Season 2, Episode 2 of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power introduced an unnamed character played by Ciarán Hinds.
Hinds’ character bears strong similarities to Saruman the White, but this may be a purposeful misdirection.
Hinds could be playing a character with stronger ties to the land of Rhûn.

Mysteries have been a major part of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power ever since the series premiere. Throughout the first season, the show teased the true identities of characters like the Stranger, Halbrand, and Adar, encouraging fan discussions and theories about whether they might be unique takes on characters from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. By the end of the first season, these mysteries were mostly solved: Halbrand was a disguise of Sauron, Adar was one of the first Elves whom Morgoth corrupted to create Orcs, and though the Stranger’s identity is still unknown, major clues from the season finale pointed towards him being Gandalf. Therefore, the second season needed to begin a new mystery.

Episode 2 introduced an unnamed character portrayed by Ciarán Hinds, who previously played roles such as Aberforth Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Mance Rayder in Game of Thrones, and Steppenwolf in Justice League. Hinds’ character lives in Rhûn, the desert land for which the Stranger and Nori departed at the end of the first season. He is in charge of the Mystics who hunted the Stranger down as well as some mysterious masked warriors, likely Easterlings. In his brief appearance, he took part in a magical blood ritual to revive one of the fallen Mystics, specifically the Dweller. So who exactly is this character, and what does his inclusion mean for the future of The Rings of Power?

Ciarán Hinds’ Character Resembles an Iconic Villain From The Lord of the Rings

The most obvious possibility is that Hinds is playing a younger version of Saruman from The Lord of the Rings. Ever since Prime Video released the first promotional images of Hinds’ character in The Rings of Power, fans have speculated that he was none other than the infamous White Wizard. His long, straight hair and two-toned beard are reminiscent of Christopher Lee’s portrayal of Saruman in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. He also matches Tolkien’s descriptions of Saruman from the novels. In the chapter “The Voice of Saruman” from The Two Towers, Tolkien wrote, “His hair and beard were white, but strands of black still showed about his lips and ears,” and according to Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Saruman’s hair was darker when he first came to Middle-earth. Further, Hinds’ character wears white robes akin to Saruman’s, as do the Mystics who serve him.

Based on the Mystics’ dialogue, Hinds’ character is searching for Sauron. This aligns with Saruman’s original missions, which were to prevent Sauron from regaining power and to find the One Ring. This entailed traveling to Rhûn at some point. Of course, as fans of The Lord of the Rings know, he eventually gave in to corruption and became nearly as villainous as the Dark Lord himself. During the period of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Saruman should not yet be evil, but this would be a relatively minor change to the lore; after all, Saruman did not even come to Middle-earth until a thousand years into the Third Age, long after the events of the series. The main piece of evidence against Hinds’ character being Saruman is just how obvious it would be. The Rings of Power‘s writers like to do the unexpected, and the similarities between Hinds’ character and Saruman could be purposeful misdirection to distract viewers from the truth.

Ciarán Hinds’ Character Might Be a Lesser-Known Wizard

Alternatively, Hinds could be playing one of the two Blue Wizards, who were either named Alatar and Pallando or Morinehtar and Rómestámo. They went to Rhûn as well, and unlike Saruman, they stayed there for the rest of their time in Middle-earth. Tolkien changed his mind about the fates of the Blue Wizards as he developed his legendarium. In later writings, they successfully weakened Sauron’s hold over Rhûn, preventing him from using the full might of his Easterling army in the War of the Ring. But in earlier drafts, they fell to evil much like Saruman, so one of them leading the Mystics would not be out of place. Since Tolkien wrote little about the Blue Wizards and made even less of that writing canon, The Rings of Power‘s writers could take far more creative liberties with them than they could with Gandalf, Saruman, or even Radagast. Hinds’ character and the Stranger might both be Blue Wizards, one becoming a traitor and the other remaining true to his cause.

According to Amazon’s original deal with the Tolkien Estate, The Rings of Power could only adapt concepts from The Lord of the Rings novel, not the rest of Tolkien’s legendarium. Most information about the Second Age came from the appendices at the back of the book, which provided lore details and history that did not come up directly in the main plot. Though Tolkien mentioned the existence of two Wizards besides Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast in The Lord of the Rings, he did not name them or even say that they were Blue Wizards. This was the same reason that Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy could only allude to them. However, Episode 2 of The Rings of Power also used the name Annatar for Sauron’s Elven form, which was similarly absent from The Lord of the Rings. Amazon must have acquired rights to some of Tolkien’s other writings, so the Blue Wizards appearing in the second season is a distinct possibility.

Ciarán Hinds’ Character Uses Magic — But That Does Not Make Him a Wizard

If Hinds’ character was an Istar, it would be odd for him to distinguish the Stranger as such. Hinds might instead be playing Khamûl, one of the future Nazgûl.

Despite his appearance and magical abilities, Hinds’ character might not be a Wizard. In a conversation with the Mystics who served him, he repeatedly referred to the Stranger as “the Istar.” Istar was simply an Elvish term for “Wizard,” so Saruman and the Blue Wizards were also Istari. If Hinds’ character was an Istar, it would be odd for him to distinguish the Stranger as such. Hinds might instead be playing Khamûl, one of the future Nazgûl. Khamûl was an Easterling, so he would have lived in Rhûn before he succumbed to Sauron’s corruption. The only spell that The Rings of Power has shown Hinds’ character casting so far was the ritual to bring a Mystic back to life. The Wizards of The Lord of the Rings did not practice necromancy, but at least some of the Nazgûl did. After the Angmar War, the Witch-king sent the terrifying Barrow-wights to inhabit the graves of his enemies and possess their skeletons. Another piece of evidence is that, when the Mystics died, they resembled the wraith-world forms of the Nazgûl from Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The Rings of Power are the main focus of the series’ second season, so it would make sense to introduce some of the Men who will end up wearing them.

There are some wrinkles in this theory, however. In the section “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age” from The Silmarillion, Tolkien wrote, “Those who used the Nine Rings became mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old,” yet Hinds’ character seems to be a powerful sorcerer even without a Ring of Power. He also referred to one of the masked warriors as “a mortal such as yourself.” This implied that he was not a mortal, while the Men who would become Nazgûl certainly were before their transformations. There is a chance that Hinds’ character is not Saruman, a Blue Wizard, or Khamûl. He could be one of the other Nazgûl or even a brand new character, but those options would make for a less impactful reveal — the mystery surrounding him must be leading up to some sort of surprise. Based on the precedents of the Stranger, Halbrand, and Adar in the first season, there will be many more clues to the identity of Hinds’ character in future episodes.