Amazon Prime Video’s notoriously big-budget “Lord of the Rings” TV show has released its latest trailer, and this one has a lot more focus on its characters, including a key mysterious figure who just might be a younger version of Gandalf (played by Ian McKellan in the Peter Jackson movies).
The story in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is set around a thousand years before Frodo (Elijah Wood) and his Fellowship made their journey in the movies. The show’s plot will feature the forging of the rings of power, the rise of the villain Sauron and the rise and fall of the kingdom of Númenor. The cast is a mix of new characters — such as the elf Arondir, played by Ismael Cruz Córdova, and a man named Halbrand, played by Charlie Vickers — as well as a few familiar ones, such as younger versions of the elves Galadriel (Cate Blanchett in the movies; Morfydd Clark in the show) and Elrond (Hugo Weaving in the movies; Robert Aramayo in the show).
So how could the franchise’s famous wizard Gandalf factor into this? The trailer also shows a couple of shots of a mysterious character in the show who is known as “The Stranger,” played by Daniel Weyman.Daniel Weyman as “The Stranger” in “The Rings of Power” trailer.Amazon
Footage from a previous trailer shows him falling from the sky, which is quite an entrance. Since he’s a mysterious man from the sky, he’s obviously not a normal human.
In Tolkien’s lore, Gandalf has been around since the beginning of time, and he’s had a variety of names before he was the famous Ian McKellan character we all know. So, he’s old enough that he was out there during the time period of the show — and it stands to reason that a mysterious, seemingly magical stranger could be him.
Plus, Weyman has the gaunt and bearded look down pat.
Although the trailer includes dazzling visuals of Tolkien’s famous Middle Earth landscapes, it doesn’t include anything that looks like sex. That’s because unlike this show’s competition — the other big fantasy show airing right now, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” spinoff “House of the Dragon” — there will reportedly be no sex in this show.
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” premieres with two episodes on Prime Video on Sept. 1 and Sept. 2 (depending on the time zone).
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