KCup17 said:
I was thinking along these same lines. That the Stranger could actually be Saruman and not Gandalf since Gandalf was never claimed to have gone east. Plus if this is the first wizard in Middle Earth (I would assume that this is the case but not verified) than it would make sense that it's Saruman.
I just think they made it way too obvious.
Would love to get the input from people who never read the books but have seen the movies and watch this show. I've only read the books once and it was about 20 years ago, so I'm more or less close to this group.
There were a couple of callouts in that last episode, and a couple more within the whole first season, that make it seem that this guy can't be anyone
but Gandalf. Off the top of my head:
- Whispering to the lightning bugs or whatever it was he did in that early episode
- "Follow your nose"
- He gave a whole monologue to Nori about adventures and/or journeying that was spot on with a similar convo he had in LOTR with Frodo I believe
I would love for it to be Saruman, but I am convinced that it is Gandalf.