The Stranger in Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power isn’t who you think

polygon.com:

Ever since its announcement, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerhas been a subject of mass debate. It’s based on the appendices of Tolkien’s trilogy, as opposed to the trilogy itself, and set during the Second Age, an era for which we have a detailed chronology of historical events but far less knowledge of how said events transpired. And alongside well-loved characters like Elrond and Galadriel, it is introducing its own original players with Arondir, Bronwyn, and more.

One can parse the various strands of lore with the right Tolkien references, but there is one specific element of The Rings of Powerthat has left both scholars and sockpuppets stumped: the Stranger, or the wizard-like figure who crash-lands in Middle-earth via molten meteorite.

Viewers were first introduced to the Stranger (commonly referred to as Meteor Man) in a trailer for The Rings of Power, during which several figures across Middle-earth could be seen watching a meteorite soar through the sky. Some people think this is The Rings of Power’s Sauron, which is likely wrong. Others are convinced that it’s Gandalf, which also doesn’t add up.

After watching the first two episodes of The Rings of Power, we’ve learned a little bit more about this mysterious figure — although this knowledge has only served to further our conviction that neither the Dark Lord nor Mithrandir is our guy. So, to assess who our magical friend could be, we first need to debunk who it almost certainly isn’t.

One of the main reasons that people are convinced that this is either Gandalf or Sauron is because showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne all but confirmed it to be a figure of similar status in Vanity Fair’s 10 Burning Questions interview:

Well, I would say