Nori’s stories go next!
The two went their separate ways at the end of Season 2, so new adventures await the wizard and the Harfoot. However, there’s no doubt that what lies ahead will be magical.
