While we know that Sauron will eventually attempt to take over Middle-earth, and will be defeated by the Fellowship, it’s unclear how we got to that point. Rings of Power is starting to illuminate the origins of the iconic Lord of the Rings story and the older characters in the movies. Like with any large fandom, fan theories are inevitable. The actor behind The Stranger, one of the most mysterious characters on the show, has some thoughts about fans’ theories surrounding his character and the show.
There’s a lot of mysterious plot development as Rings of Power works to build the foundation for the original Lord of the Rings trilogy we know and love. One of the biggest questions is in regard to The Stranger, who fell out of the sky in the first episode, and the actor who plays him Daniel Weyman is explaining his thoughts on all the fan theories surrounding the Meteor Man. The actor told to Den of Geek at New York Comic Con:
We had a really dark one today that was sort of ‘Wow, someone’s really gone there.’ The ones I’ve heard about or read have been so well thought through. The people coming up with theories are really invested in the character and seeing resonances of beings that they either want the Stranger to become or that they think that he might.
The story theorizes that The Stranger could be Sauron but he has amnesia after his crash landing. The other possibility the story throws around is this could be the origin story of the legendary Gandalf the Grey. It seems that a leading theory though is the Sauron one. However, other characters at the center of Sauron theories are Adar, The Dweller, and Halbrand. Weyman noted that he really likes seeing theories like this develop as more episodes come out. He said:
For me, it’s been really exciting and enjoyable to watch that progress from day one. As soon as the first images were released, and then when we started to perform the episodes and they came out, I just love that every time an episode comes out, people add to their thesis. The documentation gets greater and that either helps or hinders their argument. It’s really quite inspirational to watch how people are responding to that character.
Weyman explained to the publication that he really enjoys seeing all these theories and how invested fans are in Tolkien lore. He’s right, fans are extremely invested in Tolkien’s stories and have a deep knowledge of what happens, making for some extremely educated guesses. This loyalty to the author's vision led fans to make a request for Rings of Power to make it less violent, and lighter. Fans are also so detail-oriented that they pointed out a LOTR plot hole that they thought was addressed in Rings of Power, turns out JD Payne, a co-creator on ROP, wishes they “were that smart.”
While Weyman said he won’t say anything about his character's true identity, he did tell the outlet that fans will be excited with the finale drops Friday. It will be thrilling to see which members of the Rings of Power cast turn out to be iconic Lord of the Rings characters, and see if these extremely smart fans were right with their theories.
To see if these theories prove to be true, you can check out the Fall TV schedule and tune into Rings of Power on Fridays with an Amazon Prime subscription.
