In The Hobbit, Gandalf forgot the names of the Blue Wizards somewhat mysteriously, and there is a canonical explanation for this. Lord of the Rings’ Blue Wizards were the most mysterious of the Istari – or Wizards, as they are known in Quenya. The other Istari are Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast, who each got a decent role in Warner Bros.’ Lord of the Rings movie franchise. Peter Jackson portrayed Gandalf and Saruman with reasonable faithfulness, whereas Radagast’s role in The Hobbit was full of original material. So, it may not be clear to casual fans why the Blue Wizards got slighted.

The Istari, as they are known in Lord of the Rings’ Elvish language of Quenya, were sent by the Valar to Middle-earth to oppose Sauron. These demigods were below no one in Middle-earth in power other than the One god, Eru Ilúvatar. So, the Istari were very high up in Middle-earth’s chain of command. This truly begs the question of why one of them would have forgotten something as important as the name of one of the few others of their order. But there were both behind-the-scenes and narrative reasons explaining this bizarre moment in The Hobbit.

The Istari’s Arrival In Middle-earth Could Explain Gandalf Forgetting The Blue Wizards

The Istari Were Not Normal Maiar In Lord Of The Rings

The Lord of the Rings’ Istari had hazy memories of their former lives in Aman and the Timeless Halls, explaining why Gandalf may have forgotten the names of both Blue Wizards. The Istari were all Maiar like Sauron, the order of Ainur below the Valar. These supernatural beings were truly immortal and spirit beings innately, communicating by thought naturally and only assuming bodies if they had to. This came with the obvious powers of invisibility, teleportation, and flying, with all Ainur able to shapeshift unless they became somehow bound to their body. The Istari were bound, their native power reduced.

Unfinished Tales explains how the Istari had “bodies as of Men, real and not feigned,” indicating the very close approximation these bodies had to human ones. They were not quite human, since they aged incredibly slowly and remained “hale” (spritely) despite their biological old age. However, these compromised Maiar – inhibited so as not to encourage the kind of worship Lord of the Rings’ Sauron requested – could only process whatever their humanized brains were capable of. Plus, “all memory of… former life… passed” through an interval between embodiments in Middle-earth, “and… must, therefore, be re-clothed.”

The BTS Reason Gandalf Forgot The Blue Wizards’ Names

Gandalf’s Foggy Memory Was Very Convenient For Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies did not have the rights to use the name of the Blue Wizards invented by the pioneering British fantasy author that wrote the source material, J.R.R. Tolkien. That may be fair. Tolkien only went into these names in various drafts of an incomplete nature, which were nonetheless published in Unfinished Tales. Although fascinating, it wasn’t totally clear how Tolkien would have chosen to fit these into his story had he lived a few more years and worked through them. So, Peter Jackson had Gandalf forget their names rather than use them.

Unfinished Tales was published in 1980.

The Blue Wizards were called Alatar and Pallando in one of Tolkien’s drafts about them, and Morinehtar and Rómestámo in another. Tolkien clearly hadn’t decided what to call the Blue Wizards. For the Tolkien Estate to give the rights out to this material would enable filmmakers to make this decision for him. Amazon Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has been awarded one-off rights to parts of texts other than LotR and The Hobbit, but Warner Bros, to this date, has not. Instead, Peter Jackson played on Tolkien’s rich Istari lore to support his movie.

LotR Could Be About To Add To The Blue Wizards’ Story

The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power May Explore The Blue Wizards

While the Istari were fated to forget some of their past, resulting in the Blue Wizards going unnamed in the Hobbit movies, the same may not apply to The Rings of Power season 3. Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV show introduced the Dark Wizard in season 2 as an original character that was revealed as an Istar. Since the show confirmed that the Stranger was Gandalf, the Dark Wizard is one of the other four. Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay discussed the identity of the Dark Wizard in a Reddit Q&A, hinting that he is likely a Blue Wizard:

We have no plans or intention to have him be Saruman. We are not thinking of him as Saruman. We know there are five wizards talked about in The Lord of the Rings. One of them is Saruman, one of them is Gandalf, one of them is Radagast, and then there are two others. It is our expectation that he will be one of those two others.

The showrunners were responding to the rumor circulating that the Dark Wizard was Saruman, which would have made no sense, as explained by the showrunners in the Q&A. This means that viewers got a sneak peek into the likeliest scenario facing the show’s third season, which will probably confirm the identity of the Istar. With original character Halbrand revealed as Sauron in The Rings of Power season 1 finale and the original Stranger character confirmed to be Gandalf in the season 2 finale, it stands to reason for the Dark Wizard’s identity to be unveiled in the season 3 finale.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has been awarded one-off rights to parts of texts other than LotR and The Hobbit.

The Dark Wizard has not been named thus far in the show, demonstrating that it doesn’t need rights to the Blue Wizards’ names to tell its story. Nonetheless, it may utilize its good relationship with the Tolkien Estate to get one-off rights to one of the Blue Wizards’ names to facilitate the Dark Wizard’s identity reveal. There are other creative solutions to the rights dilemma – the show could easily invent another nickname for the wizard that riffs off his Blue Wizard status. Either way, Rings of Power will likely build on the Blue Wizard story that The Hobbit started telling.