After being kept tightly under wraps for years, Amazon has finally started to pull back the curtain that has surrounded The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. In fact, with the series debuting later this year, its marketing campaign is suddenly well under way. In a short amount of time, fans learned the series’ name, synopsis and release date for The Lord of the Rings prequel series, and Prime Video also released some odd but beautiful character posters.
The posters -- which only showed characters’ hands -- confirmed appearances by many of the races of Middle-earth. Regal Elves populated many of the posters, and there were also warlike men and peaceful-looking women. But among all of the wonderful bits of clothing, one ragged-looking man stood out because of his staff, which could end up answering one of the biggest mysteries in all of The Lord of the Rings.
The Blue Wizards -- their very mention has been in an enigma for decades. Apart from a passing reference to five wizards in Return of the King, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit never mention the Blue Wizards. In order to find any information about the Blue Wizards, one has to examine J.R.R. Tolkien’s additional writings. However, the famed author actually had two stories about them. Originally, Tolkien named the wizards Alatar and Pallando, but later, he renamed them (or added secondary names) Morinehtar and Rómestámo. However, their names weren’t the only details Tolkien changed about the Blue Wizards.
Earlier in his life, Tolkien wrote so-called Letter 211, which shed light on the Blue Wizards. “I think they went as emissaries to distant regions… What success they had I do not know; but I fear that they failed, as Saruman did,” he explained. However, Tolkien later changed his tune on the two wizards. The Peoples of Middle-earth contains three manuscripts from the last year of Tolkien’s life. In one of those manuscripts, he wrote that the Blue Wizards “must have had very great influence on the history of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening and disarraying the forces of the East.” But while the Blue Wizards seemingly had a part in Sauron’s defeat, it was not a story that Tolkien ever told leaving their whereabouts a mystery to this day.
Although some think all five of the Istari arrived in Middle-earth during the Third Age, Tolkien confirmed in The Peoples of Middle-earth that Alatar and Pallando arrived during the Second Age. That makes it theoretically possible the two could appear in The Rings of Power.
The aforementioned poster, however, makes a Blue Wizard appearance more than just conjecture. Like the other posters, it only showed a pair of hands, but the staff appears to tease a wizard. While shorter than other staffs, it is nevertheless twisted with what appears to be a bear claw tied onto it. That, combined with a ragged, blue-ish robe, makes it possible the poster could be the first look at one of the mysterious Blue Wizards. Of course, it could be some random man with a cool walking stick, but The Rings of Power needs a wizard to feel complete, and there's a chance it'll be either Alatar or Pallando.
To see if a Blue Wizard appears, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres Friday, Sept. 2 on Prime Video.