The Dark Wizards true identity in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is a Tolkien deep cut

If there's one thing The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power loves more than a wizard, it's a wizard with a secret identity.

In Season 1, the series introduced the Stranger (Daniel Weyman), who later became known as everyone's favorite Middle-earth wizard: Gandalf. In Season 2, The Rings of Power also brought in another wizard: the Dark Wizard (Ciarán Hinds), who rules over the Eastern land of Rhûn. While the show kept his true name shrouded in secrecy throughout Season 2, it wastes no time revealing it in Season 3, and the answer is a fairly deep-cut character from J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium.

In a discussion with the Secret Fire (voiced by Allan Corduner), the creative force behind all Middle-earth, Gandalf learns that the Dark Wizard's name is actually Pallando. Like Gandalf, he is an Istar, or "Wise One," who was sent to Middle-earth to help win the fight against Sauron (Charlie Vickers). According to the Secret Fire's handy-dandy exposition dump, Pallando arrived in Middle-earth with a partner. But his ambitions led him to kill his wizard buddy, a move so vile it cursed Rhûn and turned it into a desert wasteland.

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That's a lot of lore to take in. Like a lot of characters and plot in The Rings of Power, not all of Pallando's story is actually canonical to Tolkien's work. However, several bits and pieces of it are, including the character of Pallando himself. Here's what you need to know.

Who is Pallando, the Blue Wizard?

In the history of Middle-earth, the Valar sent five Istari to Middle-earth. The most familiar of them are Gandalf the Grey, Saruman the White, and Radagast the Brown, all of whom appear in varying degrees in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

The two remaining wizards were known as the Blue Wizards, or Ithryn Luin, so named for the blue of the robes they wore when arriving in Middle-earth. The Rings of Power captures that blue in its flashback to their arrival, as well as in the stone of Pallando's staff. According to Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, their names are Pallando and Alatar, although in later works he also called them Morinehtar and Rómestámo.

In a 1958 letter, Tolkien wrote, "I really do not know anything clearly about the other two [Istari]," explaining the gap in details between the Blue Wizards and their Istari compatriots — a gap that The Rings of Power is excited to fill in.

Tolkien did not write that Pallando killed Alatar, nor did he write about Pallando setting up shop in Rhûn. However, he did write in the same 1958 letter that he believes Pallando and Alatar were sent "as emissaries to distant regions, east and south." The pair's involvement in Rhûn does fit within that statement, then.

In that letter, Tolkien also wrote, "I fear that they failed, as Saruman did" in their quest to curb Sauron's rise, and that he suspected they founded "secret cults and 'magic' traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron." Again, The Rings of Power's take on the Blue Wizards technically fits the bill here. Pallando's corruption and murder of Alatar would mark an abject failure of their quest, and he did end up founding his own cult out in Rhûn.

Where The Rings of Power is truly moving away from Tolkien's work is Gandalf's new quest to remind Pallando of his true purpose in Middle-earth. Will he succeed in bringing the one Blue Wizard left back into the light? Plus, now that both Blue Wizards are accounted for (RIP Alatar, we never knew you), what are the odds The Rings of Power introduces the two remaining Istari in its coming episodes? I don't know about you, but I'm officially on Saruman and Radagast watch.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3 is now streaming on Prime Video, with new episodes Wednesdays.