Featured Image Credit: New Line Cinema
Topics: The Lord Of The Rings, TV And Film
There's a new Gandalf in The Shire, and it's safe to say not every fan was entirely pleased with the way in which the reveal was handled.
Some spoilers for The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power follow, but given how thunderingly obvious the reveal has been since the beginning of the show I think you'll probably be fine.
With the second series of Amazon's Lord Of The Rings show now at end, we finally know that The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) is none other than Gandalf. No way!
The reveal comes when the old wizard, who has been searching for his name, is mistaken for a large elf. Yes, somebody really calls him "grand elf". Yes, that's really how he gets his name.
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While I think the second season of The Rings Of Power was genuinely great and a major improvement on the first, I will admit that's one reveal that made my toes curl. And I'm not alone.
"Every time I doubt my writing abilities, I'm just gonna remember that someone got paid thousands and thousands of dollars for Grand Elf," one fan wrote on Twitter.
Another added: "Rings Of Power thinking the reveal of Gandalf is a reveal is sort of laughable."
Others were more annoyed at how the show chose to ignore where Gandalf's name really came from.
"So, this show has Gandalf appearing in middle earth ~2500 years earlier than in established canon, and abandons the known etymology of his name (It means elf of the wand/staff in Northern Mannish). Yeah, glad I skipped this one," one unhappy fan wrote.
While I personally have no issue with breaking or messing around with "canon" if it's in the interests of a genuinely good story, I think we can all agree "grand elf" was a misstep that is best soon forgotten.