Surprise! After years of sleuthing, the identity of The Stranger has been revealed during The Rings of Power season 2 ending.
Yes, Daniel Weyman's staff-wielding wizard is Gandalf. Speaking to GamesRadar+, the Gandalf actor (as we can now officially call him) says he hasn't yet reached out to Ian McKellen – but pinpoints what their performances have in common.
"I haven't yet, no. Gosh, having a chat with Ian would be a wonderful thing. I'd feel very honored to do that," Weyman says. "All the people who have played the wizards on screen have been extraordinary."
"I read some interviews recently and going back to Tolkien seems to be both our approaches. There's something about Tolkien's stories, certainly for Gandalf, there are seeds that are the very heart of him – the idea of kindness, of love, of warmth, of looking for the best in people… Those things, from what I've heard, are very similar things that we both have taken from Tolkien."
Surprisingly, Weyman hasn't actually been holding this secret for years. In fact, he was only told about the Gandalf reveal during the tail-end of filming The Rings of Power season 2 in Tenerife.
"I actually found out when they were about to break down the internal sets for Tom Bombadil['s] house," Weyman says.
"They said, look, we've got to do the episode eight scene and I think we were in episode six at the time. Charlotte [Brandstrom], who directed it, and showrunner Patrick McKay sat me down and said, '[Here's] what other beings in Middle-earth are going to call him – it's Gandalf.'"
Reflecting on the "exciting" moment, Weyman shared his initial reaction to stepping into Gandalf's well-worn robe.
"I've played in my head that there are things about who he might turn into, all the fan theories. But to hear any name was always going to be exciting, and to hear that name in particular was really humbling because I know how much it means to huge numbers of people," Weyman recalls.
